Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Jade Garden 翠園 vs Jade Place 怡翠園

Last night I visited Jade Garden on Percival Street, Causeway Bay and tonight I visited another Jade Garden called Jade Place in Jardine House, Central. I asked the captain what the difference is between these 2 places and he replied it's just only the names but Jade Place offers more varieties and the prices are the same. I didn't tell him yet why I tried their Jade Garden as Jade Place (as it was called at the basement of Jardine House).

1. Roasted pork - HK$58. Supposed this one should be best with 5 belly or at least the bottom part, but this one is half soft and half crispy and it'd be cut for a while - the juice lost for at least over 20 min. So I guess it should be a deferred order from another cancelled order....etc. 2. pan fried chicken slices with lemon sauce 西檸煎軟鷄 - HK$88. This dish is again a very difficult dish to deal with. To my memory, only a few places can handle this one well. One is the West Garden (Taikooshing)西苑 and another one is a local tea restaurant called Five Star 五星 on Jaffe Road behind Luk Kwok Hotel. However, this one by this Jade Garden is very disappointing. They used frozen chicken thigh. The coating is not flour and oil aromatic (酥香) as this one shouldn't be deep fried. It's semi-pan fried and that the chicken meat is not dried while the coating is semi-crispy to absorb the lemon sauce. The sauce is horrible - just sweet! No lemon zesty taste. Actually the best is to use the lemon custard jam to make the sauce with some fresh lemon juice and very tiny shred lemon peel.
3. Kai Lan with salty fish in casserole - HK$68. Another disappointing. The Kai Lan was prepared for quite some time ago and the salty fish isn't pan fried enough, but the salty fish is a good one. 4. double boiled veggie with fish maw and mushroom菜胆北菇燉花膠 HK$48@small bowl. My friend asked why I looked at it and not took it. I then called the captain "do you know what veggie in this soup is supposed to be?". He seemed a bit confusing. I continued "why this one is not with Ba Choy 大白菜胆 and used with this Chinese baby winter cabbage 娃娃菜? It's commonly known this one is with Ba Choy. Chinese baby winter cabbage doesn't go with the soup taste at all. The chef should know it.". I further complained "and this one even came as the last one after we finished all the dishes. If we didn't ask your waiter to chase, they would just forget it. Besides, they were not apologetic at all and just tried to cover up. This is really nonsense!". So that captain told me to check with the Chef and came back with a reply "the chef as Ba Choy is now not in season, he then used the baby cabbage.". I replied: "Do you know after mid. Sept., we call it as golde drying harvest for the veggie 秋乾種 for many veggies incl. Ba Choy. If the chef decided to change to use another veggie, they should have reflected it to the management and so relayed it to the customers when they wanna order it. So you also need to be responsible for it. Your whole team is also in lack of manner, not even to mention a courteous manner.". Anyway, it's a long complaint for me to even tell him Jade Garden on Causeway Bay plaza is not like that.

5. the shop entrance. 6. opposite to it is the new Lee Theatre plaza.

7. ok, tonight I felt a bit for finding out the truth about my complaint of last night. I decided to go to another old old Jade Garden but now renovated and renamed as Jade Place. I ordered something interesting - crispy beef brisket 酥牛坑腩 (the best part of brisket with some tendon in between like a U shape and that's how it's called 坑) HK$88. So it came out very nice. So crispy on the outside and juicy/tender/aromatic inside. I just could only get 2 pieces as it was cleaned up by my friend like a wind.... Highly recommended. 8. Bean sprouts in goji berry rice soup 米湯杞子浸荳苗 HK$78. At first I didn't expect they really used rice water for the soup base. When I tasted it, I was pushed back to over 30 years ago. It was the way my grand mom highly spoke of using rice water for cooking (another secret recipe from her which was blown from my left ear in and right ear out.). This one is fantastic! The soup is even with some fish stock and not salty at all to taste the freshness of bean sprouts. You can see because of the use of rice water, there is no need to use ginger or garlic. Rice water is good enough to take away the "green smell" of the veggie and makes the whole dish very nice without any smell. This is what my grand mom told me "rice water can take away anything smelly and even good for rinsing on skin...etc.". I am amazed at how they re-introduced some lost recipe of our ancestors. Must-must-try!!!

9. (doggy) duck with old ginger in casserole 老薑扣狗仔鴨㷛 HK$78. At first I wondered why it was called (doggy) duck. When I tasted it, it's like lamb casserole. I then realised it might be the way of the old Cantonese cooking dogs in casserole (it's just my guess only as I haven't tried the dog casserole, nor will I ever.). Taste-wise it's pretty good and the duck is very tender. 10. double boiled mushroom conpoy with veggie - ok, this time I asked the captain if they would use baby cabbage. He then checked with the chef and said it should be Ba Choy. When I told him Jade Garden used baby cabbage last night for a similar soup, he protected that shop by saying "maybe the veggie is not in season". I immediately replied "so in just 1 day, today this veggie is in season. You don't need to get them an excuse. It's not just one mistake they made. That's why we came here for another try if the whole line of Jade Garden drops.". Anyway, this is it. This is the correct one.
11. Handsome boy rice. Very very nice. 12. free range chicken soup HK$38 - excellent. They did use some very nice free range chicken. Must try.
13. Almond cream HK$22. It's much worth it as they used some choco. syrup to paint a swan on the coffee jello. The almond cream is superb. They used the classic style by using rice water as the base - very nice rice fragrance. 14. ice cream on a pan cookie HK$48. Another delightful sweet. I like the way they made their house ice cream. Though it's not the best, at least it showed their characteristic. Very important and I prefer this way as using those branded names ice creams are sometimes quite symbolic. Also a good try!

15/16. see the nice embroidery of the table ware and clothing.

17/18. more to go.

19. the shop inside. 20. the chopstick resting place.

21. the menu. 22. the entrance.
23. the main entrance.

3 comments:

Stella said...

The Chinese writing of "Jade Garden" next to Lee Theater looks similar to the writing in Crystal Jade BKK. Are they related?

in the sea said...

I don't think they are related. Jade Garden is under the Maxim's Group. Crystal Jade has its own group.

Stella said...

Thank you SEA for the clarification.