Shining Twin Stars at Ming Court

Ming Court at Langham Place Hotel in Mongkok received two stars from the Michelin judges, and they got it twice as in 2008 and 2009. While some people find the Michelin guide misleading or inaccurate, the two stars here in Ming Court are very well deserved.

I was here for the first time two years ago and it was a good lunch. This time I came for dinner. The restaurant was nicely decorated but the design was a little too typical like other Chinese restaurant, and it was split into two parts with one circular space for small groups or couples, and one big space which looked like a pre-function area in front of a ballroom.

The food came quickly after we took the orders. The first dish was the Deep-fried Crispy Chicken (朗豪炸子雞), and it looked really good.

And it tasted good too. Those fried lotus root slices were surprisingly tasty like potato chips, and the meat was juicy with the skin deep-fried to an amazingly crispy layer. The chicken needed no additional sauce or salt because it already got all the good flavours. It is one of the best chickens I have even had.

The following dish came with a little taste of fruit. It was Fried Pork Loin with Orange and Honey Sauce (香蜜橙花炸豬柳).

The meat was soft with crispy outer layer, but it was the orange sauce that amazed me. It is not easy to make good orange sauce because sometimes it is too sour, sometimes it is too thick like ketchup. This one was however quite well done and sweet. At least they didn't use sour oranges to make this.

This is Sliced Spotted Garoupa served two ways - Stir-fried with premium mushrooms and Deep-fried with sweet and sour sauce (兩儀星斑球). As the name already suggests, this dish has two parts, and the deep-fried part was so excellent that I was just stunned. It looked like the typical Sweet and Sour Pork Chop (咕嚕肉, something that the westerners like so much and I have no idea why), but when you bite through the crispy skin, it was this beautiful white and smooth garoupa meat!  The two different textures combine to form this interesting sensation in the mouth. I thought the strange sauce would overwhelm the taste of the fish, but it turned out to be an excellent match. Amazing!

This is the Braised Bean Curd Stuffed with Minced Fish, served in a Casserole (濃湯魚滑釀豆腐煲). The tofu is the key here, which is so smooth that you will break it if you don't handle it with much are. I wonder if it was Japanese tofu because so far to me only Japanese can make such smooth and silky tofu.

The next dish was a Chef's Recommendation, the Deep-fried Lamp Slices in Maltose with Crispy Walnuts.

This one was a little bit too heavy for me. The maltose made the whole dish too sweet to eat, and it overwhelmed the meat completely. However, the walnuts were very well done. It was so crispy with some smoky smell, perfect as a snack with beers.

And then it was dessert time. We ordered this ordinary Chinese dessert, Glutinious Rice Dumplings with Black Sesame Paste and Crushed Peanuts (擂沙湯圓).

Not bad not bad, but I guess it was not hot enough. If they could make the paste melting, it would be perfect.

But then, this is the real dessert, one of the signature dishes in Ming Court. Here it comes, the Shark Fin Crystal Extravagance (翅晶凝).

It was presented in this box of dry ice, but the dry ice was purely a visual thing. Look closer, and you can see the shark fins on the top of each crystal blocks.

I have never tried anything like this before, using shark fins fordessert. The top layer was some jelly with shark fins, while the bottom yellow layer is mango jelly. Most importantly, it tasted great. Shark fins actually taste nothing, and so it was the mango that gives the flavour, while the shark fins added the amazing texture to the jelly. This "Hong Kong’s First and Most Famous Shark Fin Dessert" was both surprising and delicious.

This dinner is very much enjoyable, and I am completely blown away by the refined and redefined Chinese cuisine. The chefs have definitely taken Chinese food to another high level. If you love Chinese food, and if you want to know how Chinese food can be remade to form another astonishing dimension, come and visit this place.