Full Moon

During an actual full moon on Saturday, I attended a "moon yuet" celebration. The restaurant, Regal Palace, is located in Richmond Hill. I was excited to try the food, as the consensus is that good Chinese food has migrated out to the suburbs with the immigrant exodus from the downtown core. The presence of Saigon Star in the other lot was a good omen, as I have heard that the crab there is excellent.

Regal Palace was full when I entered, always a good sign. I did not get to try the red-dyed egg that decorated the tables for this particular tradition. The 10 courses were:

1. A cold meat platter with jelly fish and tofu/curd wrap
2. Shrimp and snap peas
3. Stir-fried greens with enoki
4. Roast chicken
5. Abalone, portobello mushrooms, and baby bok-choy
6. Winter melon soup
7. Fried cod
8. Lobster
9. Fried rice and noodles
10. Red bean dessert, jello, black sesame balls, and cookies

The dinner was better than most chinese banquet I've eaten. The waitstaff portioned out each dish into individual servings and replaced the plates after each dish. Usually you get 1 set of dinnerware to be used for the entire meal and the dishes come out pile on top of each until there's no more room at the table. I was pleasantly surprised by the tastiness of the cold meat, typically one of my least favourite because of its peremptoriness, and the crunch of the jelly-fish. A nice start, and possibly a taste of things to come.

Overall, the meal was good. There was a light, deft touch on all the dishes. The ubiquitous flour-based sauce that gives a lot of Chinese dishes that slippery sheen was dialed back. The goopy gunk that usually drenches Chinese-style lobster was barely there, I could actually taste the ginger. The roast chicken was crispy and slightly salty. Even the delicious fried rice was light on the oil.

I also enjoyed some the presentation. The winter melon served as a bowl for the soup broth, but you can still scoop out the melon. All the cod flesh was scraped out into bite-sized chunks, but instead of throwing away the skin, the left-over fish was deep-fried into a curved serving platter. It was edible too: skin and fish-bones all (except for the spine, as I discovered).

Dishes 6 through 7 were my favourite. But there was so much food that I didn't eat very much of the fried rice and dessert. Maybe I should have asked for a doggie bag.