Restaurant Review!

Crystal Jade l Causeway Bay l Hong Kong

One of the first cooking shows that I ever saw was on public access cable television. The great thing about the show was the fact that, as far as I could tell, there was only one episode ever produced. The host came on, introduced himself and then introduced a young Shanghainese woman and her mother. At that point, he told them he’d get out of their way as they proceeded to make one of my all time favorite dishes, Xiao Lung Biao, or steamed pork dumplings. The young woman mainly acted as the interpreter for her mother who deftly rolled out the dough, cut them into circles and filled them with the minced pork filling.

And here’s where the show hits its high point. After the dumplings had finished steaming, they explained to the host, most adamantly, how to eat the dumplings. It was the first time I had ever seen such ritual attached to consuming a dish, much less something so simple. The first thing you do is you very carefully pick up the dumpling and transfer it to your bowl, being sure not to break the skin. Next, you take a small nip out of the skin and slurp out the sweet brothy juices. You then eat the doughy skin and delicious pork filling with ginger spiked Chinese red vinegar.

I admit that I have a penchant for the Shanghainese food and have had my fair share of it throughout my life. I’m always on the look out for new restaurants and the opportunity to try the Xiao Lung Bao. Imagine my surprise when I sampled them at Crystal Jade and discovered something so special, so head and shoulders beyond anything else I had ever had that I had to put my chopsticks down and stare in disbelief. The broth is an absolute marvel, sweet and intense, as if someone had carefully made a stock for hours. The dough was thin and delicate. The filling had a perfectly ground consistency which seemed to release the pork flavor. The rest of the courses such as the pork and vegetable wontons in a light broth, and the Tam Tam noodles (noodles in spicy peanut sauce) were also good. The Shanghai pork chops with hand pulled noodles were especially good with the pork fried to just cooked perfection, cripsy on the outside yet still moist and rose on the inside. However, after those dumplings, everything else just seemed to pale a little bit.