The Chairman Hong Kong

Finally got to try The Chairman 2.0, the food was definitely more refined and elevated in terms of flavor and presentation. Although I do miss the casual & neighborhood atmosphere at the old place. Favorite dish: sweet & sour & spicy garlic beef 🔥 thanks @shirleyyegu for the reservation and @winesniffer for ordering the dishes! And nice to finally meet @sousboiz •
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#foodgasm #yum #eat #foodpic #foodpics #foodphotography #foodlover #tasty #hungry #foodblogger #dessert #foods #cooking #foodies #eating #chef #foodblog #nomnom #delicious #thechairmanrestaurant #hongkong #chinesefood #hongkongfood #大班樓 #香港 #香港美食 #香港 #theworlds50best #travel #travelfood #travelforfood Less

Words cannot really describe how amazing this dinner at The Chairman, Hong Kong was! Practically all the dishes were crazy delicious and memorable! And I ate enough collagen for the next decade! Fish maw, pig tail, beef tendon and tripes, etc. The dishes were so versatile and exciting!

👉 #jokuti_thechairman

#thechairman #hongkongfood #treatedbylittlemeg #worlds50best #chinesefood #hotfood #collagen #fishmaw #tripes #beeftendon #offals #grouperhead #smokedgoose #flowercrab #mudcrab #pigtail #charsiu #geduck #pigintestines #onmyplate Less

(SWIPE FOR MORE PICS) 1 斤13両野生金邊方脷　1 catty 13 teal (about 1.1 kilo) Wild Macao Sole @[instagram] Chairman (July 2021) 😍😍😍😍😍

Now you can have a reference point on how big the fish with the iPhone in comparison. This size for wild fish was really hard to find. This is a great size because the fleshy had a meaty texture and the skin is not just smooth but full of collagen (pic 3-6) . The best part was the engawa plus the head and tail (pic 7-8). Those parts 😍😍😍😍 so divine.

At Chairman they steamed it with soy sauce, scallion and cured pork fat strips. Soooooooo good

#littlemeg_best2021
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#littlemeg_hk #littlemeg_chairman #chairman #thechairmanrestaurant #大班樓 #food #foodstagram #foodies #foodpics #instafood #instagramers #amazing #gourmet #iphonesia #photooftheday #bestoftheday #igdaily #theartofplating @theartofplating @gastroart @gastronogram #gourmeffe @gourmeffe @theworlds50best #asias50best #macaosole #wild #fish #金邊方脷 #天然 Less

(SWIPE FOR MORE PICS) 豉椒鹹菜炒雞雜
Fried Chicken Giblets with black beans, chilli, preserved vegetables @[instagram] @thechairmanrestauranthk

There are some dishes at Chairman that are so darn tasty but never got on to their menu because to Danny, dishes need to be inspiring and have more intellectual thinking process to get on to the signature menu.

That said, this dish was sooooo darn delicious. They made this as my friend wanted chicken innards but did not eat stinky tofu. So the restaurant made this to accommodate the dietary restriction. And BAM! All the “wok hei” with the chicken giblets and those banging flavors from black beans, chilli and preserved vegetables. Seriously this is the best you can do with humble ingredients, when you can elevate things that are so ordinary to a sensational level

#littlemeg_best2021
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#littlemeg_hk #littlemeg_chairman #chairman #thechairmanrestaurant #大班樓 #food #foodstagram #foodies #foodpics #instafood #instagramers #amazing #gourmet #iphonesia #photooftheday #bestoftheday #igdaily #theartofplating @theartofplating @gastroart @gastronogram #gourmeffe @gourmeffe @theworlds50best #asias50best #stinkytofu #chicken #offals #claypot Less

Thanks to my very talented friend and local artist and illustrator @artchak_marshy @marshyfood who created this incredible painting of @thechairmanrestauranthk ‘s signature dish: steamed flower crab with aged Shaoxing wine and chicken fat and flat rice noodles!

She painted it using my photo of the dish on IG as the basis, so amazed by her skills!

This was originally planned to be a present for Danny for this year’s Michelin one star but then we realized our gathering at Chairman was after Asia’s 50 Best (today!) and so she was so kind to add the No.1 into the drawing.
Today she was able to hand delivered it to Danny.

Both Chairman and Carie are 100% made in Hong Kong 🇭🇰❤️.

Thank you again for your effort and kindness! 🙏🏻🙇‍♀️💞

#72ndvisittoChairman

#asias50best2021

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#littlemeg_hK #littlemeg_chairman #chairman #food #foodstagram #foodies #foodpics #instafood #bestpicoftheday #bestoftheday #igdaily #littlemeg_japan #asias50bestrestaurants #asias50best #littlemeg_asias50best2021 Less

(SWIPE FOR MORE PICS) 梅乾菜扣肉煲仔飯
Traditional Pork Belly Stew in Preserved
Vegetable Claypot Rice
豚バラと梅干菜の釜飯 @[instagram] 大班樓 The Chairman (Jan 2021)

The rice from start to finish, in pictures. Because this rice has the preserved vegetables that was quite saucy and the pork bellies were fully of fat, there was no need to add any soy sauce at the end. The pork belly and rice was super delicious as usual, the rice crust this time was also perfectly executed, which required the right pot, the right cooking temp and technique, and of course the right performance 😆.

I do think these days a lot of places overemphasize on the rice crust and forgot about the true essence - the rice itself. To achieve that super crusty rice crust they made the rice too dry in the middle, compromising to the enjoyment of claypot rice as a whole. For me I rather have less rice crust but a well cooked rice to go with the pork belly and preserved vegetables. Anyway, this rice though, was totally on the point. One of the best claypot rices i ever had. 💓 Less

In Europe they have fungus season besides truffle where chanterelle, morels, porcini, trumpet, hen-of-the-wood etc becomes an integral part of any menu. Same for Chinese cuisine. Although in every month there are certain mushrooms in season, the months with the most abundant varieties of mushroom in Yunnan is from July - September where there are over 20-25 types of mushroom at peak.

Last year at Chairman we got to have rarer types of Chinese mushroom several times between July - September:

Pic 1: 豬油渣薑蔥黃牛肝菌雞縱菌
Stir fried butter foot bolete and chinese girolles with deep fried lard, ginger and scallion - using lard to enhance the succulence and aroma of mushroom through stir frying

Pic 2-3: 七味香脆羊肚菌
Seven Spices Morel Mushrooms - deep frying reduces water content inside the mushroom to accentuate its earthy flavor and gives crunchy texture

Pic 4: 酥炸金針菇
Crispy Enoki Mushrooms - enoki mushroom is light in flavor but deep frying made it like noodles! Great snack

Pic 5: medley of deep fried mushroom

Pic 6: 松茸湯
Chinese matsutake soup - not made with traditional double boil method but by steeping the mushroom like tea. The highlight is the soup with all the essence from the Matsutake

Pic 7-8 : 黄牛肝菌清湯
Butter foot bolete soup - much stronger mushroom flavor than matsutake (as can be seen in the color), the soup was so clean and full of earthy mushroom flavor yet so pure and soothing. Super good

#littlemeg_best2019 #littlemeg_best2020
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#littlemeg_hk #littlemeg_chairman #chairman #thechairmanrestaurant #大班樓 #food #foodstagram #foodies #foodpics #instafood #instagramers #amazing #gourmet #iphonesia #photooftheday #bestoftheday #igdaily #theartofplating @theartofplating @gastroart @gastronogram #gourmeffe @gourmeffe @theworlds50best #asias50best #mushroom #soup #lard #きのこ Less

(SWIPE FOR MORE PICS) 成都良薑肥牛煲仔飯
Beef short ribs with preserved ginger from Chengdu claypot rice
牛肉と成都生姜漬けのご飯

@[instagram] 大班樓 @thechairmanrestauranthk , Hong Kong
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The art of claypot rice 煲仔飯 in Hong Kong is that rice crust at the bottom much like socarrat of paella in Spain. And we got that with this claypot rice. Please swipe through the pics and videos to see these beautiful crusts 😋

#littlemeg_best2019 #littlemeg_best2020
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#littlemeg_hk #littlemeg_chairman #chairman #thechairmanrestaurant #大班樓 #food #foodstagram #foodies #foodpics #instafood #instagramers #amazing #gourmet #iphonesia #photooftheday #bestoftheday #igdaily #theartofplating @theartofplating @gastroart @gastronogram #gourmeffe @gourmeffe @theworlds50best #asias50best #claypot #rice #shortrib #beef #ginger #成都 #煲仔 Less

(SWIPE FOR MORE PICS)南乳吊燒雞
Roasted Chicken with Nam Yu “Fermented Red Beancurd”
「南乳」風味の揚げ鶏

@[instagram] 大班樓 The Chairman, Hong Kong
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This chicken, similar to the last one, was also crispy chicken cooked with oil rather than roasting. The procedures are the same, chicken marinated overnight, then sugar, soy and vinegar were applied (上皮), followed by air drying for around 6 hours then cooked two times in oil with the final round being oil pouring for 2-3 mins.

The difference lies in the marination. The flavor of marination is driven by “南乳Nam Yu”, fermented beancurd with red rice koji, wine and chili incorporated in the fermentation process hence its red color. It was pungent comparable to stinky cheese.

For this recipe Nam Yu is also use for marination and rubbed all over the chicken inside out. This process took one to two days before the second layer of flavors (sugar soy and vinegar) added and air dried. The subsequent steps were the same as crispy chicken.

You can see the result, the pure crispy skin in beautiful brown color (pic 1-3) Even from pictures you can see how thin and crisp the skins were, very neat without broken pieces, and with a shiny gloss. The meat too, looked so moist.

When you bite, it was like shattering of thin crisp, a finer crispness than Peking duck’s skin (pic 5-6). So so good. And so full of flavor because of the nam yu, which provided an extra layer of umami. Even after it was sitting for awhile the skin remained crispy. So so amazing.

The extra sauce on the side (pic 4) allowed me to realize why this nam yu chicken was better than others. Besides the frying skill, the nam yu sauce was nothing generic, much more refined than what other restaurants normally used. Danny said they added plenty of shallots in calibrating the sauce. It was so good, I can literally eat that sauce with rice only.

This is crispy chicken next level. Less

禮雲子柚皮 Braised Pomelo Skin With River Crab Roes @[instagram] 大班樓 Chairman, Hong Kong.
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The most humble pomelo skin, a delicacy in Chinese cuisine to utilize unwanted part and for its distinct mild bitter flavor, came from Guang Xi 廣西 sourced by no others but legendary 大師姐 Dai C Jie, so you know the quality must be top torch. Danny gave it a treatment unseen in other restaurants - sun dried pomelo skin rehydrated twice to remove unwanted bitterness, braised in dace fish broth and shrimp peels 蝦皮, and wintermelon braised in crab and razor clam broth. Even these alone were pretty amazing but the topping, 禮雲子 the eggs of tiny river crabs mixed with 蟛蜞膏 river crab roe (eggs and roe are different things and taste different) was what pushed it to the top. The harmony of the dish, the idea and execution of the combination left me speechless both times.
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The implication of the dish is even more significant. It brought back old classic and forgotten ingredients, it embraced new techniques and flavors. It is a new combination altogether, and it used Chinese ingredient, the crab roe of tiny tiny river crabs as the umami flavor enhancer despite the extremely time consuming work of extracting roe from rather than some easy short cut of shaving truffle or putting caviar which for sure will dump down the dish rather than elevate. This is where Chinese food should be heading.
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When those restaurants who once started to bring Chinese cuisine back 10 years ago are still doing the same thing nowadays, Chairman is already moving to bring Chinese cuisine to the next stage.
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And Danny is not just visionary but also so humble. There are some restaurants that turned jealous and tried to attack, but Danny just said, he welcomes all positive and negative comments so they can continue to improve. He told me he is a big fan of Steve Jobs who said “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains."
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I have many more dishes to post but I will save it for next time. And I say it one more one time, Chairman is my no.1 favorite Chinese restaurant in the world. Less