However Sliced and Diced, Sea Cumcumber Still Sucks

Sea cucumbers have a certain smell but no distinct taste. It must be mainly the texture that Chinese palates like about these marine creatures.

They just do not look, or sound, very appetizing ...

Braised sea cucumber filled with shrimp mousse and shrimp roe sauce at The Chinese Restaurant

Reference

Table Talk (SCMP; paywall)

Thursday, 24 January, 2013, 12:00am

Susan Jung susan.jung@scmp.com

Cottage Vineyards will have a pun choi ("basin meal") meets Cordon Bleu lunch on Saturday at Chez Les Copains in Sai Kung. The traditional dish, made by the restaurant's chef, Bonnie So, who trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, includes Iberico pork belly, poached free-range Bresse chicken, and premium shiitake mushrooms and golden oysters braised in home-made oyster sauce, and will be accompanied by wines such as Domaine du Grangeon Fermiget 2006, Frederic Lornet Arbois Ploussard En Fertand 2008 and Pfaffl Blauer Zweigelt 2008. The price is HK$980. Bookings: 2395 1293

St Betty restaurant in the IFC Mall in Central is celebrating Australia Day on Saturday with a menu that costs HK$698 plus 10 per cent. Diners will taste dishes of Queensland spanner crab salad with avocado crème fraiche and sesame seeds; yabbies and Tasmanian salmon with Jerusalem artichokes and pickled mushrooms; and roasted black Gippsland angus with Parmesan polenta. Bookings: 2979 2100

The Chinese Restaurant at the Hyatt Regency in Tsim Sha Tsui is featuring abalone, fish maw and sea cucumber until the end of February. The menu includes braised sea cucumber with glutinous millet and oyster sauce; braised sea cucumber filled with shrimp mousse and shrimp roe sauce; sea cucumber with braised minced pork, dried scallops, black mushrooms and abalone sauce; and double boiled pork shank soup with fresh abalone. Bookings: 3721 7788

The Balcony at the Cityview Hotel in Yau Ma Tei is serving a coral lobster and abalone set meal until the end of February. Priced at HK$438 plus 10 per cent, it includes braised whole abalone with black mushrooms; baked grouper fillet with bean paste; coral lobster in cream of abalone soup; and crispy chicken roll with cuttlefish mousse and chicken liver pâté. Bookings: 2783 3286

Café on M at the InterContinental Grand Stanford hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui has Norwegian salmon and seafood on the lunch and dinner buffets until the end of February. The rotating selection includes whole salmon baked in salt crust and Norwegian black mussels in white wine sauce. The lunch buffet is HK$265 plus 10 per cent (HK$215 for children) Monday to Friday and HK$325 (HK$245 for children) on Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. The dinner buffet is HK$445 plus 10 per cent (HK$305 for children) Monday to Thursday and HK$515 (HK$365 for children) from Friday to Sunday and on the eve and day of public holidays. Bookings: 2731 2860