East West Culinary Menu @ Holy Crab
Lan Kwai Fong’s Holy Crab has teamed up with the Canadian and Thai Consulates to offer an eight dish East / West menu daily until 16 September. The culinary exchange menu features dishes from Thai chef Chalee Kader exploring different regional Thai cuisines and Holy Crab’s Executive Chef Mark Kerkstra showcasing Canadian seafood. All the portion sizes are generous, with the Canadian dishes designed to be shared. At the media tasting the four Thai dishes: Kao Soy ($200), Papaya Salad with Salted Duck Egg ($180), Crab Curry ($388) and Chicken Turmeric Soup ($120) were enjoyable, especially the crab curry and the turmeric soup, without being remarkable. The flavours lacked that extra little complexity that a chef who’s been cooking a certain food style for years acquires. The arrival in person from Thailand of Chef Chalee in the kitchen a couple of days after our tasting will surely have remedied that.
Chef Kerkstra’s four Canadian dishes: Dungeness Crab Popover ($140), Crown and Maple Canadian Seafood Trio ($200), Pond and Pasture Grits ($200) and Canard Poutine ($230) are a riot of flavours and textures. The Quebec maple syrup glaze makes the seafood trio appetiser super sweet but a perfect balance to the spicy turmeric soup. If there’s a quibble about the coffee grilled Ontario pork loin and tiger prawns that top some wonderful cheddar cheese grits it’s that the pork is cut a bit thin and the pork gets lost within the coffee grilling. The coffee adds a nice sharpness to the cheese flavour of the grits. The canard poutine is a massive wonderful dish of gruyere cheese, duck confit and Quebec foie gras slathered over thick french fries. There’ll be those who will not like this menu the Canadian dishes do not match the prevailing trend of dainty, light, almost not there flavours – these are hearty Canadian dishes and all the better for being so.
Holy Crab
3/F, Cosmos Building, 8-11 Lan Kwai Fong, Central, Hong Kong
Tel: 2110 0100