May 11, 2008
吉品魚翅海鮮餐廳
The uncles wanted to take grandma some place nice for the Mother's Day meal, and this high-end seafood restaurant certainly qualifies. The restaurant was fully booked for Mother's Day, but uncle had enough pull to get us into the even fancier private lounge upstairs. Of course, with it comes the expectation that we'd order well enough to justify the expensive space.
Getting over the minimum order hurdle wasn't a problem once you throw in the standard Chinese banquet fare like the shark fins, abalone, etc., etc. Normally I could take or leave shark fin, especially considering its environmentally unfriendly origins, although I don't quite have the chutzpah to be militantly outspoken against it. However, the signature soup here is a thick, whole fin lusciously poached in a thick, complex broth soaking into each cartilaginous strand. I just kinda had to bury my conscience and enjoy the dish.
Frankly the shark-fin soup was enough for a meal in itself both food-wise and $-wise, but there were plenty more to come. Although after the signature soup even the fresh abalone seemed a bit pedestrian in comparison. The fetishistically phallic sea-cucumber would scare off just about all the non-Asians, that's for sure. Actually, he roasted duck feet roasted with the abalone and sea cucumber were just as tasty, in its own way, in spite of being humbler stuff than the fancy seafood.
Thankfully the later dishes are a bit lighter in nature than the heavy-hitters. Steamed fish, and the like. A beef course to keep the cousin happy but that's not really what they do. The kitchen is surprisingly versatile, though, as they also offer Shanghai-style 小籠包 and 蔥油餅 and Hong Kong dim-sum items, in case you're still hungry. The Cantonese 臘腸飯 is fantastic except you're always too full to eat when they serve it at the end of the meal.
It was all awfully good, but I'm glad that I'm not the one footing the bill for the meal.
吉品魚翅海鮮餐廳(敦南店)
台北市松山區敦化南路1段25號2樓
02-27527788