Chinese Haute Cuisine

It was M's birthday, since we loved Wide Alley, Narrow Alley so much, we went back there for dinner. Look at the beautiful entrance...

And even more beautiful courtyard...

And pretty girls playing traditional Chinese instruments, Pipa and Guzhen... The setting could not have been any better...

First course... chicken with chili sauce. But this is no ordinary chicken, according to the waiter, these chickens are released to the wild in the mountains near Chengdu, and after a while, the restaurant goes back, and if any chicken is still alive, they are caught for dinner... We were like WOW, then the waiter said, actually they release like a thousand into the wild, and they are cordoned off with a rope and stuff... so they are special, but not that special.

Very nutritious and well presented dish... lots of nuts, beans, shrimp, dragonfruit...

Sorry pandas, we didn't mean to compete for food with an endangered species... but bamboos are so delicious. Sneaky pandas, keep the secret all to themselves. Now I know what to do if I ever get lost in a bamboo forest, I am gonna chomp, munch, chomp my way out of it... yep, I shall blaze a trail out of the bamboo forest with my bare teeth. CHOMP!

This is a bit of fusion dish... it's foie gras with oyster mushroom, I would have preferred the foie gras with something more refreshing, altogether a bit too rich for my Chinese palate. But still very good quality foie gras, rich and creamy. Oh yeah, C is peeling the bamboo in the background.

Woo, another special dish. It is called Fuzzy Blood Wan (or Mao Shiu Wan do not know how to translate wan). Sadly most of the goodies are buried underneath: chicken blood, chicken kidney, inners meat, etc. etc. Mind you, this is single person serving, I was surprised how much was in this little pot.

Beautifully presented fish. The leaf is from a local plant. It is called Turtle Back Leaf.

And we finished the meal with an herbal soup... delicious and refreshing.

Ahhh... so beautiful. I almost bursted out in a Tang Dynasty Poem -- Bamboos so yummy, Pandas so sneaky, If Cat is lost, She'll chomp her way out!

Last but not least, we have the Longevity Noodles for M. Here, they put a fried egg on top to symbolize birth. Happy birthday M!

Can you believe this dinner only cost about $30 per person? But alas, we didn't have enough $$$ so I was left to play guzhen to pay for food... but I am a Princess, I don't work for food. Wah!