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| - Ah Spice Route... After having read many mixed reviews I thought I would give it a try and judge for myself. The verdict - yet another pretentious "fine dining" Chinese restaurant that has been sent to the dog house along with Lai Toh Heen. They overcompensate for the plain Jane food offerings with overembellishing on the decor. At Spice Route, bull is to china shop, as food is to decor. The decor was "taste"-ful. The food, not so much.
I had gone last night for their Chinese New Year's Eve party featuring a special Prix Fixe menu and lion dancing. We were seated promptly, however, it was about 10 minutes before anyone bothered to come take down our drinks. I had a lychee martini and it was very tasty. Not too dry and the lychees added just enough sweetness to balance out the alcohol.
The Prix Fixe menu offered the following items:
Dim Sum Platter
Mongolian Beef
Eggplant Stir-Fry
Roast Chicken with Glutinous Rice
Sweet and Sour Cod
Efu Noodles
Dessert Trio
The lion dancing was very festive but after the second and third time around it became overkill. They didn't change up the beat of the drumming much so it became a series of "been there done that" performances.
The food came out at a snail's pace with little explanation of what they were. It was like a cookie cutter dining experience with mass production being the name if the game. By the time the dim sum platter came my stomach was drumming along with the lion dancing. The platter was cold. The dumpling wrappers were thick and the filling was nothing extraordinary. One was a spinach dumpling, the other was a shrimp and pork wonton. Both epic failures.
Secondly came the Mongolian beef. It was screaming "I have been overly tenderized with baking soda." I think that the flank beef would've faired better if it were sliced thinner... it would've been naturally more tender. The beef, albeit it being artificially infused with "tenderness" was very tender. I found the level of spiciness to be too overpowering. All you could taste was the burning sensation of the chillies and not much else. The broccoli was nice and crunchy.
Next up, we had a black bean eggplant stir-fry. I always have a soft spot for Chinese eggplant as I love the buttery texture of it compared to its ItalItalian counterparts. The flavours of the eggplant were very delicate. The red peppers were a great foil to the eggplant as the sweetness and crunchiness enhance the buttery texture of the eggplant while offsetting the denseness of the black bean sauce. The sweetness of the red pepper also balances the saltiness of the black bean sauce.
The chicken skin was very crisp and the meat itself was surprisingly flavourful, I only wish the same could be said about the giant white mass of glutinous rice that accompanied the dish, only serving as a filler. It was horrible. Bland and undercooked. I thought that the banana leaf that lay underneath the rice would really serve to bring out a tea-ish flavour, but alas, it was all for show as it was dry and cold. Even having steamed the rice with chicken broth would've given it a subtle flavour! I won't even be so greedy as to ask for chinese sausage or dried shrimp. That might be asking too much of Spice Route.
The efu noodles were pretty standard and didn't really stand out, a bit oily, but after the bland rice we were served... Anything would've tasted heavenly!
The cod was quite flaky, but you could definitely tell it was made from frozen fish and not fresh. The fish skin was very crispy, emulating those that you would find at a Chiu Chow eatery... Think, flavour-infused potato chip! The batter was nice a light, but again, too oily for my tastebuds. So from a textural perspective, the dish was great, from a flavouring perspective, it tasted like french fries with ketchup and there ain't anything Chinese about that!
And that takes us right to dessert. All that it said on the menu was "Chef's Trio Dessert Sampler." During dinner I had asked what everyone thought would be on the menu, and someone said "I bet you there will be a fortune cookie!" And sure enough - there was a massive fortune cookie as part of the three. The trio consisted of:
Deep Fried Banana in a Chocolate Sauce, Chocolate Brownie with Mandarine Oranges and Orange Crème (think CreamSaver candy), and the "OMG-that's-so-big" fortune cookie. Of the 3, the deep fried banana was definitely the crowning achievement. The bananas were not overly ripe, but mushy enough to fuse with the crispy batter to create a gastronomic epiphany in my mouth. The fortune cookie was very airy, crisp and light with a hint of vanilla and butter flavour. Think of a pizzelle but ten times the size.
For a video of the night's performance visit my blog at http://thehungrycat.blog.com/2011/02/03/the-spice-route-to-disaster/
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