We ate at Shanghai Gourmet at Pacific East Mall (3288 Pierce) in Richmond today and found that the place had gone downhill. How sad! No more chicken with chestnuts — it was taken off the menu. The braised meatballs (often called “Lion’s Head”) had limited richness of sauce, which was markedly lighter than in the past and floury. The pork with bean curd sheets — which should be pork belly and bean curd knots braised in a clay pot with the usual suspects, like wine, rock sugar and soy sauce — was a memory of its former self. First off, half the pork belly was replaced with another cut of pork, which sent my mother into a tailspin. Second, the sauce was weak. Stuff was missing or the dish was not given enough time to braise – maybe both. All I know is that it should have been obscenely savory but fell flat. Matt ordered pan-fried bean curd with shrimp roe, which was very good, but none of us were able to detect much roe flavor. When we talked with our server about the state of the food, he claimed there had been no change in ownership nor chef. Then what the hell happened? This calls for some investigation.
Shanghai Gourmet in Richmond going downhill
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family unit produced a delightful prime rib dinner today. We had toyed with sirloin of beef, and even went back and forth in the meat section of Costco with large pieces of beast until we finally said, “the hell with it, you only live once, we could be dead next year,” and carted the immense sirloin back to its section in favor of the boneless prime rib. That is not to say there wasn’t a “bone-in” versus “boneless” conversation beforehand. We roasted it at low heat to an internal temperature of ~130 degrees F., which is RARE, the only way to eat prime rib, really. Since I wanted the full flavor of the meat to shine through, I rubbed only salt and pepper into the meat before cooking. Happy Christmas!
