At Victoria’s A. Wong restaurant, Nik Speller went in search of culture, understanding and an 8-course taster menu that read like a journey around half of the globe.
If someone asked me that question now, I’d say:’Of course, it’s near Hong Kong’. I’d also go on to say that this month, there is an opportunity to sample Macau cuisine at A. Wong, in London’s own Victoria.
That’s the power of social media and the power of the press launch. Invite people to a restaurant, feed them, and play a short video clip. Guaranteed attention. Macau cuisine does deserve this mind you and I can say this now with the intelligence and culture of someone who has tried it.
A. Wong, the restaurant named after Head Chef Andrew Wong, is playing host to Florita Alves – a specialist in Macau cuisine – from 17th to 29th November. Together, they’ll be serving up an 8-course taster menu of the eclectic food that Macau is renowned for, influenced as it is by the culinary traditions of Africa, Portugal and, of course, China.
The second course was a Shanghai dumpling with a small square of glazed dried pork. I could have taken a far larger square of that pork, say a Yorkie sized bar of it. The dumpling, with it’s oozing liquid that you have to drink before chewing, cold and strange. Not really my cup of tea. Neither was the prawn. Too fiddly. Too much picking, not enough chewing. A net loss on the calories front.
The final dish of the eight, was a Portuguese egg custard tart, served with a small glass of tropical Guinness – coconut, coffee jelly, and kahlua. The tart was boiling hot and my pig-like eyes caused the roof of my mouth some trouble, as I wolfed it down far quicker than it could cool. Sweet, sticky, delicious. The tropical Guinness (my name, not theirs) was an Irish coffee, accompanied by that old fashioned scent from the day’s of your grandmother’s baking that only coconut can bring. I can’t tell if I liked it or thought it awful. A strange concoction that I’d try again, if only to force myself down on to one side of the fence or the other.
The Macanese tasting menu is available from 17th to 29th November at A. Wong. Booking is required:
70 Wilton Rd, Victoria, London, SW1V 1DE
Tel: 020 7828 8931