dacha
For our workplace welcome party, we arranged a special course at a restaurant for over ten people, with a drink-all-you-can option for 5000 yen. Upon entering the restaurant, we were guided to the second floor. Not only did they have a large dining room, but there were also sizeable private rooms in the back, making it bigger than it appeared. Most of the other customers seemed to be Chinese, with Mandarin being spoken all around us, but the owner and female staff spoke Japanese well, which made communication easy and reassuring.
Today's all-you-can-drink offering allowed us to order anything from the menu except bottled whiskey and Tsingtao beer. Gratefully, we began the festivities by ordering beers for everyone! The first dish served was an appetizer platter featuring Hong Kong-style char siu (barbecue pork), roasted pork, roasted duck, and garlic mixed cucumbers with shrimp. The char siu had a bit of fat but was mostly lean meat, seasoned lightly with a sweet flavor that released delicious juices the more you chewed. The roasted pork was just red meat, simply seasoned with salt and infused with a fragrant five-spice powder. It was chewy and tasty. The roasted duck was similarly seasoned with salt and five-spice, and the garlic shrimp and cucumber dish was a simple, salty snack that whetted our appetite with its garlic aroma.
Next, we were served shrimp coated in panko. These crispy, deep-fried shrimp were so tender that you could eat them shell-on. Eating them with the well-seasoned panko was like a strange twist on a whole shrimp tempura! Following this, we had sweet and sour pork. With crispy, bone-in spare ribs, the texture was akin to half-dry jerky, and the sweet and sour sauce was perfectly absorbed, making it delightful.
Then came the Cheung Fun, a dim sum dish made by wrapping ingredients in rice flour skin and steaming them. This restaurant served it with char siu and a sweet and spicy sauce that included soy and oyster sauce, garnished with green onions and peanuts. The chewy, bouncy texture was irresistible. Shortly after, we received freshly steamed shumai, which were hot with rich meat juice, so flavorful that you could enjoy them even plain, without any dipping sauce.
After a moment of pause, another panko-coated dish appeared. This time, it was either fried chicken or chopped duck mixed with large slices of chili peppers. It resembled a Sichuan dish called lazi ji, where chicken is stir-fried with chili and oil, coated in panko. Its red appearance looked fierce but it turned out to have just the right level of spiciness. A colleague accidentally bit into a chili ring and screamed in surprise!
As a palate cleanser, sautéed water spinach arrived, flavored simply with garlic and salt, giving our taste buds a break. Just as we were starting to feel full, the final dish of fried rice was served. The fried rice, flavored with oyster sauce, was fluffy and well-cooked, but I regretted not being able to truly savor its flavor with my stomach already so full. For dessert, sesame balls were offered, but I didn’t get to try them. Others who did praised them as delicious, making me a bit envious.
Though we went with the restaurant’s set course for our meal, the quality and quantity were both satisfying, offering us a wonderful dining experience. The menu had many other enticing options, so next time, I’d love to tackle some à la carte dishes with a smaller group. Thank you for the great meal!