Party On! Cheap Corkage at Michelin Star Restaurant

I was recommended to go to Tung Po Seafood Restaurant by my good friend and fellow wine writer Stephen Quinn as he had heard that it was an incredible experience to go and eat at – plus it has a Michelin Star to boot! Tung Po is located on the second floor of a wet market in North Point, not the most glamorous location for a Michelin Starred restaurant but you have to experience the place first before you judge it.

The place is always packed and needs at least a week’s advance booking to go there but once you have witnessed the atmosphere, service and food you will be itching to get back and relive the whole experience again.

Robby is the chef/owner of the place and he is as well known for his great food as he is for his ability to entertain. He is known as the ‘dancing chef’ and on the night in question last week we witnessed his incredible ability to moonwalk with the mop in hand, and break dance to a few of the funky tunes that were blasting out of the speakers on the floor.

White table cloth, candles and decanters there are not, but stools, wine glasses if you need and great food (not to mention very, very cheap corkage fees) are what makes this place special. So Stephen and I, wife and sister in law in tow, grabbed a selection of wines and headed off to dinner.

The amazing ability that Chinese restaurants have in keeping corkage to a minimum (at worst you may have to pay $30-$50 but generally it’s free) makes a mockery of some of the corkage fees that Western restaurants in town charge you for the freedom to drink a wine of your choice rather than one that lines the pockets of the establishments, and this is why some local restaurants are getting more and more popular with casual wine drinkers.

We grabbed a handful of wines from varying countries and of varying varietals and set about attempting to pair them with Robby’s great selection of foods. We kicked off with an Elena Walch Gewurztraminer from Italy which we saw fit to pair with a squid, cucumber and wasabi salad and the pairing was very good indeed. The Gewurztraminer was lovely, floral and fresh with a good body to it. A little off-dry but not at all sweet, this made a great pairing to the salad and would make a delectable summer white wine when the weather gets better.

We then ordered a Prawn in Salty Egg Batter (which although salty egg is not my cup of tea) and paired it with a German Riesling; Tesch Krone Riesling 2010 from the Nahe Region of Germany. All told, another excellent pairing as this is a nice dry Riesling that suits Chinese food in general but also goes really well with seafood and in this case, counteracted the saltiness of the batter.

I am a big fan of South African Chenin Blanc and South African wines have a notoriously hard time selling in this country (mainly because there is a choice of bad or terrible South African wines on our local supermarket shelves here). We decided to pair the Beaumont Chenin Blanc with a dish of local clams sautéed with chili and garlic and, once again, another fine pairing. The chili was nicely counteracted by the medium body of the Chenin and, as this worked so well, begs the question why more people aren’t making more effort to link together South African wines and Chinese food.

It wouldn’t be a gweilo dinner without something sweet and sour (it’s comfort food folks) so we ordered a sweet and sour pork mainly because we wanted to eat it but also because, knowing from experience, the Tesch Riesling goes really well with this dish. If you are being a boring eater and doing sweet and sour pork and fried rice, if you’re not drinking beer then I can highly recommend German Riesling.

Deciding to be a little extravagant we took a bottle of 1964 Domaine Jean Dupont Bourgogne Chardonnay which we thought would go nicely with a fresh locally caught fish. Don’t ask me what kind of fish it was, all I know it was alive and swimming not 10 minutes before it was steaming on the plate in front of us! That’s how we do it here, choose it, catch it, gut it, eat it…..

I have no idea who ordered the squid in squid ink but other than looking like a bowl of black goo it actually tasted very nice and was a great accompaniment to the Chenin, the Riesling and the Gewurztraminer. Not something I will be ordering again, but you don’t learn anything by being boring and ordering the same food everywhere you go.

Needing some meat to pair with the two bottles of red we brought to the party we opted for quick fried Angus beef with garlic which we paired, firstly with the Eponymous Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa which, as expected was a wicked pairing, the juicy tender beef melting in the mouth swiftly followed by a coating of delectable Napa velvet on the palate was something to savour.

There wasn’t much beef left and we were getting full and, other than the fried noodles that were ordered to begin the “soaking up the booze” process, there was little left to pair with our final bottle, the Vale Huarpe Barbera from Argentina. Actually, when we first tasted this wine straight after opening we did not like it at all. However, after two hours sitting there breathing a while it turned out to be a very nice drop indeed. It had some nice roundness with chocolate flavours and the tannins had subsided considerably.

All this took place to the background music of (from what I remember) Eminem, The BG’s, Michael Jackson and various tunes that make you want to get up and join Robby on the ‘dance floor’. I can only say that if not for the food, Tung Po has its Michelin Star for its service and staff ability. I have been to hotels where staff know less about wine and wine service than the staff at Tung Po and this was a real delight. Service was swift, done with a smile and there were no mistakes. So what if they’re wearing wellington boots? It all adds to the charm of the place!

All I can say is, Tung Po is like organized mayhem…..and you’ll love it! Next time you are thinking about having six bottles of wine at a Michelin Starred restaurant, go and buy six bottles of wine and head to North Point’s Tung Po. For four of us, who were later joined by two more and then consumed around 6 bottles of Tsing Tao the bill came to less than $1400 – bargain, cheap corkage, great food, great atmosphere and service….we’re definitely going back!

Tung Po Seafood Restaurant – 2^nd Floor, Java Road Cooked Food Market, 99 Java Road, North Point, Hong Kong Tel: 2880-9399 (need to book before 5:30pm)

Elena Walch Gewurztraminer is available from Castello del Vino in Wan Chai (www.castellodelvino.com.hk)

Tesch Krone Riesling is available from Thomas Palmer Fine German Wines (www.finegermanwines.hk)

Beaumont Chenin Blanc is available from Vincisive (www.vincisive.com.hk)

Jean Dupont Bourgogne was (maybe still is) available from Slurp.Asia (www.slurp.asia)

Eponymous Cabernet Sauvignon is available from Open 3 Wines (www.open3wines.com)

Valle Huarpe was a sample from Lipu International and, although this brand is not available in Hong Kong they have many more great Argentine wines (victor@belhk.com)