While traveling between Zhuhai, China’s border city with Macao, and Hong Kong International Airport, I was able to arrange to lunch at Pin Yue Xuan, a locally renowned Cantonese establishment at The Venetian Sands Macao.
For those unfamiliar with Macao, a number of larger properties such as Sands Resorts offer free shuttles from its border crossings. Conveniently, I was able to take a shuttle both from the Gongbei border with Zhuhai, and to the vast Hong Kong Bridge immigration checkpoint.
Although Macanese restaurants certainly exist, I remain equally unfamiliar with regionally dominant Cantonese cooking. But why? In spite of having lived in the area for a couple of years, there’s a simple reason … I’m all about chilies. There was an occasional shumai, or crucian carp, or barbecued spare rib, but I nearly always took advantage of the hot Hunan and Sichuan places while in Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
That lack of awareness of Cantonese cuisine was a big part of why I wanted to see what Pin Yue Xuan offered. The Michelin-selected restaurant, led by Executive Chef Darren Cheung, adds contemporary and elevated ingredients to classic dishes.
What does that mean?
Let’s take a look at my lunchtime tasting menu:
Up first, came the dim sum plate.
Dim sum, meaning “touch the heart,” originated in teahouses, to provide small snacks along with one’s cuppa. Immigrants from Guangdong, the home of the Cantonese language, helped introduce dim sum — and perhaps even pave the way for brunch — throughout the world.
The eats:
From the top left heading clockwise, we’ve got “deep-fried scallop with taro in crisp honeycomb,” spicy steamed pork shumai dumpling with soft-boiled quail egg,” “steamed vegetarian dumpling with Japanese lily bulbs,” and “pan-fried dried sakura shrimp turnip cake.”
Before I get into my thoughts about Pin Yue Xuan’s food, One important aspect to note about Cantonese cuisine is that it emphasizes lighter, milder touches, so that the eater can more closely appreciate the original taste of the dish. Basically … it’s at the other end of the spectrum from Hunan’s fondness for peppers and aggressive flavors.
With that brief background in mind, I can say that my tasting menu faithfully fit that description. As much as I enjoy scallops, the taro and sweetness were overpowering. For the vegetarian dumpling, the lily bulbs were rather light on flavor, but quite nice in crunch. Finally, even though the pan-fried dried sakura shrimp turnip cake was fun, the shumai was perhaps my favorite dish of the entire tasting lunch, save for dessert. It was all of the five basic tastes — even spicy — rolled into one. Juicy pork, mixed with tongue-numbing Sichuan peppercorns, and served with mustard.
I’ve never had a more delicious shumai than that.
Following the dim sum came the soup.
Whereas there is a different soup everyday, I went with the menu standard, the crystal blue shrimp and egg white in hot and sour soup.
The chef nailed the hot and sour aspect, but the shrimp flavor was perhaps too light. However, I’m curious as to which ingredients composed the body of the soup, and to what extent egg whites augmented the billowy texture. Overall, a good choice.
It was at this point that I wanted to take a closer look at Pin Yue Xuan’s décor. The red and black overtones, and overall interior design were inspired by the traditional Chinese courtyard home, called a 四合院 (sìhéyuàn).
In addition to having various artworks and teapots placed throughout the dining room and private dining rooms, there are fish tanks with lobsters, fish, and abalone.
Back to the food, right?
Although it was adeptly steamed, the grouper was barely seasoned, which in fairness shows dedication to Cantonese cooking methods. I think it would have done nicely with some shredded ginger, scallions, and soy sauce, but then I’m barking up the wrong tree.
The main event: abalone. The abalone and rice again demonstrated very good execution in terms of texture and temperature. The abalone had just the right amount of chewiness, with enough of its own flavor to not be obscured by a bite of the rice. Definite hit.
Dessert Time
There was room for dessert?
Always.
Almond pudding is a popular dessert in Guangdong. It’s not heavy, goes well with any number of toppings, and also satisfies many a sweet tooth.
Pin Yue Xuan’s version was delicious. It didn’t need the wispy flavor of bird’s nest, but that did add an unusual slight crunch.
As for the cookies, I enjoyed the black tea one on top, but the mochi one was a little unusual.
More dessert?
I forgot that I had ordered another dessert (recommended by the lead server) at the beginning of the meal:
As soon as the server placed this dessert on the table, it reminded me of Sicily’s granita e briosche. Basically, you can rip off a piece of bread, and dip it into the granita, or in this case, the ice cream.
The ice cream was creamy, with a flavor similar to egg nog; I imagine it would be a big-hit for the late autumn in the U.S. Along with the almond pudding, and shumai, this rounded out my top three bites of lunch.
Overall, I had an enjoyable lunch at Pin Yue Xuan. The service was excellent, the ambience clean and intriguing, and the food approachable and generally tasty.
Pin Yue Xuan is open six days a week (no Wednesdays), from 11:00 – 15:00, and then from 18:00 – 23:00. They’re on Level 1, Shop 1016, across from Jiang Nan by Jereme Leung.
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