THE MAKING OF THE PEARLY TWIRL

When Chef CALVIN Li Kee Wei 李奇偉 first came up with the idea of a fusion dumpling soup to add into the VIRAL FUSION Private Kitchen menu, he thought of the time he sampled a tasty ravioli with blue swimmer crabmeat filling at an Italian restaurant. But instead of using ravioli skin, he used a Shanghainese Wonton wrapper and mixed in a small portion of minced pork reminiscent from the famous Xiao Long Bao. The first attempt came out with mixed reviews - the Shanghainese Wonton wrapper was a bit thick so when you bite into the wonton, the starchiness was overwhleming and the crab flavor was somewhat overshadowed by the pork.


Shanghainese Wonton wrapper was a bit thick so the starchiness was overwhleming

SECOND ATTEMPT- Chef CALVIN Li dropped the Shanghainese wrapper in favor of the Cantonese wonton wrapper which is thinner hence less starchy. He also took out the minced pork and used a geneorous filling of pure fresh crabmeat. To make it more interesting, he added a morsel of goose pate into each wonton. He also experimented with Cantonese wonton soup base which is essentially a fish broth instead of chicken broth. The tasting reviews came out much more favorable, everybody liked the thinner skin and the tasty crabmeat filling, as well as the goose pate. But the filling was a bit loose so the pate flavor was lost into the broth during the cooking process, and it started falling apart as soon you put it into your mouth.

Everybody liked the thinner skin and the tasty crabmeat filling, as well as the goose pate.

FINAL VERSION- Calvin wrapped each wonton much tighter thus preventing the premature "collapsing" of the wonton, it also preserved the distinct flavor of the pate inside the wonton. He also added a sprinkle of fried shrimp roe to the soup to give it that extra zest often found in a heavenly broth.We all knew he got a winner here!

 Viral Fusion 豐樂里 (International Private Kitchen)  www.viral-fusion.com 3/F, Pearl Oriental House,60 Stanley Street, Central. Tel: 2677 5300