HSF - Manhattan

In my quest to find the most appropriate place to have a pre-wedding Chinese banquet for 150 guests, I was directed to HSF in Chinatown, just south of the Manhattan Bridge on Bowery. My criteria has always been food first, service, decor secondary.

When you first walk into HSF, there are dozens of plexi-glass tanks by the front door - live dungeness, live shrimp, various fish, lobster (of course), blue crabs, etc.... I've been told that they ocassionally have live king crabs as well.

Here are some highlights of what we ordered:

Dungeness crab prepared with the yolks of salted duck eggs. The crab was weighed (3.5 lbs) and brought to our table live for our approval before they cooked it. This was pretty mind blowing, as I am a fan of salted duck eggs. The crab was somehow dredged with the egg yolks, which created a rich, salty and creamy coating on the shell of the crab. The crabmeat itself was delicously sweet and flaky. Finger lickin good!

Shrimp sauteed with ginger, garlic and scallions. Ordered by the pound (we went for 1.5 pounds), standard preparation, but the cool part was being presented with a pound and a half of live, fluttering shrimp freshly scooped from one of the tanks. I couldn't taste this because I have developed a shrimp allergy over the past two years.

Crispy skinned chicken - deboned, with a mashed shrimp mixtured tucked between the ultra crispy skin and the chicken meat. I wasn't able to taste this either (shrimp allergy), but was able to snag some chicken skin, which was very tasty. Instead of the normal seasoned salt that accompanies this dish, a creamy, egg white based sauce was provided. Different, but nothing to jump up and down about. I thought this was an pretty creative presentation.

Ong choy with fermented bean curd. The ong choy was more of a light green color more akin to shanghai bok choy than the dark green/purplish ong choy I'm used to. It also had a much more delicate flavor than I'm used to. Not enough bean curd for my taste.

Conch and scallops over pea shoots - pretty damned good!

Abalone and mushrooms with dried scallops over shanghai bok choy - never been a fan of abalone, don't really have an opinion on this dish.

Shirley,

How about I just contact you the next time I am in NY? I'd love to join you for dinner at that restaurant.

While I go to my lunch of leftover ribs, I will be drooling thinking about the crab. I have crab picks in my purse this very moment from another dinner, I keep forgetting to take them out!

Congratulations again on your engagement to "Eddie on a Stick."

Regards,