The king has arrived.
In this unlikeliest of settings–a shopping-mall restaurant, just off the interstate in the suburban sprawl that is Los Angeles–royalty had deigned to meet with commoners.
Master chef Yeung Koon Yat, the self-described and unchallenged Abalone King of Hong Kong and esteemed member of the select Le Club des Chefs des Chefs, was surrounded by his attendants and translators. He had made the long trip from the British crown colony (until 1997, anyway), where he is managing director of the Forum Restaurant, to promote gourmet Chinese cuisine and especially his techniques for preparing abalone. He was here for a banquet at the Harbor Village Restaurant to extol the virtues of a noble mollusk.
The gastropod sea mollusk is native to California and other warm-water areas but has nearly been fished out of existence here. It is considered a delicacy and good-luck dish in China, Taiwan and Japan, and commands outrageously high prices.
In 1983, when the economic and political future of Hong Kong was very much in doubt, Yeung found himself struggling to keep afloat in the competitive restaurant business. In an attempt to distinguish himself, he dedicated his efforts to becoming the best at preparing a single item.
His elaborate braising of whole dried abalone allowed Yeung to step away from the pack and become internationally celebrated. Last month, he was invited to Paris to prepare a meal for France’s newly installed President Jacques Chirac, and he has fed Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, who considers abalone a “precious item.”
“I want to make Chinese gourmet cuisine impressive to non-Chinese culture,” Yeung said through an interpreter. “For a chef to know and try to develop a particular kind of cuisine is not easy. They must learn how cultures change and grow with modern times.
“The medals I’ve received aren’t just for my success; they are for the honor of all Chinese. What’s most important is to promote Chinese gourmet cuisine and what Chinese are eating right now.”
Well, not everyone. Even in Hong Kong, where great culinary bargains can be found, Yeung’s abalone is a rare and expensive treat.
The abalone served for the luncheon in this busy restaurant in Monterey Park–a largely Chinese enclave a few miles east of downtown L.A.–ran about $140 a piece, and as good as they were, still higher grades are available.
Yeung’s technique for rehydrating whole, dried abalone involves more than a day of soaking and boiling. He then braises the abalone for 12 hours in a clay pot between layers of chicken, spare ribs and bamboo shoots. Superior stock cooks down to a flavorful sauce.
The master chef recommended nibbling on his creation–looking, by now, like a miniature moccasin–slowly, in a circular motion, “like an ice cream cone,” using a fork.
The texture is that of a meaty truffle or mushroom, while the rich, sauce-enhanced taste gets more robust the closer to the center of the mollusk one gets. Inferior abalone can be rubbery and relatively flavorless, while remaining expensive; these, from farms in Yoshihama, Japan, were superb.
“One of the things that distinguishes gourmet delicacies in Asian culture is texture,” said Max Jacobson, a restaurant critic for the Los Angeles Times who has specialized in Asian cuisine. “If you achieve texture, it creates a lot of talk. Western palates are different and may have different reactions to these dishes.”
“He’s definitely the No. 1 guy for abalone,” said Antony Wong of Hong Kong’s elegant Peninsula hotel, in Los Angeles for a seminar. “Our Japanese guests come to Hong Kong to shop and eat–abalone, shark’s fin, ginseng–and will seek him out. Westerners usually are put off by the cost of the abalone.”
The hotel celebrates the tasty gastropod each year with an abalone festival of its own.
Yeung recalled one notorious banquet served at his restaurant, at which 36 people consumed more $300,000 worth of food, much of the expense attributed to abalone. The master chef has contributed greatly to the shortage and high cost of abalone, as he says he has served more than 700,000 of the critters himself.
Besides being in California to promote the delicacy, he was directing special banquets at Harbor Village restaurants here and in San Francisco. The multi-course meals, served for a week only, ranged in price from $290 to $380 a setting, and included such rare treats as Double-boiled Superior Shark Fin With Silky Chicken; Pan-Fried Quails in Spicy Pepper-Salt; Mandolin Roast Squab; Fresh-Water Vietnamese Crabs Stuffed With Sun-Dried Scallops; Hang-Chow Chicken Stuffed With Meats, Pickles and Baked in Lotus Leaves; Double-Boiled Sweet Imperial Bird’s Nest With Essence of Almond; and Braised Premium Whole Yoshihama Abalone in Extract of Oyster.
In the banquet room was a display of dried food that included shark fins, birds nests from Indonesia, sea cucumbers, sea scallops and three varieties of abalone.
Clifford Chow, general manager of the San Francisco Harbor Village and former proprietor of the Shangri La: Cuisines of China in Chicago, said that the table held more than $25,000 of ingredients, much of which was more appealing to the tongue than the eye.
“The more ugly it is, the better it tastes,” Chow said.
California, which once had an abundant abalone population, is trying to find ways to protect the mollusk from overfishing. Commercial interests and poachers have been active since the price went skyward, causing amateur divers–who use snorkel techniques to hunt abalone–to demand conservation action.
Rob Collins, senior biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game Marine Resources Division, said that the population also is threatened by a disease known as the withering foot syndrome, which is hurting southern California fisheries.
Collins said that abalone farming is a potentially lucrative industry in the state, with about 15 growers in various levels of development. It began about 10 years ago and, right now, represents about $2 million a year in revenue.
Although the expectations for rewards are high–demand now outstrips supply–abalone farming is a difficult proposition. Maturation takes 2 to 3 years before harvesting can occur, coastal property is expensive, sea water must be pumped in and the animal will feed only on fresh giant kelp. The harvested abalone is sold in shell to expensive restaurants and exported to Japan.
Collins insists that abalone in its natural home isn’t yet endangered, but California lawmakers aren’t so sure. There is legislation pending to ban commercial fishing for a time to replenish fisheries.
Yeung gets all his abalone from fisheries in northern Japan and prepares them in Hong Kong for export to Japan and Taiwan. A dried abalone can be stored for years before it is rehydrated.
Yeung says that each new award he gets for his cooking encourages him to do better and that good chefs can influence world leaders with their food. Eating abalone, tradition has it, brings good fortune and is beneficial to the eyes, diabetes, blood pressure and kidneys, while the shell is used in herbal remedies.
It’s also easy on the tongue and tummy … if not the wallet.
