The Year of the Dragon at Ping Pang Pong, Gold Coast

The Year of the Dragon at Ping Pang Pong, Gold Coast

Chicken with Black Moss

Ping Pang Pong is my favorite Chinese restaurant, for many reasons. They do, for instance, the best dim sum in the city, and for another, I love the roasted crab and Night Market fried rice from their big menu.

But last Wednesday evening, they outdid themselves, with a gala for Chinese New Year, the Year of the Dragon. At 7:30 the dragon showed up, and the dancers, but I was already stuffed by then. They made the dinner a little more user friendly for kwei-lo, anyone who isn’t Chinese. And this was a capital idea; the result was an amazing spread.

whole abalone with chinese greens

I couldn’t have been seated more than fifteen seconds when an entire dried, braised abalone arrived, flanked by baby Chinese greens. All the dishes served for New Year have significance in terms of three critical components the Chinese culture values: luck, prosperity and long life.

Why they are significant, however, is a bit baffling to those unfamiliar with the Chinese language. Chinese is tonal, which means that tone is a component to differentiate meaning. A word like fat (pronounced like fa-aht, as none of the Chinese dialects has the long “a” vowel), can be many things, depending on whether the tone is rising, falling or several others.

Fat choy is part of gung hey fat choy, a traditional Chinese New Year greeting. But pronounced in a different tone structure, it can be “black moss”, a tasty component of a steamed chicken dish. Get it? So all the dishes served for New Year have a phonetic similarity to luck, long life or prosperity. I knew you’d understand.

Dragon Shrimp

Because the Cantonese word for lobster is “loong-ha”, literally “dragon shrimp”, Karrie and Kevin Wu, the owners, generously served everyone an entire steamed lobster in the shell, slathered with egg yolk, another item of significance. The lobster was delicious, with more to come.

Chinese Delicacies

Then it was time to head over to the buffet, where the star dish was roasted crab, which everyone seemed to covet, and bat bo bai, eight treasure chicken, chicken stuffed with a rice, date, and other goodie stuffing. The crab shells were properly cracked, and the chicken had crisp skin that made you want to eat until you were stuffed as well.

Pork chops with spiced salt sat in a huge metal tray. I wolfed down a pair. Chook saang, or bamboo pith, is considered a huge delicacy by a billion plus people. It’s the spongy interior of a bamboo shoot, and the flesh absorbs sauce relentlessly. The kitchen prepared it in a sauce of dung goo, black mushrooms, and baby bok choy. Wow!

I was out of business at this point, but Kevin Wu insisted I stick around for a bowl of bird’s nest soup, which he told me he prepared personally. Bird’s nest, yin wo in Cantonese, is said to make women more desirable, giving their skin luster, and making them, er, a little more, um, ready to do the wild thing.

squash lobster soup

I wouldn’t know about that, but there are some things that might be better not to know, such as the provenance of this delicacy. It is from the walls of caves, often in Thailand or Indochina, the hardened saliva of the swallow. Mixed with chicken stock and other tasty stuff, it turns out to be a thick soup that you can almost stand a Chinese spoon in.

the adorable wu twins

Karrie Wu has excellent taste, not to mention 4-year old twins who are about the cutest girls on the planet. So for dessert, she had arranged a plate of macaroons from ex-Bouchon baker Chris Herron, who now has the successful restaurant Bread and Butter in Henderson.

May the dragon bring good fortune upon you all this year.

Ping Pang Pong is at the Gold Coast Casino. 367-7111.

Unicahome.com was founded in 1998 by Hugh and Bonnie Fogel. Featuring over 65,000 products, Unicahome.com is a complete lifestyle store for home, office and contract use featuring Bridal Registry, Furniture, Lighting, Accessories, Barware, Food and Great Gifts from noted designers and top brands sourced worldwide. Our 18,000 square foot store is located in Las Vegas, Nevada, just minutes away from the world famous Las Vegas Strip. We hope you enjoyed your visit to Unicaworld!