Dinner Again At Legend Chinatown (2006-11-11)
We figured there'd be hits and misses if we just picked any restaurant to try. But if we go back to the same restaurant where we know the quality is good, there's a high chance we'd get a decent meal. So back to Legend we went despite eating dinner there the night before.
The waitress recognized us instantly and greeted us warmly like she
did last night. We took time making up our minds on what to order
because everything looked so good on the menu. We finally decided
on the salt and pepper squid, stir-fried Chinese broccoli and giant
clams in black bean sauce.
The squid was the first to arrive and it rocked! The
deep-fried squid pieces had a very thin and light but CRUNCHY coating
encasing soft, tender squid meat. Crunchy squid coating
definitely trumps
non-crunchy squid coating. It was totally non-greasy. The
squid was
then tossed with chopped chili and garlic and seasoned correctly with
spiced salt. There was a small dish of extra spiced salt and
pepper on the plate but we didn't need it. This dish was the BEST
salt and pepper squid I ever ate, even better than the couple of
memorable ones I had in Sydney. I can't think of any other way to
improve on this dish that the chef at Legend made. If this is a
hit and miss dish at the restaurant, we certainly hit the hit!
The Chinese broccoli was also very good. It was stir-fried
with gossamer shreds of ginger and the broccoli sweet and crisp
tender. The smokiness from high heat wok cooking made the
broccoli, my favorite Chinese vegetable, extra yummy.
The giant clams were really giant. Such big clams would easily sell for US$3-5 each in Tokyo. The clams were fresh and meaty, but the sauce lacked the pungency of garlic, black beans and chili. There simply wasn't enough garlic and black beans in the dish. In a blind taste test, I wouldn't be able to identify the sauce. We still polished the whole thing though because it was good, just not as fantastic as the squid dish.
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