City serves - Huami

Chineserestaurant

14 Mar

Written By Antony

We dig a little deeper into signature dishes and drinks at some of our best-loved eateries

We made our way behind the bar and into the kitchen at Huami, SkyCity’s signature Chinese restaurant and cocktail bar, and one of the most consistent and premium establishments in the city. As Huami’s restaurant manager Daisy put it to us, Huami isn’t just a restaurant, it’s a platform for culture. Here are some of the must-try dishes to get to the heart of Huami:

IN THE GLASS

Senior bar tender James has an incredible knowledge of every element that ends up in a glass, here.

If the perfect photo grab is high on your agenda, go for flox-tail – this silky golden rum, pink grapefruit and spiced peach number is topped with a flight of fancy – an eye-catching piece by local artist Flox, printed on rice paper to rest perfectly on top.

Huami champions local producers, especially at the bar where premium Aotearoa products take pride of place. As one of the few establishments to secure the very first bottles of whisky coming out of the Scapegrace Distillery in Central Otago, Huami have put it to excellent use in the great wall of grace, where Scapegrace ‘The Rise’ whisky lays the foundation for an elegant Chinese-inspired twist on an Old Fashioned. The whisky is joined by a house made mānuka honey infusion and backed up with whole spices, including cloves and a cinnamon quill toasted at the bar.

If you want to explore a deeper understanding of the culture behind Huami, ask about the baiju cocktails. The grain-based, Chinese-made spirit (baiju simply translates as ‘white spirit’) is the most consumed spirit in the world, and one of the most valuable too, and among the lineup gracing the bar at Huami is its own custom baiju, made especially for Huami in China, and shipped over in striking blue and white china vessels. Try it in the pao pao passion, where it’s blended with passionfruit, elderflower, and apple, poured from a delicate stone teapot and topped up with sparkling rosé.

Also… the bar menu boasts a very decent line up of dim sum and bao which are served three pieces per plate – we say take the four plates for $40 offer and have no regrets.

ON THE PLATE

There’s yum cha, and there’s Huami yum cha. When you watch the skilled chefs at work you’ll see that everything is made from scratch here with no shortcuts. Xiao long bao fan? The famous Shanghai soup dumplings are made here by hand throughout service by a dedicated team of two pastry chefs, so what you’re served up is ultra-fresh, you’ll taste the difference. XLB buffs will appreciate the details: the many fine pleats on those wrappers, and the delicate red vinegar dipping sauce alongside, made in house with fresh ginger, aged mandarin peel, pickling olive and plum.

A classic gets a lift up here with xo chilli ‘siew mai’ shrimp, chicken dumpling topped with a lusciously umami house made xo sauce. We eat with our eyes, so the squid ink and prawn dumplings are a hit before we’ve even tasted them. The barbecue section brings mānuka honey glazed char siew pork – wonderfully succulent with just the right level of natural sweetness, and cooked in the very same brick oven as Huami’s famous wood-roasted duck.

Huami’s executive chef, Shanghai-raised Raymond Xue, has honed Beijing-trained duck chefs on the job in the kitchen here, but he is the brains behind Huami achieving peak duck status. Chef Ray has cleverly taken elements from both the Beijing and the Canton schools of duck and married them to create Huami’s version which has become the benchmark around town. The cleaned birds are seasoned with salt and a special blend of spices in the Cantonese way, covered, coated in a vinegar syrup, and aged in a temperature controlled room for 4 days – the ageing process, vital in developing the all-important shell of crisp skin, is often skipped elsewhere as it can’t be done without the right equipment. The ducks are then roasted in a traditional brick oven that takes pride of place in the open kitchen – it’s fired with local fruit wood. The result? Juicy, flavoursome, sweet meat and a lacquered skin that shatters like the most delicate toffee – served à la Beijing with pancakes, julienned cucumber and spring onion, and Huami’s own, secret-recipe duck sauce.

Yum cha means ‘to drink tea’, so it follows that rather than serving up hum-drum, Huami takes cha next-level. On the menu is a range of premium, organically grown teas from Aotearoa’s own Zealong Estate. The list boasts green, oolong, and black varieties as well as a host of botanical blends, and Huami is the exclusive purveyor of Zealong’s jasmine tea – a floral classic that pairs particularly beautifully with the rich duck.

Whether you’re gathering the whānau for yum cha lunch, or meeting a few friends over a drink, its charming setting and elevated touches make Huami just the place for it, and one of the city’s true gems.