Chinese Fine Dining in a Disney Hotel

Conducting official business in a Disney Resort? We held a channel conference and had to throw a welcome lunch for my business associates. I was surprised they don’t have a Japanese restaurant in Hilton Tokyo Bay, so we settled into a Chinese restaurant, Dynasty.

Chinese food in Japan encompasses a vast array of dishes, from the familiar ramen and gyoza, to street favourites like nikuman and shu mai, to more intricate concoctions like mapo tofu and steamed soup dumplings. Most of these dishes could be familiar on some level of Chinese ethnic origin like yours truly. But there’s some subtle differences.

Dynasty Restaurant inside Hilton Tokyo Bay has a proper private room for business purpose. My staff ordered this lunch while I was mingling among my foreign guests and business associates. Here’s what we had for our business lunch.

五種冷菜の盛り合わせ Five Kinds of Assorted Special Cold Appetizers

The appetiser platter was beautiful; familiar Chinese food to some of us but with a Japanese influence, which made it really interesting.

• チャーシュー Chinese Style Barbecued Pork – very sweet, not Hong Kong style BBQ 明炉叉焼 for sure;
• 鶏肉からし胡麻ソース添え Special Chilled Chicken with Sichuan Sesame Sauce – the sauce was left aside, but it still was not something that we can associate with 棒棒鶏;
• クラゲの冷菜 Jelly Fish (in the high cocktail glass) – familiar taste;
• 本日の中国風お刺身 Today’s Sliced Raw Fish (which is the smoked salmon) – not what I expected in their Chinese explanation 鳳城生魚滑;
• 季節野菜の湯葉巻き Seasonal Vegetables with Bean Curd Skin Roll – my favourite, I smiled that they used the Japanese name 湯葉 (yuba) instead of 腐皮 (bean curd skin) for the Chinese translation.

スープ Soup

Because we have foreign guests, it was difficult to determine whether they will like spicy or sour soup. コーンスープ Corn Soup is always a safe bet, and they used Japanese corns which are unbelievably sweet. And for the rest of us, 海の幸入り酸辣湯 Hot and Sour Soup with Seafood was a great soup for a cold spring morning.

PS: turned out everyone love Szechuan-style hot and sour soup, so we simply split everything into two small bowls for tasting portions.

トリュフ香る牛フィレ肉のステーキ 旬野菜とともに Beef Fillet Steak with Truffle Sauce and Seasonal Vegetables

Everyone loves Japanese beef, and this course can do no wrong. The kuroge wagyu was tender and juicy, even the gourmand in the group nodded in approval how good it was.

海老の香り揚げ Deep-fried Prawns with Japanese Pepper

Note to my staff – don’t order any food that requires you to use your hands for a business lunch. These deep-fried prawns were butterflied with their shells on. Although delicious, it was a chore (and ungraceful) to be shelling the prawns with your hands in front of all the business associates.

マーボー豆腐 Mapo Tofu

マーボー豆腐 Mapo Tofu has been adopted and transformed in Japan, elevating this to a Michelin-starred status that is not achieved even at its original country. To understand why Japanese love this spicy tofu from Sichuan, one has to understand Chuka Ryōri 中華料理, which is Japanese-style Chinese food. These dishes, while rooted in Chinese cuisine, have been adapted to suit Japanese tastes and often incorporate Japanese or even Western ingredients and cooking techniques. 

フォアグラの小籠包 Steamed Soup Bun with Foie Gras and Pork

Back in the day, Chinese immigrants and traders brought not just wares but also the aromatic treasures of their kitchens. They settled in Japanese cities such as Yokohama, Nagasaki, Kobe and elsewhere. Of course, like immigrants to many societies around the world, Chinese immigrants to Japan needed to adapt to the local culture; and this naturally included food. So rather than keeping Chinese cuisine “pure” in Japan, the Chinese-Japanese community had to use local ingredients and adapt to local flavour profiles. Just like this steamed soup bun aka 小籠包 Xiao Long Bao which originated in Jiangsu/Shanghai region.

北京ダック Beijing Duck

Whenever you ask an American what do they know about authentic Chinese cuisine and they will always reply, “Peking Duck.” I didn’t have the chance to take a photo of the whole duck, so I have to use their official photo in the menu.

It would have been called “Nanking Duck” if that city has remained the capital of China. The origin of the Beijing Duck is actually from Nanjing. The dish is said to have originated during the 13th century in Hangzhou. Roast duck was one of the cooked foods sold door-to-door by street vendors, and it became a speciality of nearby Nanjing, the first capital of the Ming dynasty. And when the Ming emperor Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, the duck moved with him.

王朝特製 こだわりのごま担々麺 Noodles with Minced Pork in Spicy Seasame Miso Soup

Tantanmen 担々麺 is another Szechuan classic that has been successfully assimilated into the Japanese cuisine as part of the Chuka Ryōri. Tantanmen is the Japanese version of Sichuan Dan Dan noodle. Dan dan noodle does not come with soup but Tantanmen comes with spicy chili flavoured soup. Both come with miso pork mince and flavoured with chilli.

おこげ（五目）Crispy Rice (Chop Suey)

I chuckled to see that「五目」（ごもくGomoku）has been translated into “chop suey” in English. Firstly, the term comes from a board game that is “five in a row”, hence five ingredients are used; secondly, it is definitely not chop suey. In this case, the five ingredients were chicken, bamboo shoot (which was in season), black woodear fungus, bokchoy and crispy rice. It was like Singapore’s 燴飯 except with crispy rice.

フルーツ入り杏仁豆腐 Almond Jelly With Seasonal Fruit

An’nin dofu 杏仁豆腐 is brought to Japan by Chinese immigrants and they first appeared on dining tables in Yokohama. It’s known for its smooth, jelly-like texture and subtle apricot and almond flavour. Despite the name, there’s not a single almond in this Japanese dessert. I just found out when researching for this post that Japanese “almond jelly” uses apricot kernel powder, which gives out similar almond flavours. Either version, this is still my favourite dessert ever.

So you have it, Japanese-style Chinese food in a Disney resort that is totally different from those in the US. To this day, Chuka remains a unique food group as a subset of Japanese cuisine. It is not only different from food in China, it is markedly different from Chinese food in other countries and regions of the world.

Dynasty at Hilton Tokyo Bay
279-0031, Chiba, Urayasu-shi, 1-8 Maihama, Japan
Tel : +81 47-355-5000 (Reservations)