The blustering weather has got my taste buds longing for some simple, fresh seafood. Call me gluttonous, but all I want for Chinese New Years is a bowl (or three) of Closed Door’s garlic prawns in creamy herb sauce (RMB100) to munch on this rainy season. Served in a deep porcelain plate, an appetizer order will get you prawns will get you seven large (de-shelled) prawns. The tenderness and slight seafood sweetness of these prawns, marinated with garlic and sauteed in a toasty, paprika-spiked sauce is a very good rendition of the classic seafood and cream combination and may even satisfy a chowder craving in a jiffy. My dining companions and I even finished off the accompanying quartet of thin, toasted baguette slices with zeal usually reserved for fresh morsels of sushi. We guiltlessly used the crunchy crudités to mop up every drop of wayward sauce from the plate—knowing full well that risotto and pasta dishes were following.

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