A Chinese Meal, Hong Kong Style

This was my first time in Hong Kong for about 20 years – I can’t really remember a lot about it from when I came before, but when I walked into Yung Kee, it reminded me of the restaurants our Chinese friends used to bring us to for large family banquets – bright lights, large round tables, and lots of noise.

Yung Kee is famed for its Roast Goose, so there was no argument about ordering that. It was fairly tasty, and the accompanying yellow beans made for good nibbles, but unfortunately it was rather overshadowed by the Roast Duck we had eaten a few days before at Min Jiang (see ‘Delectable Duck’ below).

On further perusal of the menu, we found, to our delight, our two favourite dishes from our local Chinese takeaway in the UK and decided it would be fun to try the ‘authentic’ versions here in Hong Kong. So ‘Shredded Chicken with Chilli’ and ‘Pan-fried Beef Fillet, Chinese Style’ it was. We added some Yeung Chow Fried Rice and a side order of Kai-lan with Garlic… and upon being told ‘Enough!’ by the waiter, we thought it prudent to stop there. (Did he not realize he was in the presence of two greedy gluttons?)

Of course the Shredded Chicken with Chilli bore no resemblance to its namesake at Scotland’s ‘Taste Good’ Takeway, but I’m also not sure it was any better. The lovely sticky chilli sauce we had grown to love over years of takeaway was replaced with – well, no sauce at all, and really very few chillis. It was ‘nice’ but no more than that and unfortunately the beef didn’t fare any better – although the sauce was tasty, the beef was disappointingly chewy… and the less said about the so-garlicky-I-can’t-even-put-it-in-my-mouth Kai-lan the better.

Now I think I’ve painted a much muddier picture than was intended. We did actually enjoy our meal, but I do think perhaps we have become rather spoilt in our expectations over the last 3 months of high-eating in Singapore.

One thing I will say – the portions were enormous. Our waiter was kind enough to feign surprise at our half-eaten dishes that were left on the table… at least he didn’t say “I told you so”…

Yung Kee, Hong Kong - www.yungkee.com.hk