Cantonese Roast Chicken and Other HK Eats

Hong Kong may not be under snow and ice like Hunan province, but it has its fair share of winter weather. After seeing some wild monkeys at the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery, we trekked back to North Point to meet up with my relatives for dinner. Even incessant rain couldn't dampen my spirits, because I knew my relatives always pick out the best places for Cantonese specialties.

Fung Shing Restaurant at the South China Hotel is one of those clean, brightly lit banquet halls where Hong Kongers go for both special occasions and no-special-occasions. And of course, we ordered a bunch of dishes to serve family-style.

I've had Cantonese roast chicken more times than I can count, and tonight's was one of the best I've ever tasted. The skin was amazingly crisp, the meat amazingly juicy. Usually you get skin and meat of this caliber only on a duck, but this chicken was prepared almost the same way. By repeatedly spooning the sugary sauce over chicken as it roasts, you can get a glistening, perfectly crisp skin.

Another noteworthy dish was the pan-fried and stuffed fish. Instead of just serving a whole fish, the kitchen took out the flesh, preserved the skin, and restuffed the fish into its skin like ground meat into sausage casing. The chefs/cooks then sliced the meat and fanned it out, and reassembled the head and tail so the finished entree resemble a whole fish, just boneless. Clever, eh? It was accompanied with a tasty, thick sauce made out of oyster sauce, garlic, and scallion.

My third favorite dish of the evening was the roast goose wrap. Diced roast goose is mixed with sautéed Cantonese sausage, bamboo, onions, and sprouts; then served with raw lettuce so you can make your own wraps. The savoriness and juiciness of the sautéed mixture matches well with the crisp lettuce; when the lettuce ran out, I spooned the rest over rice and ate very, very happily.

Fung Shing Restaurant
1st floor, South China Hotel
67-75 Java Road
North Point, Hong Kong