I have fond memories of these walls of seafood. I was born in Hong Kong and lived there until I was 9, although I'm a fail Asian, as I can't speak Chinese. Something I regret neglecting now that I want to eat everything and it would be so much easier to navigate so much of Asia with it....
I remember my family eating out fairly frequently and the best way to entertain the children while out (for at least the first 10 minutes anyway), go take them to go poke and prod at the glass of the fresh seafood aquariums.
Lobsters, pippies, crabs, everything you can think of!
Even these big guys!
When we got off our bus and walked by the multitude of restaurants set up like this, I couldn't help but feel my excitement growing, it was all clean and very fresh looking. The produce were still wiggling their antennas and healthily flapping their gills.
As we were a big group, we were guided upstairs to an intimate dining room....for 30. Have to love Chinese style decor, bright lights, blue walls and yellow tablecloth. Did we accidentally stumble into a circus? Not particularly 'hunky' (Hung Kee - hunky? Get it? Huurrr. Yup I'm lame.)
Preserved plums and shots? What on earth were we having? In the shot glasses a darkish liquid was poured in from a metallic teapot. The boys on my table decided to just shoot them straight and commented on their vingear like taste. We later found out, you were meant to put the preserved plums in them and sip on it! The plums gave the liquid a really sweet taste and reminded me a lot of port.
Alternatively, the shots were supposed to be a sauce you could dip these in....(they boys were kicking themselves afterwards for shooting down 'sauce')
Prawns! A masssive big ol' plate of them! Seriously, this plate was like 5 times the size of my face and generously stacked with prawns. They were simply steamed so although small, incredibly sweet and juicy. The freshness really came through.
Sorry guys, again, everything was ordered for us, so I don't really have names of everything! Obviously chicken above, it was tender and yummy, but it certainly wasn't my favourite of the night and I only nibbled on one piece as I was waiting in anticipation for more seafood!
Oh my dear sweet lobster! Situated on a bed of noodles (which remained relatively untouched) and lathered in a delicious egg sauce. I honesty don't remember the last time I had lobster and this was definitely a treat, sweet and succulent, I very efficiently navigated through the shell to find all the meaty pieces. This lobster had a lot of it. Mmmmmm.
Forgot to ask what type of fish this was! Some people asked to have the bone removed and the guy very promptly demolished our fish! It was no delicate operation for sure. So whilst it arrived on the table looking rather pretty, when it was ready to eat it was a pile of mashed fish flesh. Mmm, not quite so sexy. Although still tasty, smooth and who doesn't love piling the sauce from the fish onto their rice?!
A round of "ooh's" went up as the scallops were lowered on to the table. I would almost describe them as lady like in their open shells, adorned with glass rice noodles and a touch of garlic.
They were however, excessively difficult to remove from their shell, many of my table-mates making their scallops look more like afros than pretty round discs after sliding their chopsticks through them multiple times. The trick was to grab a spoon or fork and really put some elbow grease into getting them off.
But oh! What a treat they were, once removed, as they weren't fully cooked through (hence still being rather attached to their shells), they were really, really, really silky and soft and oh so sweet (I really don't mean to overuse this adjective).
Pippes (or Laa laas? I forget what they were exactly....)! Quite a bold statement next to their cousins the scallops. Whilst also sweet and succulent, the bite of chilli made you clench your jaw briefly as you braced it but then left a lovely warm feeling in your mouth afterwards. Next to the scallops, they were much meatier tasting than the scallops.
There were one or two other dishes I forgot to get pictures of, but it was just amazing how much food they brought out for us! It was really so painful to see so much food leftover, but there was just no way I could fit anymore in (especially after all that lobster...).
Even though I am spoilt for seafood in Australia, just some of the stuff you can get in Hong Kong is incredible and it's cooked so simply and so honestly, really bringing out the natural flavours. I'm so terribly disappointed that I didn't have more time to try out more!
Hung Kee Seafood Restaurant
G/F Siu Yat Building
Hoi Pong Square
Sai Kung
Hong Kong
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