First night in Hong Kong

We set off down the busy Nathan Road. We were offered Rolexes and “capy” (copy? crappy?) bags and watches by shady blokes on street corners, and tailoring services by Indian guys in bad suits. Not much of an advert. We jumped on a subway (MTR) at Jordan and headed for Central where we’d heard there were lots of lively bars and restaurants. We followed our noses and it didn’t take long to find Yeung Kee restaurant. From the display in the open kitchen window downstairs, we guessed (correctly) that the place specialized in roast goose. From the queues of locals waiting for a table, we deducted (also correctly) that the place was good. We only waited for about 15 minutes for our table and as it’s quite an upscale place, we didn’t have to share with anyone. The friendly family on the table next to us helped us to order (funnily enough, there was no chicken chow mein). The menu was in English and Chinese and there were sections for pork, chicken, beef, seafood, bean curd, frog, duck, goose, snake and bird's nest. Basically, in the words of Taggy, “If it moves, the Chinese will eat it”. Just about the only thing with 4 legs that they won’t eat is a table. We were brought our complimentary appetizer. It’s called 1000 year old egg, but our new friends reassured us that it wasn’t really 1000 years old, it just looked that way after being preserved. The waiter recommended that we eat lots of pickled ginger before trying it. This turned out to be good advice as the strong ginger masks the rotten egg flavour. We enjoyed the rest of the meal much more. The goose is roasted and then chopped arbitrarily before being brought to tables on platters. This means that you might luck out and choose a piece with lots of meat and crispy skin. You are equally likely to end up with lumps of fat and bone however. We ordered roast bean curd and bok choy as back up so didn’t go hungry. It was way too much food, and all delicious.















After dinner, we found a cocktail bar in the Lan Kwai Fong area before hitting the hay at around 10pm. Not bad for someone who has just recovered from a cold and traveled 8 time zones.