“Local meals at the local stalls. Experience the new flavor of Dai Pai Dong.”
This particular Dai Pai Dong stall (大排檔) was nothing similar to the conventional stall where diners had to be seated by the road to enjoy their meal. This Dai Pang Dong was situated indoor, and abia/
0ove the wet market in the multi storey building (pretty similar to our SG “Zhi-Cha” stall (煮炒摊)). Though it wasn’t an open-air concept, the dining area was airy (probably the weather), spacious and large windows alongside.
We were brought there by our local friend who was a regular patron. So, we left the privilege to her to place order, of course.
True enough, being their regular diner, she truly knew what were the best dishes! This mouth-watering chilled ‘spicy’ chicken (冻辣雞) was unimaginably delicious. And yes, it was a cold dish. Named as spicy chicken, but the taste was in fact sweet-spicy. Very similar to the Thai sweet Chili sauce, but 10X more flavourful, of course…
I just knew I wouldn’t able to forget the taste for a very long time. :)
This shark fin in chicken broth (雞炖翅) sounded rather superior. The essence of chicken was totally emerged into this super-sized soup dish. Served with plentiful of shark fin, together with the soft & tender chicken meat, the ingredients and its broth were perfectly incorporated into the dish as a whole. Each and every mouthful was simply abundant beyond expectation.
These were stir-fried razor clams in black bean sauce (豉汁炒聖子 “Shi Jup Chao Sing Jee” in Cantonese). To be honest, I had no glue what this was at first. Only thought this seafood dish was visciously delicious! Until much later, I realised that it was actually razor clam, huge ones.
Hong Kong chefs certainly cooked great fish dishes, esp the Chinese way. That was also why we would not miss eating fish here. Friend ordered this superior fish type, Soon Hock (顺壳), and we had it cooked in a oil based sauce (油浸顺壳). The whole fish was cut butterflied and deep-fried extensively until completely crisped that you could even chew the bone. Then, drizzled with a combination of oil and light soy sauce. It tasted so good and aromatic, complimented the deep fried fish too well. Lovely!
Not forgetting the vegetables to complete a perfect dinner meal. We had the stir-fried lettuce with preserved beancurd (生菜清炒腐乳)! It was a rather common vegetable dish, but jolly well executed by the chef here. Loved its crunchiness of the vegetables.
We arrived late in the evening, and the place was steadily filled up with hungry diners. Tryst make an advance reservation by phone call. Walk-in customers might end up with a long wait, especially over the weekends.
Just to elaborate the place further, there were two similar stalls, i.e. 銖記 and 嫦记, on the same storey. This place was basically segregated into tables of two colours. Tables with white plastic table cover belongs to 銖記, while orange setting belongs to 嫦记. It’s fine if you couldn’t remember the colours, just walk towards the stall and the respective restaurant staff would serve you up.
Address: Gi Kee Seafood Restaurant (銖記海鮮飯店) @ Happy Valley (跑馬地).
No.2 Yuk Sau Street (毓秀街), UC Wong Nai Chung Complex, 2nd Floor, Happy Valley, Hong Kong.
For further information on how to get there, please check out My Note Book on The Web.
The portion of each course looked decent, but this 5-course meal was deceptively filling for 3-4! We had no room for dessert anymore. ~
How much was the bill ? I wasn’t too sure as it ended up as a treat! Just briefly saw a HK$500 note and a few tens were paid by my friend.
Shark fin and chicken broth of 銖記is one of the ‘must order’ dishes , very well liked by my family too. Seems your friend made good choice of the dishes for you
Yeah, all dishes I tried there were famous ones.. :)
Stumbled across your blog regarding the porcelain spoon trick when making congee and pleasantly surprised with all these recipes! Anyway, those “funny looking shell creatures” are razor clams and most yummy. :)