No nonsense noodles

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I made it through TSA security with only 20 minutes until boarding. Normally this would mean a sad sandwich packaged the previous night for $15. Luckily I’m at SFO and for a small airport the food options look surprisingly good. I pass up the packaged sandwiches, gourmet picnic foods, as well as the specialty pizza and hot sandwiches, choosing instead the sushi and noodle counter, Wakaba. Mesmerized by videos of Mt. Fuji, I quickly get a bowl of beef udon and a cold bottle of Sapporo while keeping track of my flight out of the corner of my eye. (Since when does TSA allow glass inside the security point?)

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The broth is light, slightly sweet and very hot. The noodles and seaweed are nicely al dente. The beef is flavorful, but over cooked and not as tender as it should be. And after a long day of meetings, the Sapporo really hits the spot. Alas, I have to rush, and don’t get to finish the broth or last few sips of beer.

Does it hold up to a great noodle house? No. But it’s 40 feet from my gate. Besides, what’s being served inside your airport?

Day 2, the second banquet

So I promised the details on this fantastic banquet we had on our second day. One of the most famous restaurants in Hong Kong is Yung Kee in Central. Renowned for its roast goose recipe, the restaurant now owns the entire 14 floor building that it is located in. It’s even been awarded a star from the Michelin Guide. We had a private room on the more luxurious 4th floor to celebrate the 75th birthday of my wife’s uncle.

Thousand Year Egg
Thousand Year Egg

Starting off the dinner was the infamous dish, 1000 year egg. Some consider it a delicacy, but apparently it’s a fairly common dish and is frequently used in congee. It had a jelly-like consistency, tasted somewhat like a pickle, and had the most amazing colors to it. My photo doesn’t do the iridescence justice. Apparently it’s made by wrapping a duck egg in clay, soaked with various salts and acids for up to several months. The longer, the better.

Following the egg was a treo of appetizers representing Health, Wealth, and Happiness. First, “money purses”, small pouches of minced pork, wrapped up in a layer of rice dough and boiled. The end result looks surprisingly like a tiny purse or bag that people used to wear on their belts.

Pork Money Bags
Pork Money Bags
Closeup of Pork Money Bags
Closeup of Pork Money Bags

The second of the treo was fried sea cucumber stomachs. I had never had sea cucumber before, and was quite surprised. The dish was light and crispy, with a slight ocean taste, but mostly it was like eating french fries.

Fried Sea Cucumber
Fried Sea Cucumber Stomachs

The third of the set was a traditional dish that apparently is very rare today. Stacked up like coins were pork-fat medallions, duck pate, and water chestnut, slathered in an egg-yolk sauce. It was incredibly delicious, even though I generally dislike patte.

Duck Patte, Pork-fat Medallions, and Water Chestnut
Duck Pate, Pork-fat Medallions, and Water Chestnut

The next dish of the meal is the one the restaurant is famous for. The Roast Goose was prepared in a similar style to Peking Duck. Yes, it was as delicious as it looks.

Roast Goose
The Famous Yung Kee Roast Goose

Following the roast goose was a common delicacy for Chinese banquets, shark fin soup. This was the second time I had shark-fin soup, but a very different preparation from anything I had expected. It came to the table a very vibrant orange, and had a creamy consistency, although I doubt any dairy products were used. Surprisingly, there was no fishy taste to it at all, in fact if I didn’t know better, I would have sworn it was a cheese soup.

Shark Fin Soup
Shark Fin Soup

The next dish was also seafood, so I wasn’t thrilled when it arrived. Individual stuffed crab claws were then breaded and fried, making for very attractive dishes. Perfect portion size, and the tip of the claw exposed, made these very appealing and memorable. I was pleasantly surprised with the flavor and enjoyed the light chili sauce garnishing each claw when served.

Stuffed Crab Claw
Stuffed Crab Claw

Following the crab claws was the most visually impressive dish of the evening. A huge platter came to the table, arranging several different varieties of eggplant in a light sauce.

Crab-Stuffed Eggplant
Crab-Stuffed Eggplant

The purple chinese eggplant arranged vertically was stuffed with crab meat, and on top was sea cucumber. The photos are deceptive, each of those vertical towers was at least 3 inches tall.

Crab-Stuffed Eggplant
Crab-Stuffed Eggplant

My wife was very jealous, as she’s allergic to eggplant.

Crab-Stuffed Eggplant
Crab-Stuffed Eggplant

Even when portioned out into individual servings, the dish was very beautiful. I have to commend the servers at their plating skills. The techniques over the course of the evening as they split up the large dishes were very antithetical to what I’ve come to expect from Chinese cuisine.

After the eggplant came one final seafood dish, lobster noodles. The noodles were cooked in a lobster broth and were clearly the focus of the dish, even though there was lobster piled on top. Again, the photos are deceptive, as the full dish brought to the table was easily 30 inches across, a veritable mountain of lobster.

Lobster Noodles
Lobster Noodles
Lobster Noodles
Lobster Noodles

Wrapping up the main dishes were a huge plate of noodles (clearly the inspiration for chow mein) and fried rice. These are typical ends to a chinese banquet, allowing people to fill up with the over abundance of food. Considering how stuffed we already were at this point, it was mostly gratuitous, but I tried some anyways. Naturally they were delicious.

Fried Rice
Fried Rice

Noodles
Noodles

That brings us to desert. Since it was a birthday, there was a cake covered in strawberries, and of course, since it was a chinese banquet, we also had the ubiquitous red bean soup and fresh fruit platter.

Birthday Cake with the Chinese Character for Longevity
Cake with the Chinese character for Longevity

Red Bean Soup
Red Bean Soup

Fresh Fruit Platter
Melons, Kiwi, and Mango

And finally, the icing on the cake, ( there were mini peaches in the cake decoration), we had Longevity Peaches. However, these aren’t actually fruit; they’re steamed rice buns with a lotus paste and duck egg center. Shaped and colored to resemble peaches, these are a traditional birthday dish. There is a Chinese legend about a monkey who travels to a far-off garden to eat peaches that grant eternal life. Because of this, the peach is a symbol of longevity in Chinese culture, and peaches made from gold are often gifted for long-lived anniversaries or birthdays.

a large mysterious steamer waiting to be opened
a large mysterious steamer waiting to be opened

Each of these “baby buts”, as my wife likes to call them, was about the size of my fist, and I have large fists.

Longevity Peaches
Longevity Peaches
Longevity Peaches
Longevity Peaches

That’s it for this banquet. Only the second day of our trip to Hong Kong, and already we’ve shot over 100 pictures just of food. Next time, some local snack and everyday dishes.

Dim Sum

It seems all we did on our Hong Kong trip was eat, eat, and eat some more. As soon as we got back from the giant Buddha statue (via the Ngong Ping 360 aerial tramway), we met up with some of my wife’s extended family for dim sum at the Citygate shopping center in Tung Chung. I’ve had dim sum many times before, and since, but this was my first time in Hong Kong, so I was suprised at how authentic the places I’ve been in LA and New York actually are.

My wife’s family was very patient with me as I tried to snap these pictures as quickly as I could. They had started before we got there.

First off, some dumplings. These had shrimp, vegetables, and rice, and I believe the wrapper was tofu skin as opposed to the typical rice wrapper. Next was another dumpling, this one with a thick rice dough casing, similar to pork buns. I can’t remember what the filling was, but it was very attractive with the dark swirls on the surface… then the dumplings just kept coming and coming. Some shrimp, pork, and my personal favorit char siu pork buns (BBQ).

Dumplings
Shrimp Dumplings in Tofu Skin
Steamed dumpling
Shrimp and Vegetable Dumplings
Pork Dumplings
Char Siu BBQ Pork Buns

On to the fried dishes! There were some cute egg-shaped fried dumplings. I don’t remember the filling, but it was probably shrimp, and some vegetable spring rolls.

Fried dumplings
Vegetable Sprig Rolls

Of course, since it’s dim sum, the dishes just kept coming and coming. We had some typical egg custards and the dish that most caught my eye. It was a sweet gelatin dish, but embedded in it were tiny red berries. Very very delicious.

gelatin with red berries
Egg Custard

And of course, a few noodle dishes:

Noodles with shrimp and mushrooms
Noodles with shrimp

And it wouldn’t be dim sum without some turnip cakes. These are made by shredding daikon, pressing it together with shrimp, vegetables, or pork, and then pan frying them so they develop a nice crust.

Daikon cakes
Daikon cakes

I promise, we’re almost done…. Some pork meatballs, very juicy, and very delicious and served with worcestershire sauce (one of my favorites), and some chicken feet. Chicken feet are not what you’d expect. They’re actually very fatty and tender, almost having a gelatin consistency. They’re cooked in a sweet sauce and are actually quite good if you can get over the mental reservations.

Meatballs
Chicken Feet

Finally, some sticky rice. Take some diced marinated pork, wrap it with sticky rice, bundle the whole thing in a leaf (banana or some similar large leaf) and steam it:

Sticky rice with pork
Sticky rice with pork unwrapped

Now didn’t that all look fantastic? Needless to say, I was stuffed afterwards and not particularly looking forward to eating again dinner. But dinner was so fantastic, a 5-star Cantonese banquet, featuring some very traditional foods that almost no-one makes today because of the labor and cost. Hungry yet? That meal is coming soon!