Dinner At 6th Aunt's

Hub's 6th Aunt cooked us a 'yumtious' dinner the first day we arrived in HK. She is a fantastic cook, and in the words of her DIL, "Her food is as good as any HK restaurant's" and that is some compliment because the restaurant standards in HK are just so high.

A well-planned Chinese home-cooked meal like the above will consist of meat dishes that include poultry, seafood and pork/beef, one or two veg and a good nutritious soup.


Braised ducks' tongues.

I can't quite understand the Shanghainese's love for duck tongues. Duck giblets, especially those from Nanjing, I love, but duck tongues? There's not much meat and they are not particularly flavorful except for the sauce they are cooked in. I think it is more for nibbling, for "chi xuang", eating fun.


Steamed 'gweiyue'.

Gweiyue (sounds like 'expensive fish' in Mandarin & Cantonese) is a shang deng yue/superior fish and if your host serves it, it is an honor. I am beginning to love fresh water fish. Living in KK where there's abundant tropical fish such as grouper and mackeral, I have always preferred fish with thick chunky flesh. However, I realise now that tropical fish, though sweet, are rather bland in flavor while fresh-water fish, like the gweiyue, are fine-fleshed and more flavorful. These days they rear freshwater fish that don't taste of mud.


Roasted goose.

6th Uncle bought this from his favorite roasted meat shop in North Point. Yummy. I swear the next time I go to HK, I'm going to eat half a goose, no sharing business.


Liang bun koo gua (cold bittergourd).

I've never eaten bittergourd cooked this way; love it. I will share the recipe soon, but it's strictly for bittergourd lovers.


Bai ye pork stew.

Bai ye is a Shanghainese bean curd 'skin'. Apart from adding it to stews, it is also used to make a yummy soup.


Fried kai lan.


Hot and sour soup.

This hot and sour soup made with a superior dried scallops stock bought from the market was excellent. Notice how fine the mushrooms and tofu strips are. Even the egg 'flower' are very fine strands. I'll have to re-post my hot and sour soup photo; the ingredients for my hot and sour soup were cut as thick as french fries.

I totally agree with Fiona that her MIL's cooking skills can rival any HK chef. What I learnt from this meal is that I must put in more effort in my dao goong, knife skills. Chinese food is taste first, looks second, so presentation is usually kept simple. If the ingredients are cut well, most of the battle is already won as far as presentation is concerned.