I had the pigeon in rock salt in my sights when....the authoritative waiter piped in without me even opening my lips. "You are one person, you need famous roast goose, rice and wegetables."
Curious to try goose Chinese style I nodded. After all, I had been sitting in a waiting room for 40 mins to eat in the prestigious "Young Kee restaurant" located in the financial district of Hong Kong Island.
I had glanced across the typically varied menu spotting fish heads, birds nest soup, sharks fin, goose webs, steamed frogs arse and the interestingly worded, "supreme tureen of the treasures of the seven seas." This required at least a days notice. "My word," I thought, "sounds like a grand dish." and the hefty price confirmed this.
Long jin tea arrived. I went through 2 large pots of the boiled water infused with green stalks and veiny leaves. Smoky, refreshing and clean, this was like a peaty Speyside malt. Shortly afterwards, its diuretic qualities went through me and I shuffled past gold dragons to the napthelene scented toilets. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Pre-starter of fermented duck egg ona bed of pickled ginger was placed before me. It looked a work of art. The colours were captivating (see picture)it was surreal, amazing, beautiful, a picture but tasted of fart.
All the waiters enthusiasm about it being a month old and a secret recipe failed to abate the atrocity occurring in my mouth. Not a good start.
From my seat on the restaurants third floor I could see walls adorned with gilt and large golden dragons with flashing eyes. It kind of worked in a way that only a Chinese restaurant can pass.
Choi sum was first to arrive, not as good as the first day. This was stingy, too thick and my flowers were lacking. It was covered in a mucous which tasted better than snot but just as salty.
Steamed rice arrived, milky and nutty - tasty
Finally my quarter roast duck, glossy hazlenut brown with paper thin skin like crispy duck. It had been chopped with a cleaver so each piece had some bone in which made it difficult to eat at times.
Now I consider myself a pro with chopsticks although the random stains appearing across my once white tablecloth suggested otherwise. The young waiter sureptitiously demonstrated a more effective hand position. Well, he'd been doing it since he was two.
The goose came on top of sugar macerated yellow beans, the brown flesh tender and succulent although it was served disappointingly tepid. I was assured that this was the way. A sweet plum sauce balanced my goose nicely.
There was little room left for dessert and it was 11.00 so I skipped, drank more tea and headed out across the Orient in search of a Tai Chi class.
