I am no doubt a true fan of traditional Chinese food. Unlike many other cuisines, Chinese food has so many variations that you can make tons of good food with just one ingredient. For example, you can find fried or grilled fish in western food, but you have more than eight ways to cook a fish. Such cookery magic captivates me, and I am always ready for surprises by the Chinese restaurant chefs.
If you are a foreigner, I can tell you that the thing you see in your city which is called Chinese food is probably just crap. Fried noodle and sour and sweet pork? Yuck. That's why I so want to invite you to visit my little city Hong Kong, and this will be the place I will introduce to you for the real Chinese food, Tai Fung Lau 泰豐樓 (泰豊廔).
It is one of the oldest restaurants in Hong Kong that serves mainly Beijing cuisine. Don't expect modern and trendy design here. Instead you will enter a world of 80s with old chairs, pink table cloth and ceramic wall tiles. Even the plates are the old plastic ones that appeared in nearly all homes in 1980s.
We started the dinner with this Wok-fried Tofu (鍋塌豆腐), which is a famous Shandong dish. Fried but with little oil, you can actually smell the egg when it is brought onto the table. It was fried but amazingly light.
Who could miss the Peking Duck when they were in a Beijing restaurant? Crispy with little fat, this is probably one of the best ducks in the town.
The Wonton and Chicken in Stone Pot (砂鍋雲吞雞) surprised us, not with quality first but with quantity. This dish was not expensive but in the pot you could find more than 10 wontons and one huge chicken leg! In a world where many restaurants like to rip people off with smaller dishes, it is hard to find a place like this to offer what you have paid for. And yes, a whole chicken leg!
We thought we would had some dessert before leaving this great Chinese restaurant, but it came before we ordered it. Souffle Egg White Balls with Red Bean Paste (高力豆沙) was great, and they were huge. The whole thing was not overly sweet, and it was actually the sugar that made it sweet.
It feels so good to be in the 80s ambiance enjoying traditional Beijing dishes. Nothing is expensive here , and every dish is big. Right, you get what you pay for, and more! I like the fact that there is nothing fancy here. You have the true taste of the old days in a comfortable place: no extra deco, no extra design, no fusion or so-called modernized food. You will realize that the best food exists in its simplest form with no additives, and Tai Fung Lau will prove it to you.
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