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2017-02-19
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As part of my ongoing mission to try all the local classics I've neglected, I made a trip down to Sun Yuen, which always smells really good and has Michelin bib gourmand recs in the window. The recommendation is short enough to quote here:"Located next to Sheung Wan market, this traditionally styled, simple but well maintained barbecue shop has been run by the same family since the mid-1970s. Over the years they've built up an appreciative following so the small place fills quickly. The appetisi
"Located next to Sheung Wan market, this traditionally styled, simple but well maintained barbecue shop has been run by the same family since the mid-1970s. Over the years they've built up an appreciative following so the small place fills quickly. The appetising looking suckling pigs are not the only draw: roast pork, duck and pigeon all have their followers, as do the soft-boiled chicken, the homemade sausages and the preserved meats."
We got two combo sets, each with two choices of meat, so four total: bbq pork, roast pork, suckling pig, and chicken. You get a choice of rice, rice spaghetti, and I think rice vermicelli. If you get the rice spaghetti, it's noodles in a broth. This is one of those things where I think I've finally mastered chopsticks-- y'know, like, level 1 mastery, not level 99 or anything-- and then I just get completely embarrassed. The noodles are weighty and frictionless. How do you get them in your mouth? Anyway, the noodles are very boring and I recommend the rice.
The chicken: I always forget. Always. As an American, my restaurant default is always "the chicken." We're culturally conditioned to think it's healthier and involves less rainforest deforestation. Plus, who doesn't love chicken, right? Frequently, however, it's the worst choice at a Chinese place: cold, slimy (greasy?), full of bone shrapnel, almost no meat, just clammy chicken skin and tiny bone shards. Ya burnt.The suckling pig: OK, first of all, bone shards. How suckling is this pig? I thought pig bones were hidden beneath a huge layer of pigfat. Whatever. Also, I just don't understand the hyper-crispy skin. Crispy skin, yes, that's the way skin should be and that's why the chicken is so clammy and undesirable. But they make the skin so crispy it shatters when you bite it and then it feels like you are crunching on bones. And because there are also bones in the pork, you *are* crunching on bones. It's a lot of picking things out of your mouth to see if they are safe to crunch on. Ya burnt.
The other meats were to my mind better. Char siu: this was absolutely fine, but pretty unremarkable. Like, better than the stuff at the supermarket, but not noticeably different from the other roast meat shops around town.Roast pork: To me, this was the best. It had a surprising amount of flavor, quite salty (but in a good way), fatty but not too much. This is what I'd recommend and it's what I'd have if I came back.
They give you two dipping sauces: one has preserved vegetable of some sort (probably mustard greens) in a strongly flavored oil-- maybe peanut or sesame. I thought it was very good. The other looked sweet so I didn't try it.
If you get the rice, you don't miss out on the soup, they bring you a separate bowl. The soup is decently meaty, but could use a little salt. As I said, go for the rice, it's the best choice.Overall, I can't say I was disappointed, because I know what to expect, and things were fairly well in line with expectations. Most of what I didn't like was my own fault: I know that people here just have a different theory about what makes chicken good than I do, and I don't dispute de gustibuses with other cultures. Still, I was a bit disappointed, because I was hoping to have *the* best siu mei place that did *the best* stuff, but in the end, I thought it was kinda meh. Oh well, hundreds of other places to try in the city...
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