Read full review
2010-10-16
1544 views
the LCB alumni food network continued, this time at spring deer restaurant (鹿鳴春飯店). it is one of my favorite chinese restaurants, and my family comes here at least once a year for their famous peking duck. J tried to eat at spring deer when she last visited hk 3 years ago, but the waitress bluntly told her the restaurant was fully booked for the next 2 weeks then hung up… indeed, spring deer is one of the very few eateries in hk that you have to jump hoops in order to get a table, regardless of
spring deer was founded in 1969 by a shandong immigrant and has been one of the most reputable northern chinese cuisine restaurant in hk since then. thanks to the wide coverage of japanese media/travel guide, spring deer is especially popular among the japanese tourists and you almost always find japanese to make up half of all customers anytime you visit. the restaurant is well known for its authentic cooking technique and use of premium ingredients. it’s all about food – the restaurant has minimal decor and most of the servers are old enough to be my grandpa~~
we arrived at 8.30pm on a monday evening and the restaurant was full house. once we sat down, the server immediately came over and looked at me as if i was supposed to know what to order already (which i did, actually…).
賽螃蟹 egg-white crab meat - the direct translation of its chinese name is “as good as crab” because it looks like crab meat; this dish is actually egg white quickly fried in hot oil, topped with shredded dried fish (黃魚肉絲) and raw egg yolk. it is my favorite dish at spring deer as all other chinese restaurants i have eaten at simply cannot do this right – either the egg white is overcooked or they substitute dried fish with something else. here at spring deer, the egg-white crab meat was very smooth, almost a little liquid, and retained good collagen-spongy texture. the dried fish was salty and flavorful, while the sour fish sauce served on the side helped to lighten greasiness. a simply unforgettable dish.
北京填鴨 peking roasted duck – chef slowly reeled out our duck and it was bloated from hot steam inside. like foie gras, the ducks used in this northern chinese signature dish are force-fed and kept in cages to restrain them from moving about, in order to fatten them up and make the meat comparably tender. the ducks is rubbed with spices, salt, and sugar, and air-dried for 3 hours. traditional peking duck has 120 slices per full-grownduck, but here at spring deer they use a younger duck and slice into 34 pieces to give more meat in each serving, because the duck itself has more fat there should be leek, cucumber, hoisin sauce, and chinese tortilla alongside to wrap with the duck.
chef sliced the duck in front of us and the whole process took 1 minute – it was partly for the show, but more because they wanted to serve the duck steaming hot. the skin was so light and crispy that it almost felt like rice paper, and the thick layer of fat did not feel too greasy because of the leek and cucumber. the duck was okay – i have had better roasted duck in beijing where they use real wood-fired oven, but with what law allows us to have in hk, spring deer’s roasted duck is one of the best i’ve had.
干燒二荀 fried vegetables - the dish was made of fried seaweed, sugar-coated roasted almonds, fried mushroom. the almond was salty while fried seaweed fully fragrant. there was probably minimal fiber left in this “vegetable” dish, but was really, really tasty.
糖醋豬脊 sweet sour pork – it’s not the regular sweet-sour pork as there was no pineapple or bell pepper. instead, it was lean, aromatic pork shoulder very lightly battered and deep fried. the crust was thin and a bit crunchy, whereas the meat inside was still firm, juicy, and meaty.
great authentic northern chinese food, and the peking duck did not disappoint. the waiters are actually very professional when it comes to food knowledge, only if you are patiently enough to stop them in the middle of whatever that they are always seemingly engaged in, and ask.
Post