It's been a while since I last caught up with my old friend Sheets, and I wanted to see how he's doing with his new venture. When I jokingly mentioned that I'd like to go to
Lin Heung Tea House (蓮香樓) with him, he immediately invited me to join him and his family for lunch. You see, Sheets' family is behind this venerable Hong Kong classic. And since
I have only been here once in all the time I've lived in Hong Kong, I was looking forward to coming back.
I entered the dining hall and followed Sheets to the back, was introduced to Auntie and Uncle Six, and apologized for barging in on their family gathering. I'm told that the average age at this table is usually above 80, so we're definitely dragging it down today... And this has gotta be the first time for me sitting at a table with a sign like this...
Thursdays the family usually orders dishes instead of
dim sum, so Auntie and Uncle Six rattled off a few items to the staff, and I waited for our food to arrive...
Barbecued meats platter (燒味拼盤) - this was not a small platter. The
honey glazed barbecued pork (蜜汁叉燒) was exceptional. Good balance between the fatty and lean parts, and even the lean cuts were tender. I definitely wasn't expecting this... The
roast pork (燒肉) had the wonderful fragrance from the crackling. The
roast goose (明爐燒鵝) was pretty nice, too.
Corn and egg drop soup (粟米湯) - nice to have a bowl of hot soup today. Interesting that they added chopped fish maw (魚肚).
Deep-fried garoupa fillets in corn sauce (粟米斑球) - a classic dish. What's not to like about something that's been battered and deep-fried?
Omelette with white bait (白飯魚炒蛋) - I loooooove white bait, and this homey dish was great. I probably could have just eaten half a plate of this...
Stir-fried choy sum with garlic (蒜蓉炒菜心)
Pork belly steamed with preserved vegetables (梅菜蒸腩肉) - this was pretty nice and my bowl of rice disappeared pretty quickly. Sheets thought the pork was a just a tad overcooked, but I didn't mind.
Steamed jujube pudding (紅棗糕) - apparently this is new on the menu. Very nice. Lovely fragrance and flavor, but not too sweet.
I was really stuffed, so Sheets and I went off to find some coffee as digestif... He took me to
Capo's Espresso, where I ordered the
cold brew coffee that was extracted for 8 hours... It was definitely pretty intense... both the aromas and the flavors, and they weren't kidding when they talked about 8 hours (or however long they took for the extraction). The only problem? I had a
lungo in the office this morning, and what I had in my glass - even diluted by ice cubes - was just too much caffeine for me. I was getting wired right in the coffee shop!
'Twas a great lunch today, and I look forward to my next visit, where I shall sample some classic
dim sum items with Uncle Six...
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