Pig and more pig

A friend is back in Hong Kong for the first time after moving away 8 years ago, and she sorely misses good Cantonese food. Foursheets decided to organize lunch at Moon Bay Chinese Cuisine (灣悅 賞 • 中菜) and grabbed a big group so we could partake in a nice little piggy. At one point we were almost going to be a big group of 12, so the restaurant put us at the big table at the corner of the main dining room.

Since we are meeting at lunch time, it seemed appropriate we would focus mostly on dim sum. They do a pretty good job here and have been more consistent compared to their FLM stable mates.

Baked barbecued Iberico pork buns, honey sauce (明爐蜜汁黑豚肉叉燒餐包) - this is always a good idea, and I love how the buns puff up. The filling was really tasty and sweet.

Barbecued local Iberico pork, honey sauce (蜜汁黑豚肉叉燒) - when two visitors decided to cancel at the last minute, Foursheets and I were worried that this double portion of char siu would be too much. How silly we were! This cut came from the back of the neck (脢頭) so there's plenty of marbling, but while this was springy and had bounce, it was almost more firm than expected, not yielding to the teeth as easily as I would have wanted.

Wok-fried, rice-roll, X.O sauce (灣悅X.O.醬煎腸粉) - nicely done with browning on the outside.

Steamed rice-roll, turnip, crispy conpoy (金絲銀蘿脆腸粉) - this is always a good idea, with a good amount of crunch in the middle in addition to the shredded turnip. Good amount of flavor, too.

Steamed shrimp dumplings, bamboo shoots (筍尖晶瑩鮮蝦餃)

Steamed Chiu Chow style vegetable dumpling (潮州素粉果) - I always enjoy the crunch of peanuts along with the fragrance of chives inside.

Crab roe xiaolongbao (蟹粉小籠包) - Shanghainese hairy crab season is upon us, so lots of places are offering items with hairy crab roe. These xiaolongbao (小籠包) with crab roe are always a good idea, although they are shockingly expensive compared to their counterparties on the Mainland.

Deep-fried spring roll, shrimp filling (鮮蝦炸春卷) - VERY crispy wrapper, and the filling is delicious as always.

Steamed barbecued Iberico pork buns, honey sauce (明爐蜜汁黑豚肉叉燒包) - we have a few lovers of charsiubao (叉燒包) so we ordered both the steamed and baked versions.

Deep-fried glutinous dumpling, chicken, dried shrimps, onion (金勾鹹水角) - I do love the feel of that glutinous shell sticking to my teeth a little as I munch on these.

Barbecued suckling pig (皇牌大紅乳豬全體) - this was, of course, LA PIÈCE DE RÉSISTANCE! I had forgotten that nowadays, the pig comes with these blinking, heart-shaped eyes! So tacky but soooo funny!

To be honest, I do prefer the view from behind... The crackling today was decent, but not outstanding. Perhaps my standards are too high when it comes to this. The meat was tender and juicy, and I really enjoyed chomping down on one of the piggy's legs.

Traditional Yeung Chow fried rice, crispy garlic (金銀蒜鮮蝦楊州炒飯) - we had a couple of hungry mouths who needed some flied lice, and this was done very, very well. The rice grains were dry and well-separated, and the golden hue of the egg looked really beautiful.

A very happy meal today with a big crowd. We haven't done dim sum much since the pandemic started, and we really need to get back into the habit.