An old school Teochew (Chiuchow) restaurant in Hong Kong, Sun Kwong Kee was one of my favourite late night supper place, when I used to go for supper.
Sun Kwong Kee is located along Lockhart Road at the Wanchai side of Goose Neck Bridge 鵝頸橋 (which is what the local calls 堅拿道天橋). Right outside the shop, you can see the delicious cooked food hanging in the shop window, typical of a Hong Kong-style Teochew restaurant.
As per tradition, the Teochew dinner would always start with kungfu tea, which is a concentrated cup of Iron Buddha tea 铁观音. My dad used to brew such strong tea in the morning to go with his bakkuteh. I don’t know why Teochew restaurant in Hong Kong starts with this tea, but I guessed only old Teochews appreciate such strong brews.
What we ate for dinner
滷鵝、滷鵝腸 Braised goose and intestines
Traditional Teochew restaurants usually have two kitchens – one at the back that focused on all the cooking and one in front that featured the cooked items like fish “rice” 魚飯 and braised food 滷味. We started with some cooked food – 滷鵝、滷鵝腸 braised goose and intestines. The intestines were blanched in the braise a la minute. The goose breast was sliced and warmed up with the same braise. Eaten with the vinegar garlic dip 蒜泥醋.
蠔仔碎肉粥 Oyster and minced pork congee
蠔仔碎肉粥 Oyster and minced pork boiled rice – my favourite congee made up of fresh oysters, minced pork, dried sole fish and boiled with rice. I have not been able to find the same style in Singapore.
韭菜豬紅 Pig’s blood curd with chives
韭菜豬紅 Pig’s blood jelly with chives – pig’s blood jelly is no longer available in Singapore because there is no more abattoir and slaughtering of poultry and livestocks. Even in Hong Kong, they were no longer made locally and were always under a lot of doubt because of their origin. I always eat this whenever I have the chance, either here or in Bangkok. It was cooked with a slightly mala taste and served on a bed of green chives. The chives were just to add bulk.
红烧乳鸽 Crispy roasted pigeon
Hong Kong pigeons are usually bigger than what I could get in most places. Here, it was almost the size of a spring chicken. 红烧乳鸽 Crispy roasted pigeon required two steps of preparation, first the bird was braised and then deep fried. Very juicy and tender, but crispy on the outside. Served with keropok (prawn crackers).
避风塘肉蟹 Typhoon shelter-style mud crab
I usually order the mantis prawn 瀨尿蝦, but Princess wasn’t interested. So instead we ordered 避风塘肉蟹 Typhoon shelter-style mud crab. The crab wasn’t very big and when cooked in this style, the flesh stuck to the shell. Yet this one IMHO was better than the one I had in
大地魚炒芥蘭 Sauteed HK kailan with dried sole fish
HK kailan was sweetest around this period. 大地魚炒芥蘭 Sauteed HK kailan with dried sole fish was full of wokhei and salty goodness from the dried sole fish.
綠豆爽 Mung bean soup
Mung bean soup 綠豆爽 is a Teochew dessert which has the function of clearing away excessive “yang” in the body and relieving summer heat. Why 爽 (pronounced as “suan” in Teochew)? Because the steamed and peeled mung beans are like “garlic cloves” 蒜, which is homophonic to “suan”.
The Hong Kong version usually adds 清心丸 chengsunyun which is cooked potato starch flavoured with sugar and cut into cubes. This translucent agar-like jelly was quite chewy and adds another different texture to the sweet soup. The Singaporean version of mung bean soup is cooked with pandan leaves and does not have these chengsunyun, but stale dough fritters are added to create the same effect.
And with another round of kungfu tea, we ended the “simple” yet satisfying dinner. The service was excellent, the food was good. Price not really cheap but still a good bargain given the quality and quantity.
新光潮州菜館 Sun Kwong Chiu Chow Restaurant
Shop D, Wah Fat Mansion, 405-419 Lockhart Rd, Causeway Bay
銅鑼灣 駱克道 505-419號 華發大廈 D 鋪
Tel : +852 2572 0830
Visited Dec 2023
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