Hoi King Heen Hong Kong

One must try Chef Leung’s Sweet Almond Milk dessert 蛋白杏仁露 at Hoi King Heen, with housemade almond milk, with egg white stirred in table side when Chef Leung is available. The egg white was poured in in two batches : 2/3 is poured and fully cooked in low temp so that the protein aroma and flavor of the egg white is fully incorporated into the almond milk. The other 2/3 is poured after he turns off the heat, it is barely cooked which results in a silky smooth texture. This is arguably the best sweet almond milk in Hong Kong (those who have tried will understand, as we pretty much have tried all the others 😜). And it has to be done by chef Leung, others in the restaurant doing it won’t be the same.

(So @calebtwinskitchen had reversed the order 😜 but I gave him credit for at least remembering the two reasons for doing it in two rounds since Chef Leung told us in 2014 when we visited together 😘)

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Desserts tend to be quite generic in Cantonese restaurants, but that is not the case at Hoi King Heen. In fact they serve some of the most legit and tasty desserts in town.

Pic 2-3: 沙河粉馬仔 Deep fried rice noodle “krispies”. You know Rice Krispies already but do you know we have rice noodles krispies in Canton?
沙河粉馬仔 “shahefen sachima“ are fried clusters of rice noodles. Unlike the common version you see in supermarkets which are made with fried flour dough, the real deal is made with fried dehydrated rice noodles, invented by Dr Lui Che-woo during Japanese occupation in Hong Kong that caused shortage of food. These days no one does it as so few people even know what it is supposed to be like. Chef Leung told us he spent a lot of time experimenting with the recipes and brought it back to Hoi King Heen 😍

Pic 4: 黃金脆奶卷 Golden Crispy Milk Rolls are MY FAVE! Inside the crispy crust was creamy milk custard filling that melt on tongue. There are many restaurants doing it now but Chef Leung was one of the first few (if not the first) who offered it in his restaurants, and also one of the very best versions (if not the best!)

Pic 5-7: 冸塘山渣卷 Hawthorn and milk rolls. This is a twist on the classic sesame and milk roll. Hawthorn and milk sheets need to be steamed first then layered one by one, and roll together. They look so cute and so refreshing, perfect after all the food. Another favorite of mine!

Pic 8 : 奶皇脆春卷 Spring rolls with creamy custard fillings. One more just in case you have another stomach for sweet 🙋🏼‍♀️😜.

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Usually after the dumplings we will be too full for more carbs, but I still couldn’t resist to order something just to share.

My favorite in these past few years is 龍皇珊瑚煎米粉Pan Fried Vermicelli with grouper and assorted seafood (video & pics 1-5). Pan fried vermicelli is quite common in Cantonese restaurants, usually it is vermicelli shaped like pancake, then slowly fried on wok till both sides are crispy finished with saucy toppings. Chef Leung does his version with a very delicious with toppings of leopard coral grouper meat, a little shrimps and scallops, egg white and tomato. The tomato amount is adjusted by season : when in summer there will be more tomato (pic 2) to lighten up the dish (but it only gives a very mild fruitiness at the backdrop, very well balanced); other seasons less tomatoes will be incorporated (pic 3).

I also love the texture of the vermicelli, in Video 1 you can see how thick it is and sliced like pizza wedges (video 1 & pic 4). When you bite into it, you will first have the sauce and seafood followed by the partly crispy partly soft crust of the noodles after it absorbed some of the sauce. In the center is the soft noodles that retained the individual strands (see pic 5). It is so so so good 🤤🤤🤤. Even for my last meal at Hoi King Heen I insisted my friends to include it on the menu 😝

There was a rice we ordered impromptu last time, sized for a oneperson - 豬油渣陳皮牛崧蒸飯 Steamed Rice with beef patty and dried mandarin peel, lard and soy sauce (pic 6-9) 😜. It is not anything fancy but done so right, beef patty had right texture (chopped not machine ground) with potent dried mandarin peel aroma, and after mixing with a slab of lard and soy sauce (video 7 & pic 8-9 ) 💣 so super evil but so good 🤤

Pic 10 香煎宮廷咸魚包 Pan fried pork buns with salt cured fish was my old staple for last savory course back in the days. They were created based on a popular TV show in which a Qing Dynasty's Emperor drooling over these buns. Soft buns with crispy top and crusty bottom, juicy minced pork mixed with savory umami-packed minced salt cured fish. How could it be bad? Less

(SWIPE FOR MORE PICS) 家鄉煎茶果
Pan Fried Traditional Hakka Glutinous “Tea Dumplings” - A very tradtional savory Hakka dumpling that has become Chef Leung’s iconic signature. The traditional dumpling got excellent texture with the crispy bottom achieved from slow pan frying (pic 4), a soft and slightly gooey surface (pic 2-3), filled with preserved radishes, peanuts, minced chicken meat, etc (pic 5). So so so tasty and still have not found a better version in HK.

I never go to Hoi King Heen without preordering this dish and it is not uncommon to see this on EVERY table at Hoi King Heen.

Scroll through the pictures to FEEL the texture yourself 😝

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When I went to Hoi King Heen I alway ended up ordering a lot of his signatures because they were so good and iconic. But every now and then I tried some new dishes Chef Leung created, and here were some I didn’t share in my old posts:

Pic 1-2: 百花火鴨方 Shrimp mousse mixed with chopped roasted duck and coriander, then sandwiched between white bread and deep fried. This is old school shrimp and duck katsu sando 😝, super delicious especially with a little of the osmanthus plum sauce served on the side. I put it on my preorder menu every time last year

Pic 3 : 頭抽醬瓜皮 Watermelon rinds marinated in vinegar and premium soy. Using what others often discard when cooking, Chef Leung transformed watermelon rinds into an refreshing appetizer. There are people who do it but Chef Leung’s version is elegant and refined in taste

Pic 4-5: 陳醋甜西瓜 Deep fried watermelon with aged vinegar sauce. A creation from last year, watermelon meat instead of rind are cut into cubes, coated in batter and deep fried, then coated with a reduced aged vinegar sauce. Sounds a bit bizarre but it actually worked! Actually when the watermelon is in season and sweet and juicy, the sweet and sour flavors of the dish is very appetizing. And now the whole watermelon is used

Pic 6-7: 雲南蹄卷 Pig trotter meat wrapped in pig’s skin - old school home cooking using off-cut brought back to fine dining table now by Chef Leung. Lots of skills and time and lots of textures. Amazing

Pic 8: 家鄉焗魚嘴 Fried Fish Jaw with garlic, ginger and scallion. Another home cooking dish on fine dining table SUPER delicious

Pic 9-10: 蟹皇蟹肉香酥卷 Crab meat and pork shrimp roll with crab roe and carrot sauce. When crab is in season and you don’t want to work your hands to pick the meat out.

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Over the years Chef Leung has developed so many dishes that are truly original and that we as locals will recognize that they are from Chef Leung when we see it. . They are all technique-driven and hard to do well even some of them look deceptively simple (You can read about the details of these dishes in #littlemeg_hoikingheen )

Pic 1-3: 欖菜玉珠
Braised Winter Melon Balls Stuffed with Black Olives Mustard is an award winning dish that was created over a decade ago. Wintermelon was scooped as hollow balls then stuffed with preserved black olive mustard and chopped "choi sum". All the elements is in such harmony, delicate and refined, and aesthetically elegant. No wonder after it was launched it was copied by so many restaurants

Pic 4: 明爐臘腸卷
Honey Glazed Chinese Liver Sausage Rolled with Char Siu

Pic 5: 鮮竹時蔬卷
Braised Bean Curb Skin Rolled with Vegetable

Pic 6: 香酥蝦窩貼
Crispy Shrimp Toasts

Pic 7-8: 水晶牛肋肉
Braised Beef Brisket stuffed in Chinese Pear

Pic 9: 家鄉蛋黃肉
Deep-fried Pork Rolled with Salty Egg Yolk

Pic 10 : 龍皇白玉卷
Sliced grouper rolled with Yunnan ham juliennes on top of shiitake mushroom stuffed with shrimp mousse, vegetable and egg white mousse, egg yolk sauce

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Besides creating a lot of new dishes, Chef Leung also improved upon many old traditional recipes. For instance, to solve the problem of dry meat resulting from the old way of baking in clay crust for 𝗕𝗲𝗴𝗴𝗮𝗿 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗻, Chef Leung adapted the recipe and wrapped the chicken in caul fat as well as stuffing the chicken with assorted mushroom so that the meat could stay moist inside out. (You can see this in my old posts #littlemeg_hoikingheen )

Because a lot of the stuffed dishes are large in format, Chef Leung now offered a small 𝗪𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝗶𝗴𝗲𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗱 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝟰 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 荷香四寶全鴿. The 4 treasures in this case are barley, chestnut, shiitake mushroom and dried scallop, different from the stuffed pig’s stomach soup.

The whole stuffed pigeon is wrapped in lotus leaves and lotus seeds and steamed, with the pigeon jus released during the process and turned into the sauce. The pigeon became fork tender and so were all the stuffings, so flavorful and very manageable to be shared among 2-3 ppl (we had 3 last time for 8 ppl 😆)
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Last night I had my last dinner at one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong, Hoi King Heen, as one of the most respected local Chinese chef @chefleungfaihung will be retiring this week. I first came to Hoi King Heen in 2009 and I have since become a big fan of Chef Leung. His food is refined rustic, honest, taste and skill driven and he has created so many iconic dishes during his career.

I have posted numerous of his dishes before (check #littlemeg_hoikingheen ). One of my personal favorite and signature of Chef Leung is this 四寶元肚湯 𝗗𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗱 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘂𝗺 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗽 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝗶𝗴'𝘀 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝟰 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 (Silkie Chicken stuffed with Glutinous Rice, Lotus Seeds, Ham, Red Dates). A very old-school recipe that is rarely offered at restaurants these days, this is almost reminiscent of French “en vessie”. In the gigantic ceramic pot is a double boiled soup that has been steamed for hours, submerged in it is a whole sealed pig's stomach stuffed with a silkie (black) chicken which is filled with glutinous rice, ham, lotus seeds and red dates.

One should first appreciate and enjoy the opaque shark's bone soup base with such deep flavor but not the thick "body" or heaviness of pork bone soup. Like other Cantonese double boiled soup, the soup (the fluid) is the essence of this dish, nurture you with nutritions, comfort and warmth. The ingredients are sometimes discarded for Cantonese soup, and sometimes edible. For this soup, everything other than the chicken bones is edible!

The chicken, as you can see in the video, falls apart effortlessly, while glutinous rice turns gooey and lotus seeds and red dates so soft and almost melt on tongue . Even the stomach is so tender, so enjoyable with a dip of soy sauce.

This soup is time and labour intensive, hence hard to find restaurants willing to put it on the menu. We are lucky that Chef Leung brings it to Hoi King Heen, and it is so delicious, so soothing, my heavenly dish. I have had it countless time in the past 13 years. Every time I tried, I was still in love ❤️ Less