In this new food and travel series, follow Chef Seeto’s adventures around the world onboard Fiji Airways to
discover food, recipes and unique
flavours to bring back home.
Today, he is in Hong Kong in search of his father’s favourite roasted goose restaurant to try what his father describes as the best Chinese BBQ food in the world.
With a population of more than seven million people, Hong Kong can pack 140 times more people per square mile than Fiji — that’s how busy the former British colony is today.
As one of Fiji Airway’s weekly destinations, Hong Kong is the gateway to China and is renowned as one of the best places to eat and shop. But for Pacific islanders visiting the City of Ducks, a little research is needed if you are going to find the right places to eat and cheapest places to shop for genuine brand goods.
Hong Kong has a fantastic public transport system that requires an all-in-one swipe card called Octopus.
You can buy single-trip fare Octopus cards or pre-load credit so you can use it across trains and buses, and even to buy groceries at the local, 24 hour 7-Eleven store.
English is not always the first language and most speak Cantonese and Mandarin.
If you’re looking for that familiar bula spirit of welcoming strangers with open arms, you’re in for a rude shock; the locals don’t have time to be like Fijians.
Hong Kong is so congested and hectic that people just don’t have the time to stop and say hello anymore. Everyone is in a rush, and it seems no one has time to wait.
Life in Hong Kong is busy, but get ready to bargain because the vendors are looking to take the most money from tourists shopping from far away lands.
Electronics, smartphones and computers are dirt cheap compared to Fiji or Australia.
The speciality shops are harder to find but Google for other travellers’ shopping experiences and you’re sure to find someone who has already done the research for you.
The city that never sleeps
Hong Kong is a city of delicious Chinese cuisine that never seems to sleep. Roadside stalls, nightly food markets, backstreet cafes and its variety of eclectic street vendors sell everything from duck head soup, jumping live prawns, freshly chopped pig and just about every part of an animal cooked up and ready to eat! The Chinese have a recipe for every animal we eat — from nose to the tail — whether it flies, crawls, jumps or swims!
In search of the golden goose
When my father visits, he eats nearly every night at just one restaurant that serves crispy skin roasted goose in Kowloon. Hong Kong is the city of red roasted ducks that hang by their necks, displayed in a cafe window.
The red-roasted Peking duck is my favorite dish and is mouth-watering but roasted goose is on a completely different level. The richly refined Chinese goose is infused with spices and with its paper thin, crispy skin is truly heavenly.
Hong Kong is home to the exotic roasted goose, which is roasted vertically in a special oven with the geese hung by the neck and head.
This roasting method allows the excess fat to drip away from the body as it separates from the skin, leaving behind a paper-thin skin to die for! I was on a mission to find my dad’s favourite restaurant, the Sham Tseng Chan Kee.
I had the address but I didn’t know how to get there on foot.
Everyone I seemed to ask for directions, all of a sudden, couldn’t speak English!
Without a local SIM card, I had to keep finding free wi-fi spots so my phone could help me with directions (hint: buy a Hong Kong SIM if you want to stay online!).
It took me hours to find this elusive roast goose restaurant, that ended up being around the corner from the luxury Langham Hotel, in Reclamation St, Mongkok.
Glistening roasted red geese hung vertically alongside crispy skin belly pork, red roasted pork and my mum’s favourite at this eatery; the steamed white chicken.
I figured if my folks loved this place then surely I would to!
My Cantonese is not so good, so after finding the English menu, I ordered one of each and boy, was I in heaven!
The healthy steamed chicken is served with a fragrant ginger and spring onion oil, whilst the goose was finished with a spice-infused, soy masterstock.
Try the blackcurrent juice with iced lemon too; refreshing and tart.
Goose is a much richer meat than duck, but having travelled thousands of miles across the ocean, I was determined to eat a whole half goose on my own!
The waitress thought I was crazy, but once I managed to explain how far I had come from to try their famous goose, and especially on the recommendation of my parents, she said “Maybe you want more steamed rice, eh?”
It was great to know that my tavale had finally welcomed me home.
NEXT WEEK: Still in Hong Kong, Chef Seeto goes in search of breakfast and discovers that not everyone eats bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast. Heading off at the crack of dawn, he finds early morning noodle and rice stalls, a hotel that serves fish ball soup, and even McDonald’s breakfast menu with a Chinese twist.
* Lance Seeto is the executive chef, author and food writer based on Castaway Island, Fiji. Through this chef’s culinary eye, Fiji looks delicious. Follow his adventures at www.lanceseeto.com and Facebook.
