When my friend E suggested we got together for dinner over a bowl of hearty snake soup, Ser Wong Fun is the first restaurant that came to mind. Its Central location works best for everyone, not to mention I could solicit help from my another friend G, whose family owned this restaurant for more than a century, to reserve a table and sort out the menu for us.
Of course, with the restaurant name literally meant “Snake King” along with name of its founder, they were known for snake dishes, some of which were available all year long but some only during the prime season during the colder months. We started with just that, a bowl of snake soup each, done in the traditional Cantonese style with shredded snake, chicken, sliced shiitake and wood-ear mushrooms and bamboo shoots cooked slowly and thickened to serve. I love the texture in bisque-like consistency and plenty of ingredients in each spoonful, and served with the crispy fried dough and finely julienned kaffir lime leaves which gave really good aroma. The snake soup was known to have the warming effect to the body during winter months, and it did just that, and was warming to the hearts too.
The restaurant was also known for family style, old-school Cantonese dishes. Minced pork was mixed with bits of water chestnuts, shiitake mushrooms, leeks and salted fish, formed into large patties and pan-fried – the strong flavor in the salted fish worked perfectly well with the patties, soft and tender on the inside and with just the right crispy crust outside. It's one of the better versions I had in town.
The chicken wings was our favorite dish of the evening (other than the snake soup) – whole wings were deboned and stuffed with cooked sticky rice with bits of dried Chinese sausage, then deep-fried to serve. The skin of the wings were cooked to golden color, and the chicken flavor was well-infused into the stuffing too. And they were nicely presented.
The sautéed vegetables with crab sauce reminded me of those Chinatown Chinese classics, except this version was a much upgraded version, with the seasonal pea shoots used, and served with a egg-white gravy sauce mixed with plenty of picked crab meat. The restaurant was also known for its double-boiled soup and also dried Chinese sausages which they made in-house during winter season. My chicken and conch soup was great and offered much comforting flavor, and we had the rice casserole cooked with the mix of different dried sausages and meat. The rice was great, taken in the oil and rich flavor from the meat while cooking, and I love the texture of the sausages and meat, tender with a bite and plenty of flavor.
We also tried the deep-fried snake done "typhoon shelter style", which meant it’s served with fried garlic and shallots and spices. It reminded me of the Northern Chinese style lamb chop with the shreds of marinated meat pulled off the bone, except the snake was a lot more bony (with many small bones which made it difficult to eat) and I reckon the meat was a little bit too tough. But it probably worked well as a simple bar snacks for the punchy flavor. We finished with the sweet green mung bean soup – I am usually not a fan of it but I enjoyed this one, cooked with a touch of dried mandarin peel instead of the traditional seaweed, which gave it a different taste profile. The sweet soup, though served hot, was known to have the cooling effect too so that countered with all the snake dishes which was known to be the "hot" ingredient. I suppose the bottle of white wine from the Tuscan coast I brought in served the same purpose too.
When? November 22 2019
Where? Ser Wong Fun, 30 Cochrane St, Central
Menu Highlights? Traditional Snake Soup
Drinks? 2012 Gaja Ca'Marcanda Vistamare Toscana IGT
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