Dinner in Time Warp

Felt like walking into a time warp when we joined our friend KC for a dinner in an old-school restaurant inside one of the public housing estates. Choi Hung Estate may be better known as a popular hotspot for IG snapshot these days for its iconic rainbow colored facade (Choi Hung meant "rainbow" in Cantonese hence the design followed its namesake theme when it's first built in the 1960's) but this is also a tight-knitted community with 10000 or so residents completed with schools, markets, and shops for everyday needs. 

Kam Pik Restaurant is the last Chinese "tea-house" that remained in this neighborhood - one that serves dimsum items during the day and simple home-style Cantonese dishes at night, catered mainly for local residents so you got this "where everybody knows your name" kind of vibe. With nostalgia being a popular sentiment these days, they also organized themed dinners every now and then to introduce some of the traditional menu to the younger generations, whether that be snake soup during winter or like this time of the theme of giant garoupas served in Cantonese banquet style. 

Over the course of the evening a total of eleven dishes were served family style at round tables of 12. Giant Garoupa, mostly farmed these days but some went as big as 2-3kg, was the star ingredient of the evening and we had a few courses of these prepared in a number of different ways. We began with the fish soup served in a giant porcelain crockpot prepared with fish head and bones.  The Chinese herb Tian Ma gave the soup a distinct flavor and also known to be good for liver and against migraine. Then the thick chunks of fillet were seasoned, coated in a thin layer of batter and stir-fried with vegetables had a nice firm and bouncy texture. The belly part was steamed garlic, scallions and aged tangerine peel. Given the size of the fish it's not difficult to work out the boney bits and still got plenty of meat and skin and I like the hint of aged tangerine peel flavor. Meanwhile, the fins, taken from the back and tail of the fish, was braised with julienned pork, shiitake mushrooms, garlic cloves and a thick gravy with oyster and soy sauces.

We also had a number of other old-school dishes - some I haven't had for years anywhere. The lettuce wrap with dried oysters is typically a dish associated with Chinese New Year (as the Cantonese word for dried oyster, "ho si", rhymes with "good business") but what we had was an upgraded version with dried Japanese oysters plus dices of minced pork, water chestnuts, shiitake mushrooms chopped like "chop suey" and served with fresh Romaine lettuce on the wide which we use to wrap the filling with. The "Stuffed Crab Claw" was typically done "inside out" with minced prawn stuffing wrapped around the crab claw before it's battered and deep-fried. Like it hot and crispy and came in huge portion with good bouncy texture. 

Chicken dish appears in every Cantonese style banquet menu and it's usually the deep-fried version with the crispy bronze colored skin and deep-fried garlic served on top for the extra flavor. It's quite a feat preparing a dozen or so dishes, carved and served immediately to everyone equally hot, tender and juicy. We finished with the typical dishes of steamed rice in lotus leaf and braised e-fu noodles, then the unusual pumpkin and sago sweet soup as dessert. All of those were well-executed. 

We were encouraged to BYO so on top of the free-flow soft drinks and beer going around, we shared a bottle of sake. Rounded and balanced and seemed to work well with dishes with richer flavors. Word has it the whole area would be taken down soon for re-development, so don't know how long this place will last, but this evening, we all had a good time and hope restaurants like this can continue to hold up the fort for old-school, no-nonsense Cantonese cuisine, something we grew up with and have fond memories of. 

When? March 21 2023
Where? Kam Pik Restaurant, G/F Kam Pik House, Choi Hung Estate, Kowloon
Menu Highlights? Stir-fried Giant Garoupa Fillet with Greens
Drink? Kamoshibito Kuheiji Junmai Daiginjo Omachi 40 Kyoden (BY 2020)