It is always nice to have the entire family seated around the table, sharing a bunch of dishes laid in the middle of the table. Chinese-style dining, I call it. Obviously my Hong Kong experience will not be complete without a meal dine in this style. So together with my sister, my niece, my mum, my brother-in-law and his mum, we headed to Yuet Wah Hui, by far my favorite restaurant in Hong Kong.
Every single dish served in this restaurant is just simply amazing. A pretty small restaurant, it has a very cozy family atmosphere. Looking at the menu is a feast by itself. There is a snap shot of every dish, making the ordering process really easy and really hard at the same time. Easy because you know what you are going to get. Hard because they all look so damn good.
We got started straight away. First up, the winter melon soup.
Soup is a crucial part of Cantonese cuisine. A huge winter melon standing vertically with the top cut off is served. Interestingly, the soup is in melon. The waiter scoops a generous serving of winter melon as he ladles up the soup to fill each bowl. There is really nothing special in the soup, i believe. Some meat chunks. Some shrimp chunks. None of which tasted that good. But drinking the soup explains it all. The soup is saturated with all the flavors of the pork, shrimp and winter melon. It must have brewing for a long long time to achieve such a great flavor. Scooping up a little winter melon chunk to put in my mouth, I wasn’t expecting much. After all, winter melon is usually tasteless, or at best mild tasting. But not this one. The winter melon has been enhanced so much in the brewing process, that it is extreme tasty, complementing the soup.
As we were enjoying the soup and talking about the only topic in our lives, our princess Kate(my niece), the other dishes started to appear, filling the table.
The sweet and sour pork ribs is my favorite dish in this restaurant. It is served with a twist, a drizzle of rich creamy mayo on top of the rich red sweet and sour sauce. Pure genius. The mayo intensifies the sweet and sour sauce without making it overwhelming. Very very yummy. The ribs are tender, moist, and filled with flavor throughout. So much flavor that i begin to wonder whether they marinade their meat like how wineries age their wines for years to create such intensity.
The simple deep fried tofu is another treat. Biting into the golden starchy shell reveals the silkiest and tastiest of tofu one can find. Together with the thai sweet chili sauce provided, eating this is like eating healthy fries.
The scallops with broccoli is a classic. Each scallop is cooked to perfection, with the pan fried taste leading each burst of sweet seafoody flavor.
Finally, the shellfish (lat lat) in spicy black bean sauce was a surprise. Not exactly a fan of shellfish myself, i usually try one just for the sake of trying. For the first time in history, i couldn’t get enough of a shell fish. This dish was amazing. The sauce goes so well with the shellfish. Sucking the flesh off the sauce-filled shells was not only fun but absolutely delicious. I think i had at least 10 of those, and i couldn’t stop. I guarantee anyone who hates shellfish will change his mind after this dish.
Before you know it, everything on the table was gone. It was sad we only had so few people, because there were may other dishes that we didn’t order that are really good too. The crabs fried in tung hoon, the ginger and green onion chicken and the famous weird looking flathead crayfish, just to name a few. Basically everything here is good. However, it is a little pricey. But with a family, this gastronomical experience can only be tagged as “priceless”.
Cantonese Dinner @ Yuet Wah Hui Seafood Restaurant
405-419 Lockhart Road
Shop B, G/F Wah Fat Mansion
Wan Chai, Hong Kong
2591-6803
Food Orgasm 
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