I was in Hong Kong over the weekend and I made it my project to find the best char siu (barbecued pork) this side of China.
I trolled the blogosphere and narrowed the selection down to three candidates:
I stumbled into Hong Kong last Friday morning, bleary-eyed after only an hour and a half of sleep. By the time I finished unpacking, it was time for lunch.
I asked the reception for a Chinese printout of Joy Hing's address and braved the noon time traffic into Wanchai. The cab drivers who drove me, both going to and coming from the restaurant, were surprised that I knew about Joy Hing but gave me the thumbs-up for my choice. "Very good," they concurred.
But the traffic going to Wanchai was a nightmare. The cab driver eventually pulled over and indicated that he would walk me to the restaurant instead. When we came within pointing distance of it, he pointed at its sign, then proceeded to walk back to his taxi. As he turned around to check on me, he saw me hesitating, consulting my map. He pointed at the sign once again. "Red and green sign," he shouted.
(Internet file photo.)
While I expected Joy Hing to be a street side operation, I didn't expect it to be the tiny hole-in-the-wall that it actually was. There was no English sign at the door. I showed my printout to the men queued in front of the restaurant. They nodded enthusiastically. Inside, a man with an apron waived me over to an empty seat at a table.
The friendly aproned man.
There couldn't have been more than eight tables at Joy Hing. The turn-over was quick and the service quicker still. One guy's order made it to the table even before he was seated.
That's because Joy Hing is a well-oiled machine. After all, if its Wikipedia entry is to be believed, they have been doing business since the Qing Dynasty.
The men at my table spoke some English and I asked, well, if they came to Joy Hing often. "Many restaurant like this," one of them declared, "but this is most delicious."
My lunch mates at Joy Hing. Well, at least, for the first round. Note the man on the left pouring "sauce" all over his food.
While the char siu was good, I had had better. Maybe it was the best in that price range. I only paid HK$24 for a plate of rice, pork and duck.
Pork on the left, duck on the right.
The pork is meant to be doused in sauce. And the duck, with honey. One diner just poured sauce and honey all over all her food and mixed everything up heartily.
But sitting there, amid the lunch crowd at Joy Hing, I had the greatest time. I couldn't have asked for a more authentic, local Hong Kong experience than that. Unlike the other customers who ate in a hurry, I took my time, soaking in the atmosphere. (I sat through two table changes.) I was obviously the only foreigner there at that time and the staff and customers seemed amused by my presence, my camera, and my appetite. Since I had a lot of rice left over, I asked for an additional order of roasted pork (HK$30), while the waitstaff served me some very weak tea.
Energized by the experience, I excitedly headed to the New Territories the next day. I had been traveling to Hong Kong since I was 16 and, in the 90s, I lived there with my then-boyfriend for almost three years. In all that time, I had never been to the New Territories and I was finally lured out there by the promise of the best char siu in Hong Kong, as allegedly decreed by Anthony Bourdain.
The truth is that, except for UFC, I hardly watch television, and I hadn't even bothered to look up Anthony Bourdain's clips on YouTube. I just had to take the food bloggers' word for it that this was indeed the Anthony Bourdain char siu recommendation and, armed a bookmarked website on my laptop, after almost two hours of changing trains, I finally sat to lunch at Yat Lok in the New Territories.
Apart from the English sign for Yat Lok, nothing else was in English. I looked around for signs of Anthony Bourdain's having come and gone but, maybe because I was tired and hungry, I didn't find any. I was beginning to doubt if I had come to the right place, but that was quickly forgotten when before me was set some barbecued pork and roasted goose on a mound of steamed rice (HK$45).
Pork on the left, goose on the right.
There was no sauce for this pork and, while it was definitely superior to Joy Hing's, it still didn't slap me in the face and force me to take notice. I still had a pleasant lunch though, chatting to the family of three who had also made the trek from Hong Kong Island to eat there.
But there was no time to waste. I had decided to follow the Tai Po recommendations of one particular blogger and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering about Tai Po Square, enjoying various nibbles. While it was all very good, again, none of them stood out to compel me to go rushing back to the New Territories any time soon. As a matter of fact, if I had never gone, I don't think I'd be missing anything.
The queue outside the beef noodle shop at around 2:30 PM. There was still a queue when I left Tai Po Square two hours later. While the soup was good, it isn't something I would come all the way to the New Territories for. (A bowl of fatty beef with egg noodles cost me all of HK$36.)
Still, I'm always glad for new experiences, and I got to buy Nicolas some cherries - his favorite fruit (HK$64 for two pounds at the first stall and then HK$55 for two more pounds at the second stall) and a cool pair of board shorts (HK$59).
So I had come to the conclusion that I suspected from the start: That Fu Sing would indeed have the best char siu.
I discovered Fu Sing maybe three or four years ago. It was a Sunday and Nicolas was off diving again and I was alone. Undeterred and unfazed, I chose a restaurant that I had never tried before, with the best reviews I could find. Foodies also claimed it had the best char siu in town - but, at that time, to me, char siu was just char siu. I couldn't imagine how it could be any different.
So amidst the curious stares of Chinese families, I sat to Sunday brunch by myself. And that's where I discovered that char siu wasn't always just char siu, and that it could inspire one to rapture.
The beautiful, glistening char siu of Fu Sing. (I can't remember how much it cost but it was definitely more than HK$100 and less than HK$200. It was either HK$108 or HK$180. Sorry, I forget.)
So it was with great pride and pleasure that I brought Nicolas to Fu Sing, just as the restaurant opened for business last Monday. (I skipped lunch on Sunday to watch UFC 148. Thanks to the guys at Epic MMA for organizing that one!) Except that Nicolas had just come from mainland China where he had been golfing with his Chinese friends and had, therefore, had only the best Chinese food in the world. He thought the Fu Sing char siu was good but was singularly unimpressed.
That night, over wine and cheese, I recounted my search to Nicolas' good friend, Karl Hudson, General Manager of the Renaissance Hong Kong Harbour View Hotel (and soon to be The Main Man of the Marriott Group in Asia). Before I could finish my story, he pointed out that his hotel's Chinese restaurant, Dynasty, had a one-star Michelin rating and was reknowned for its char siu, which he promptly had sent down to our table at the lobby lounge.
Nicolas, me and Karl Hudson at the lobby lounge of the Renaissance Hong Kong Harbour View Hotel.
Oh no. I felt put on the spot. I wasn't accepting any more nominations. In fact, I had already decided that the title belonged to Fu Sing. I couldn't possibly have any more char siu. (I failed to mention that, on Friday night, after my lunch at Joy Hing, I went to meet Nicolas at Jade Garden in TST where I had more char siu.) I was all char siu-ed out!
I was more than a bit skeptical when it arrived. It even looked like the other char sius. At least the one at Fu Sing looked different.
And then I took a bite and had to reconsider.
The quality of the meat alone set it head and shoulders above the rest. It almost seemed like the meat was genetically engineered to perfection. It was just one luscious bite after another of tender meat and glorious fat. It was divine.
Dynasty's amazing char siu. Now crowned the winner of this particular search for the best char siu in Hong Kong.
Of course, I have no idea how much that cost...
I have no doubt that there are other char sius out there that should be reckoned with and, ideally, the best way to compare them is to have them side by side which, of course, is an impossibility. For now, it's good to know that there are some pretty good choices to be had out there, at every price range. And I'm glad to have had a sampling of the best.