roast pigeon

one of our eating targets in hong kong was to try out the dai pai tongs 大排档.

i had been to keung kee shatin chicken porridge 强记鸡粥 at tai wai a few times.

during the last trip i went to-

1. chan kun kee 陈根记大排档 at shatin on 4.6.2015. &
2. 富记大排档 at tai wai on 5.6.2015.

so this time i wanted to try new dai pai tongs 大排档. & i read that tai yun 泰源大排档 is not bad & saw photos of the chicken congee & razor clams etc.

850m walk to tai yun泰源

it was a long walk from fo tan station, according to googlemap 850m & 12mins. it was a reasonably nice walk on a lit but quite deserted riverside. great that we had 3G from the free i-sim & the googlemap. 🙂

only that the sky threatens to open up.

tai yun dai pai dong泰源大排档

as we reached shan mei street山尾街, we saw tuk kee 德 记across the street.

the first shop after tuk kee 德 记 with the same plastic sheets cover was tai yun 泰源. the proprietor literally bundled us in. i saw the menu it said tai yun 泰源. i was a bit uncertain so i asked whether this was 泰源大排档 . the reply was like yes 大排档 .

tai yuan dai pai dong泰源大排档

it was just a moment’s decision making, a bad one it turned out to be, like those soccer players in front of goals…haha!

we saw there was a good local crowd & the menu had similar items, and if this was not the 泰源大排档, maybe it was ok since we didn’t know both stalls.

another mistake we made was to order a set (i saw in some reviews they ordered a set but now my view is never order sets la..).

& to trust your instinct (get out!) & to trust other reviewers (better go to one with review than one w/o since we didn’t know both stalls).

chicken congee沙田鸡粥

the chicken congee was bad, worse than any i can concoct on a very bad day la…bad…bad..bad!

terrible c/w with either the fu kee congee 富记粥品 earlier today or keung kee shatin chicken porridge 强记鸡粥.

deep-fried sotong beaks

the deep-fried sotong beaks were actually quite ok. it was a huge helping, so many sotongs! but most of my friends not into this dish. we took maybe 1/4 or 1/3.

fried clams “la a”

the clams were hopeless, overcooked, not tasty!

frid beancurd

fried beancurd just to add to the numbers.

deep-fried fish

& clueless what was this fish. looked totally like a turbot (flatfish) to me but we turned over it was not the white underbelly.

i thought it was a garoupa on the menu but perhaps it was my poor understanding of the hongkish words & names.

fried nai bai

fried nai bai, about as hopeless as the clams, maybe it was poached & not fried??

“free” black sauce noodles 豆油炒面

the “free” black sauce noodles 豆油炒面, mediocre, i guess edible but nothing like the 豆油炒面 at keung kee shatin chicken porridge 强记鸡粥.

one saving grace was the roast pigeon (top photo). one friend liked it especially. skin was crispy & meat was moist. for me though, after roast goose, roast pigeon only so-so to me la..

so this was the worst quite horrendous dinner we had in hong kong. luckily there was no worse & every other meal we had were very good or excellent.

so this was just one to forget la…can’t be bulleye everytime…self-consolation better than no consolation…

anyway just to put a good word in for the stall, not about their food certainly. during our dinner, the rain came, so we were stranded after our dinner, and 2 friends who were not staying at the same hotel as us were quite anxious to get back. luckily the proprietor came to our rescue. he gave us a plastic table cloth each…it was the very thin plastic like the S$2 raincoat kind. we used it to cover our heads & we were mostly dry walking back to fo tan station…would have been drenched without it though it was just a moderate drizzle, no thunderstorm.

i don’t know what more to say. rain cover or not, food-wise i will never go there!

c.h.e.f andy