Saturday, January 23, 2010

Luk Yu Tea House 陸羽茶室



Luk Yuu Tea House 陸羽茶室 has to be one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in town mainly because of its consistency in food quality. Do not expect top notch service from the senior waitstaff who perhaps worked here for more than 2 decades, but their service has its own charm simialr to that of Tai Ping Koon. I actually quite enjoyed the unique charming attitude from staff, perhaps unpretentious is not the perfect word to describe it but it was their down-to-earth behavior that made it very ... homely.

The interior is of course one of the key attractions of this famous establishment and I am pretty sure it looked just like this 3 or even 4 decades ago.



The meal started with my favorite soup! Almond and Pig Lungs soup 杏汁白肺湯! It reckon that it is a hate it or love it soup because of the use of pig lungs. I love it! Very rich almond flavors and together with the smooth, mushy pig lungs, it was wonderful! (FYI - it is a very tough soup to make at home because the cleaning of the pig lungs requires time and great patience!)



Next came the stir-fried bean sprout, eggs and crystal noodles 桂花炒魚肚. The ingredients used were very simple but not an easy dish to cook because it must be dry and "mixed" very well so every bite has all the ingredients. There are many variations of this dish so pick your own favorite.



Another one of my favorite dishes from here was the Stir-fried Pigeon meat with preserved ham 雲腿鴿片. Tender meat with the right salty flavors form the preserved ham, a wonderful marriage of flavors and textures.



It was a rather cold night so we ordered the Lamb Stew in Hot Clay Pot 羊腩煲. To my knowledge, the traditional way to prepare the lamb is to include the skin! There were plenty of lamb but not enough meat with skin! :( The stew flavor was rich and creamy, perfect to go with some rice as well!



Together with the pickled tofu dip (腐乳), it keeps you warm all night long!!!



I did mention it was a cold night right? The lamb stew was not enough to keep us warm so we ordered hot clay hot rice as well, Preserved pork and duck hot clay pot rice! Yes they were all sodium rich, extremely rich as a matter of fact, but the chewiness of the meat and the salty flavors were a good combination with the rice!



The drippings from the preserved duck and pork went into the rice, absorbed the flavors and made the rice very moist as well as flavor-able of course.



How can I meal go with vegetables! It was a simple vegetables (pea shoot 豆苗) dish with mushroom. Simple yet delicious.



Walnut Sweet Soup 合桃糊
was rather disappointing. It was a bit watery. Usually it was very thick and creamy but tonight was just not very good.



Likes:
  • Almond and Pig Lungs soup 杏汁白肺湯 - reminds my favorite soup to date!
  • Stir-fried Pigeon meat with preserved ham 雲腿鴿片 - tender meat with a great combination of flavors from the preserved ham and meat itself
  • Lamb skin attached in the each pieces :) ... the correct way to do it :)
Dislikes:
  • Walnut Sweet Soup 合桃糊 - rather watery
Luk Yu Tea House 陸羽茶室
G/F, 24 Stanley Street, Central
Tel: +852 2523 5464





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6 comments:

Jin said...

thanks for posting this. i haven't been to luk yu in ages! looks like it's time to go back. will order all your favorite dishes!

TasteHongKong said...

The stir-fried eggs with bean sprouts and crystal noodles looks just right, and as you said it is dry enough. Good things is, there is little sign of oil on the plate, well done Luk Yu. And thanks for sharing Jason.

Greentea00 said...

i would love to try this again sometime..long time haven't been there..u know, i've tried making the fried bean spout and eggs at home one time..turned out it was a messy dish..the most challenging part was not to make it watery and still crunchy for the bean spouts, and eggs are not overcooked scambled eggs..and i think it turned out watery cos i had 九王 chives in there..so i really respect the restaurants who can make this. A simple dish but it is not simple at all!

Jason said...

@TasteHongKong: yeah, I ordered the same dish at West Villa and it is totally different in a negative way! Although the dish name is the same, the way to prepare it can be so different depending on the resto! yet to find a place that can top Luk Yu's. Let the search continues :)

Jason said...

@Greentea00: yeah! this is a very tough dish to master indeed. I think it requires more than just the skills but the STRONG fire stove at resto. HAHA ... you are right, it is a simple dish with simple ingredients but all those ingredients are very tough to cook with together (or by itself for that matter):)

BABEDOLPHIN said...

Hi Jason,

How much on average are the dishes here for Dinner? I can't read the menu prices very well - wondering if it'll be over budget for some of my dining friends?

Many thanks!

U reckon each person under $350 is impossible? (Not ordering the pig lung soup or sticky rice chicken, which I think is $4XX+)

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