Meeting up with a 3 decades long chowhound friend after a 9 year hiatus for a delicious and distinctive Hakka lunch
According to the ‘Little Red Book’, a 3* establishment offering exceptional cuisine is worth a special journey. In my book, a friendship that lasted for 3 decades is also worth a special journey to catch up!
In the distant past, whenever I visited Hong Kong, I almost always organized specially crafted dinner gatherings for like-minded avid chowhounders. Some of them were even willing to make special trips from as far as Singapore, Austria and Japan to attend! These unique and cherished assemblies of foodies had subsequently become known as ‘chowmeets‘. My aforementioned chowhounder friend - ‘ Handle - Peech ‘ was one of the first participants. A most prolific and knowledgeable food blogger, we shared a few common interests in food and wine including the love of Shanghainese food as well as the cuisine at Caprice and The Chairman, sipping Chateau D’Yquem and drinking German & Alsace Riesling! In addition, not to mention sharing a weird anomaly of having similar looking facial profiles on Facebook facial recognition App?! 
After a 9 year interval, my wife and I, together with Peech and his better half ( who also happened
to be from Toronto! ), finally reconnected and had a ‘mini-chowmeet ‘ at an off-the-beaten-path Tai-Po restaurant for a Hakka Cuisine luncheon.
Sun Hon Kee is an acclaimed, local, traditional Cantonese restaurant, with a long-standing reputation for good, authentic, Chinese - Hakka style cuisine, serving as a reliable spot for a classic Hong Kong dining experience in the New Territories. It’s a popular choice for those seeking traditional flavours beyond the popular downtown, central districts.
Being a novice to this cuisine, we therefore let Peech and his wife take the lead in ordering. The result to myself and my wife was an impressive array of delectable, uncommon and never before tried dishes. Braised pork front-leg tendons, Stewed hand made cuttlefish balls with squid ink in Gourd melon and Shan-Tong broth, Stir fried crispy ocean Smelt with chili peppers, Braised Hakka style beef brisket and tendon in clear broth, Black caramel sponge cake and lastly, a most memorable, packed full of smokey aromatic wok-hay and addictive tasting last minute addition, ‘ Stir fried Chives with local sun dried shrimps’. So simple yet so goood!
Great food plus great conversation plus great company…….priceless!!..and definitely worth a special journey!
