Hee Kee Crab General - Hong Kong

One of the reasons why I love visiting Hong Kong is that I have a very good friend there. One of my best friends whom I have known since poly days.
It's always good to see a familiar face in a strange country, especially someone I don't get to see every other day back home in Singapore.

Another reason is, the locals always know where to find good food!

My friend arranged for a special dinner for The Wife and I at this place - Hee Kee Crab General.
We went to the Causeway Bay branch, and I think they have another outlet in Tsim Sha Tsui.
One reason why we came here is because I mentioned that both myself and The Wife wanted to have crab, after the awesome meal we had 2 years back when we visited.

Turns out, my friend had a friend...who knew the boss of the place! Zomg perks galore!
For starters, we were ushered into a private room when we reached!

The first thing I noticed about the place was the smart design of the cups.
A simple indentation for users to grasp the cup turned a simple tea cup into an instantly ergonomic tea cup! Something for local restaurants to learn from! A small detail no doubt, but every little detail will enhance the dining experience!

 

Before I forget, the menu was specially curated for our party of 6 by the restaurant manager. First up was bamboo clams.
Back home, the version favoured by us is the steamed bamboo clams with garlic. Here I tasted stir-fired bamboo clam with peppers and onions, and I must say, it's pretty tasty! Even The Wife (who doesn't touch shellfish back home) took a few bites!

Do give it a try, the texture and flavour of clams still remain, but the addition of peppers and onions add a new dimension to the taste.

The next dish was piggy trotters soaked in Chinese rice wine. Most of you would have figured out by now that I'm partly halal...I don't fancy pork! But I took a chunk of this anyway since it would have been rude. Actually not too bad! The wine covered the porkiness which I loathe, and the texture was chewy like some gelatine. Not much meat as the emphasis was more on the skin and fat.

Ok lah although I'm not a fan of pork, but I would still recommend trying this!

 

Ok this next dish is quite funky, might turn some of you off, or make it feel like you've come to the end of the meal!
Almond soup with chicken feet! Sounds weird righttttt. But its actually pretty savoury, not a end-of-meal dessert. Something memorable, although I wouldn't order this twice...not a huge fan of almond soups! Worth trying at least once though.

 

Next up was fish, done in a style I haven't seen back home. The fish slices in the dish are from the deep fried fish below, so the whole fish is utilized in the dish and edible. You get to enjoy the same fish done in 2 different styles!
Technically speaking, stir-frying fish slices and deep frying a fish is nothing new, but the idea and execution here is good. Can give it a pass though, unless you really want to marvel at how they do it.

 

 

The star of the dinner! Crab!!!!!!
The crab is done 'bi feng tang' style, with a generous blanket of fried chilli and garlic. Honestly, the crab meat itself is sub-par. The crab is smaller than the Sri Lankan crabs used in restaurants back in SG, and the meat itself is sweet but dry.

The real star of the dish is the fried chilli and garlic. Good god I couldn't stop eating it! SUPER addictive. This is the signature of the restaurant, and for good reason. MUST try! We ordered 'xiao la', or 'little spice', just in case it got a little too fiery for some of us. They have it all the way up to 'kuang la', or 'CRAZYYYYYYY spicy'...wonder how that tastes like!

 

Lamb stole the show next, as a giant claypot of lamb stew entered the room. We could smell the distinct aroma of lamb even before we saw the dish. I learned that this was a winter dish favoured by the locals, normally eaten to keep the body warm in winter. See? Must eat with locals then can get to find such things!

The lamb was tender and tasted like...lamb lor. There is no other substitute for lamb...the gaminess is so distinct. It went well with the fermented bean sauce provided though. I liked it though The Wife scrunched her at both the lamb and the sauce. Acquired taste I guess!

Before we could even finish the giant pot of lamb, another giant was laid down at our table. Lap Mei Fan. Or glutinous rice with preserved/waxed meats. Also a dish worth trying as the rice was extremely flavourful, with both 'wok hei' and the taste of the meats. Each grain of rice was separated from the next, testimony to the wok frying skills of the chefs in the kitchen.

We couldn't finish both the lamb and rice as they were HUGE portions and had they to takeaway some!

 

We were all stuffed by now, but we had another uphill task, we were given a 'liu sha bao' each! Imagine having to eat a bun after all that food...and we all did eat the bun! Ha!
The 'liu sha bao' in HK tends to be filled with custard, unlike SG establishments where almost 99% of the buns are filled with salted egg yolk.

Both have their merits, but I would prefer our local version!

 And finally, something that we always say, 'There's always room for dessert.' Thank god this dessert was light! Ginger tea with dumplings to wash down everything!

At this point, I was beyond thinking about how the dessert tasted. It just felt good to wash everything down with a hot dessert. So I can't really comment on the dessert, but this isn't the make-or-break aspect of the restaurant anyway!

I would definitely come back, but with my friends in tow of course! They have warned me against going back on my own for I would be paying through the nose...so if any of you want to visit, you have been warned!

Price : No idea, didn't even see the menu! And don't ask how much my meal was!

Address : Basement-G/F., 440 Jaffe Road 

                謝斐道440號地下及地庫 

                Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island

Tel : +852 2575 7565

Website : None that I could find.



Disclaimer : Found the address and phone number online at Yelp...might not be accurate.




Signing off,
The Lunatic