Welcome Home Routine – Lei Garden利苑
by Miranda ChenWe used to travel to Europe in Winter for exhibition and customer visits. Whenever we return to Hong Kong after such trips, the first thing we would do is to visit Lei Garden, to warm our stomach which has been fed mostly with cold cut, salad and beer.
The must two have are:
- Preserved Meat Rice cooked in Clay Pot (臘味煲仔飯)
- Daily Double Boiled Tonic Soup (老火煲湯)
Preserved Meat Rice cooked in Clay Pot (臘味煲仔飯)
Claypot rice is traditional dish in Hong Kong for the winter, where the rice is usually presoaked, or partially-cooked, steamed and heated in a claypot with other ingredients which then flavored the rice. Before serving, a light touch of sweet soy sauce would add into the pot to give more flavor to the rice. In Lei Garden, they use 4 different types of preserved meats/sausages, the one that I like very much is 肝腸 (Gan Cheung), mix of preserve pork meat with pork liver, which gives a strong but smooth flavor, soft and chewing taste.
Preserved meat rice cooked in clay pot, which needs about 40 mins to prepare so it is better to call ahead and reserve it.
Daily Double Boiled Tonic Soup (老火煲湯)
In typical Cantonese cooking, soups are usually simmered and cooked with Chinese herbs for several hours to allows energy and some curative effect to give to the soup as essence. Lei Garden offers different type of soups for different effects which normally include pricy ingredients. Ask for the daily special, most restaurants have their own list for each day, and price is reasonable. Since this is their signature dish, it is advised to pre-order ahead of time, as it runs out very quickly.
Crispy Roasted Pork (脆皮烧肉)
Apart from these two dishes, Crispy Roasted Pork is also Lei Garden’s signature dish. It’s the roasted pork belly with crispy skin, mix of soft and crispy but not oily taste.
Yong Chi Gan Lou (楊枝甘露 Mango Pomelo Sago)
The signature desert is “Yong Chi Gan Lou” – Chilled Mango Sweetener with Grapefruit and Sago but my favourite is Home-made Almond Sweetener with Egg White, serve in hot. The egg white neutralizes the sweetness of almond sweetener add in more taste to this desert.
