Restaurant owners in Hong Kong are well known to be exceptionally skilled in transforming foreign cuisine to the local taste buds. This is not to say local diners are not a discerning bunch; but the vast majority of Hong Kongers are more than happy to settle for food and drinks which have been, well, watered down, or tampered with to make it taste less foreign.
That is also not to say such localised food is not great. My experience at Dai Mon Yokocho was a testament that despite the interfering hands of the local chefs, the Japanese food served was delicious through strayed far from the real land-of-the-rising-sun’s food. The diners were decidedly local, so were the kitchen staff. I was there one rainy night and was “lucky” to be seated in plain view of the Cantonese-speaking chefs and cooks.
The food? Well! Let’s get down to business.
Hand-made Udon In Spicy Satay Soup With Premium Beef & Pork Cartilage (HK$69)
My choice, and definitely a good one. There was a page of udon in satay broth, another set of options in tomato broth, and yet another page for “spicy” broth… in satay and tomato variety. I reckoned all they did was to sprinkle some liberal amount of sliced cili padi (bird’s eye chilli), and it worked. The satay broth was fragrant with a strong peanut taste, the way I like it, and the udon were smooth and chewy. I can’t comment much about the beef and pork, except that when served with the whole combination plus spring onions and corns, it worked like a charm. My friend took a couple mouthfuls and reckoned it was better than his choice!