Cantonese Siu Mei

Most Cantonese in Hong Kong love siu mei, I am just one of them. Siu mei is an important part of Cantonese cuisine. We have them at high profile banquets, mid range one-person sets, a la carte, down to casual restaurants, supermarkets and even take-away meal boxes. Siu mei shops are easily found in Hong Kong. The one below is a typical siu mei take-away shop. You can see a wide selection of poultry like chicken, goose, duck and pork, char siu and a lot many others. Price list is usually displayed at the entrance.

Among all siu mei, the BBQ whole piglet is the most expensive. If a banquet starts with it, then it must be a high flyer banquet. The one here came from my family year-end gathering dinner.

乳豬全體

We all love BBQ piglet, so we ordered one for our Christmas Party as well. We placed the order online and picked up at the shop. So we had to do the cutting ourselves. Of course we enjoyed doing it.

Less expensive banquets may not served a whole pig, but assorted siu mei, like the one here below. 

燒味拼盤

As for a la carte, pork belly is usually sold at a higher price than any other part of the pig. 

燒腩仔

For one-person sets, you may enjoy two big lumps of char siu.

义燒

For casual restaurants, they usually sell with rice or noodle. 

Char Siu Rice 义燒飯

Char Siu / Chicken Rice Set 义雞飯

Goose Noodle in Soup 燒鵝湯米

Where to Buy Good Quality Siu Mei?

This question seems easy, but is actually difficult. Although there are lots of siu mei shops in town, but good ones are not easy to find. And please note there is no logical ratio between price and quality. Let's take a look at the following two char siu rice that I bought recently from take-away shops. The $98 one looked good but upon eating, I gave it 1 out of 5. The $26 one looked less attractive but upon eating, I gave it 4 out of 5. 

HK$98 - char siu rice

HK$26 - char siu and BBQ pork rice

Do You Trust Food/Restaurant Reviews?

Nowadays many people like to read reviews when they are searching for restaurants. The largest platform in Hong Kong is called OpenRice. Interesting thing is, the $98 shop enjoys extremely high rating across the entire web, i.e., all reviews (except mine) says the char siu from this shop is the world's best. The $26 shop not even receiving any reviews. So be very careful when you read reviews. Personally I will read about the restaurant setting, location, decoration, environment etc. As for the quality of food, people could be subjective. And I also doubt if all reviews are from actual consumers, such as the $98 shop.

Where to Buy Good Quality Siu Mei?

Now back to the question "Where to Buy Good Quality Siu Mei?" There isn't a definite answer. First, test your luck. i.e. go buy from any shop. Remember the good ones only. But frankly, almost all siu mei shops around my home are being black-listed by me for all kinds of reasons such as poor quality, poor presentation, poor service and so on. Once you got a short list, stick to them.

Another way to find a good quality siu mei shop is by the queue outside the shop. The shop below in Wanchai always has a long queue. No matter what day and what time I pass by this shop, there are somewhat 30-100 people queuing outside. These are 'human reviews' rather than 'written reviews'. These are people who queue to pay for the food they want, no matter on a rainy day or sunny day. So give it a try if you can afford the waiting time. 

Hong Kong Food Blog - Where To Buy Good Quality Siu Mei