Xiao Nan Guo

[caption id="attachment_104" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Huhng Siu Yuhk and Sichauan Beef - two of the highlights at Xiao Nan Guo"][/caption]

 

About 

My favorite Shanghai restaurant in HK and a really outstanding opportunity to try some of China's most interesting and distinctive dished. Good value, good service, and consistently excellent food. Some of the things to try here include:

• Huhng siu yuhk - Supposedly Chairman Mao's favourite dish, this is cubes of pork with alternate layers of meat and fat, slow cooked until the meat is so soft that it melts in your mouth. The meat jusice, wine, sugar and anise  together form this beautifully flavoured thick black sauce which coats the meat and the long, fibrous mushrooms. This dish is a must have.


• The siu luhng baau here are wonderful. These are dumplings with soft meat, or crap in the centre, surrounded by a soup that is held inside the soft wrapper. When you eat bite into them the warm soup pours through your mouth releasing its flavours. The siu lung bao here are the best I've had outside of shanghai, with a very flavoursome soup and nice frail wrapper.


• The crispy sesame bread pockets and minced pork is another Shanghai specialty. It is very tasty here, with the bread nicely crisp on the outside but still softer on the inside. The meat filling is well cooked so that it isn't too oily. This dish is definitely worth having, but takes second place to those above.


• The sichuan beef dish here is excellent - using the same long, fibrous mushrooms as the huhng siu yuk which have a texture that goes well with the meat and the slight spice of the chili's in this dish. It is brought to you in a little black cauldren and left to cook on the table, so that the ingredients slowly soften and blend with the sauce.


• The begger´s chicken here is also supposed to be really good, though I'm yet to try it myself. This is chicken cooked by packing it around with earth and baking it slowly. When the dish is brought to the table, the earth is broken open and the chicken taken from inside.

DirectionsWalk along Des Voeux road from the mid-level escalators to Central. The restaurant is in a shopping centre on the left hand side that has lots of mirrored metal. An escalator leads up to the first floor, where there is a Starbucks coffee shop. The restaurant is on the third level. There is a Japanese restaurant on the floor below.

Xiao Nan Guo Cuisine Level 3 Man Yee Building, 68 Des Voeux Road, Central, Hong Kong Central

Cost

Around HK $150-200 per person

Notes

Closes at 11:30pm Tel: 2258 9393

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