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2014-08-01
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盛記 came highly recommended by several very well known bloggers, and it has received lots of media attention last few years. Their story is both poignant, legendary, and also inspiring. Talk about a family business that built from the ground up, gave back consistently to the community, instilled the spirit of togetherness, sharing the joy of food, not skimping on quality and adding on to their bottom line.It was my friends last night in town, and I had a choice....I knew I wanted to do hot pot. T
盛記 came highly recommended by several very well known bloggers, and it has received lots of media attention last few years. Their story is both poignant, legendary, and also inspiring. Talk about a family business that built from the ground up, gave back consistently to the community, instilled the spirit of togetherness, sharing the joy of food, not skimping on quality and adding on to their bottom line.It was my friends last night in town, and I had a choice....I knew I wanted to do hot pot. The new "Champion" hot pot in Tsim Sa Tsui had opened up, apparently run by a staffer from The Forum/Ah Yat Abalone (which meant very high end $$$$$ ingredients and gourmet hot pot of extreme proportions). But after some back and forth I settled on this more comparatively low key, very neighborhood feel, hardcore true to form "dai pai dong"-esque eatery. And looking back we have no regrets despite one unlucky incident.
Managed to make a reservation while I was in town, and we were all tasked with the challenge of finding our way here. Coming from Central, had to figure out where to change trains, followed by meeting a family member at one of the interchanges (bad enough there were at least two 7-Elevens that confused the hell out of us). After we surfaced on the street, we decided to forgo the walking and get a cab. The cabbie kind of knew the street, but after we were dropped off near the residential complex, we had to find our way in, which took an additional 10 minutes.
盛記 is definitely hidden from the main street surrounding the residential complex. There are at least two seating areas, and the main area is where you want to be with all the decorations, so you may want to specify to be there as the locals do. The main area is where they use recycled materials, or discarded items by others, and turned into an almost art-deco like cafe. It is very interesting, unique, and characteristic of 盛記 (and kudos for a business to actually do something like that). It could also be some American coffee shop/house, but it is not.
We were there for the hotpot, and our reservation got us in the other air conditioned room near the reception desk area. Not knowing too much what to expect we sat down in anticipation as a waitstaff brought over a checksheet menu (entirely in Chinese, no problem for me) and an electric powered heating element. It's simple, check off the broths you want (of which there were quite a few varieties), and then the meats, vegetables, seafood.
Before we ordered, a huge giant "bento" divider of 4 condiments were placed on top of the element, basically for us to create our own dipping sauces. Chilis, shaved peanuts, scallions etc. Soy sauce, garlic....whatever else suits your fancy.
I don't remember exactly what broths we picked, but they were both very clean and healthy tasting....one must have been a winter melon kind of broth, and the other some chicken stock with corn, vegetables, goji berries. You could get spicy broths, but you would end up masking the freshness of the ingredients.
They were out of geoduck (boooooo) so we were recommended the giant clams. They were really sweet, but we undercooked them (and had very very very bad luck for the rest of the week). This doesn't change my opinon of 盛記, but for those visiting from out of town, I caution you to be very careful when eating local shellfish that is undercooked. The locals are used to it, but not out of towners. But if you overcook it, it will have the consistency of rubber...what a dilemma.
One of the best dishes worth paying a slight markup for, is their local beef (hand sliced). We had an extra order of this as it was so darn good. They also had cubed beef cuts (not quite cubed, but thicker) which were also very tasty.
Prior to the dinner I had purchased some dried bean curd rolls from 樹記腐竹 in Sham Shui Po, and secretly inserted them into the hot pot. Big crowd pleaser for the night. I know it is horrible for me to bring outside ingredients to this neighborhood hot pot restaurant....but I had a feeling their bean curd rolls would not be as good as what I brought over. Speaking of 樹記腐竹 I am saddened to learn that they closed (what is up with family love of lack thereof??)
I'm so glad I took my friends here. While the clams all left us rather disabled for the next few days, we still look back at this meal and experience as eye opening, that we all had a true taste of real Hong Kong at the ground level. It is a bit of a chore to get here from HK Island side, but it was all worth it. Next time, geoduck from British Columbia, no more local clams :-(
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