Hong Kong

Going out for a Chinese meal with family invariably involves a ritual in which the elders present would go through the menu and make sure there was a little of everything - a fish or seafood dish, a meat dish, a vegetable dish, and of course, a chicken dish.

They would always complain that the chicken wasn't as good as the chicken they ate when they were younger, though. According to them, the birds these days taste bland and have no chicken flavor - probably because they aren't allowed to run around freely and eat good natural food anymore. The elders are probably right.

But the trend today is for people to prefer free-range, organic, and chemical-free chicken.

For me, chicken dishes have always been a favorite, including a love for a bucket or barrel of crunchy-skinned, juicy fried chicken. I still enjoy munching on the occasional fried chicken wing or two when the mood strikes, but it isn't something I indulge in often anymore.

But the chicken we're talking about today is a delicious Hakka dish called salt-baked chicken.

Hakka salt-baked chicken is made by wrapping a whole chicken in parchment paper and burying it in a wok full of coarse salt and "baking" it covered. The cooked chicken is flavorful, not too salty, with soft and tender flesh. In Hong Kong, the dish is usually served with a dipping sauce made with ginger and spring onion, or a ginger-spice salt. But if it's done well, the chicken needs no additional seasoning at all.

The salt-baked chicken at Chuen Cheung Kui in Causeway Bay is one of my favorites. A signature dish at this long-time Causeway Bay haunt, it has been known to run out before the close of business each day. At its former location on Percival Street, I would take visitors there for the chicken, the steamed fish, and the braised pork with preserved vegetables. The old-style feel of the restaurant and the home-style dishes made it a hit with all my guests.

They loved that they were dining at a place where lots of Chinese families chose to eat as well. This restaurant's reputation for serving good value-for-money old-style dishes has kept its business thriving over the years.

Chuen Cheung Kui is still in Causeway Bay but it is now on the seventh and eighth floors of Causeway Bay Centre Tower I. It's still an incredibly busy restaurant that is popular with families and groups.

Reservations are recommended, but aren't always accepted. They will recommend that you show up and wait for a table if you don't need a large table. It's usually just a 10-20 minute wait, though. There is a dinner set where you can choose from an extensive list of dishes, including a soup, or you can choose to order from the a la carte menu. Dinner per person is a reasonable HK$150-200 ($19-26).

For China Daily