Originally Posted by
Visconti
…
I grew up with my grandparents who had a house nestled right in the middle of SF's Little Italy and Chinatown. From my earliest memories, they would receive invitations from friends around the neighborhood for what appeared to be monthly wedding banquets at the old Empress of China on Grant Ave, where Shark's Fin soup and Peking duck were staples of the menu. I loved these dishes so much, they'd always take me along with them.
Peking duck has always been offered in the Bay Area & HK; not sure how it compares to Beijing (on my to-do list) rendition of the dish. I recall almost a decade ago, there was a restaurant called the HK Flower Lounge on Geary Street that charged around $28 for an entire Peking duck, which I found such a bargain, I'd find every excuse to dine there, lunch there, or bring friends/business associates there, where I'd always order the Walnut Shrimp dish too. They had made both fabulously...
I also enjoyed these banquet meals at Empress and the equivalent places in Oakland. I still enjoy getting roast duck at the places which specialize in making it - sadly Covid was an excuse for Cheung Hing and other places on Noriega & Irving to cancel their indoor dining.
then HK flower lounge 2 on Geary closed due to the tragic fire. Now I hear that the HK flower lounge is closed although I never went there.
I recently discovered Fung Wong on Noriega - they make their own amazing roasted / bbq duck & pork. They’re a restaurant and their non-bbq food isn’t great. To me it’s a good sign that they are so focused on the bbq that nothing else matters. Anyway I’m only saying this because I’ve not had Peking duck there and they seem reasonably priced ($40) for it.
When I eat there, the majority of the staff pretend to not understand English and the clientele seem to speak to each other in a non-English language. Probably an Asian language. Anyway despite knowing that their non-bbq food isn’t great, I’m still going to next try their HK pan-fried noodles or their “beef stew” ( i call it low-nam in my poor Cantonese).
