Wild about Chaozhou Food

Went to Peony Restaurant 牧 丹 閣 with friends on Sunday (June 19). Can you tell that it’s one of my favorites? This time it was for dinner, not yum cha 飲 茶. In addition to the regular weekend crowd, there also was a large wedding party, which made the place more packed and noisy than usual. Despite that, the service was pretty good. Manager Yeung 楊 took our order himself, which doesn’t happen very often. Here are the dishes we ordered:

蔥 爆 牛 肉 (beef with scallions)
馬 拉 棧 雞 蓉 茄 子 煲 (Malaysian hotpot with minced chicken & eggplant)
潮 州 煎 蠔 烙 (Chaozhou style fried eggs with oysters)
葡 國 咖 哩 雞 (Portuguese curry chicken)
潮 式 紅 燒 豆 腐 (Chaozhou style braised tofu)
桂 林 風 味 蝦 (Guilin style shrimp)

Of the many Chinese restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area, Peony is the one that most reminds me of Hong Kong. One time, I was talking with the main chef, and he told me that the original Peony Restaurant was in Hong Kong but that it had gone out of business. I feel lucky to live in an area with Chinese food that can compare with Hong Kong’s.