Fung Lam Restaurant (楓林小館), Shatin, Hong Kong

This restaurant is located just across the road from Tai Wai MTR station and from what I've been told, is considered an institution around these parts. Apparently, they are known for their deep fried pigeons and they were pretty much the reason why we picked lunch here.

The first of the orders that arrived were deep fried salted prawn. The shells were salty in a good way that it made me suck them of as much flavour as I could before shelling them to get to the firm crunchy meat of the crustacean. With little to de-track from the original flavour, these were as good as one could get with fresh deep fried prawns.

There was deep fried tofu stuffed with a strip of shrimp on the top. The hot and silky textured tofu tasted much like how they looked.

Hairy gourd with chopped garlic.

I remember having had roasted pigeons a couple of years back in Macau. These deep fried version from Fung Lam were a little less succulent, less tender but I guess they were tasty the same. I was expecting the birds to be smaller but the pigeons were pretty large here.

The second bird dish that made lunch today came in the form of chicken stir fried in a black bean sauce. The sauce, to my standards was excellent, possessing of much more body in the flavour and aroma than what can be commonly found back at home. I had no idea what else when into them and I only wished that I had space for more rice to go with it.

Fung Lam serves a pretty passable fried rice with conpoy. Did not remember much of it apart from the fact that it lacked the wok hei that many people are fond of, but it left the impression of being quite respectable if a little damp and bland.

The restaurant served a complimentary dessert of a diluted walnut paste of sorts. I didn't think it was memorable.