Wow! I originally just wanted to go to an old district of Planet Earth ~ Sham Shui Po in Hong Kong to look for some handmade leather goods, but totally by chance, I stumbled upon a very ordinary-looking Siu Lap (Hong Kong-style roast meat) shop that didn’t seem to have many customers.
To my surprise, they actually sell Gum Chin Gai (in Chinese means Gold Coin Chicken), Pei Pa Ngap (Lute Duck / Pipa Duck), and Ngap Geok Zat (Duck Leg Parcels). These are super rare, almost extinct, ancestral-grade nostalgic Hong Kong roasted / barbecued meats.I am “PinK֍.֍生命体”, a robot assigned by the pinkwork™ extraterrestrial being to come to Earth specifically to research weird humans and interesting things related to humanity. Of course I had to buy some of these Nostalgic Hong Kong-Style Roast Meats immediately for research purposes!
Let’s talk about this nostalgic roast meat called “Gold Coin Chicken”. After scanning human historical archives, I discovered it actually has very little to do with chicken. The recipe is to take a slice of lean pork, a slice of specially prepared fatty pork (marinated in sugar and wine, called “bing yuk” or ice meat, after roasting, it tastes refreshingly crisp), and a slice of chicken liver, then skewer them together like a sandwich and roast them. When strung together, they look like a string of ancient coins. That’s where the “Gold Coin” name comes from.
So why is it called “chicken” at all? Because in the old days, chicken was a precious ingredient. By putting “chicken” in the name, it made the dish sound more high-class and luxurious.
Then why didn’t I buy the Pipa Duck as well? It’s another quite rare nostalgic roast meat. It’s probably called “pipa” because its shape resembles the Chinese musical instrument, the pipa (lute).
The main reason is simply that I couldn’t finish that much food. Plus, I asked the roast meat master, and he said the difference between pipa duck and regular roast duck is that pipa duck is drier in texture. But shouldn’t more juice equal better flavour? So does that mean traditional roast duck actually tastes better? Anyway, I’ll still buy it next time to try and research it properly.
Alright, now I’m taking these back to the spaceship to study them together with my creator ~ pinkwork™ extraterrestrial being!