Xinjiang in Hong Kong

This week, I was able to celebrate my one-year anniversary (Aug. 18 as best I can remember, anyway) by finally finding a Xinjiang restaurant in Hong Kong.

Xinjiang is the northwestern-most province of China that borders areas like Pakistan and Kazakhstan (and all the other -stans), and it is populated mostly, or at least historically, by the Muslim Uyghur people. Thus, Xinjiang food is vastly different from other types of Chinese food. But it’s delicious and is one of my favorites. It involves lots of meat, bread and potatoes, with most dishes based with lamb.

I’d say in Beijing I ate Xinjiang about once a week, so I’ve really been missing it here and I’m not sure why the cuisine hasn’t caught on in Hong Kong like it has across Mainland China. Thankfully, Ba Yi Restaurant in the Pok Fu Lam area came to the rescue, and provided my Chinese-language partner, Nick (probably my only friend in Hong Kong who could appreciate Xinjiang food with the same gusto as I can!) and me a hearty, tasty helping of what I’ve been missing.

We had the dapanji (literally: big chicken dish), a staple of chicken chunks and chopped potatoes cooked in a spicy tomat0 and pepper broth. I was pleasantly surprised: Though Hong Kong’s prices are certainly higher, this food could stand up in any Xinjiang restaurant I’ve ever been to. I was worried the food would be tamed down, or Cantonese-ized, as food here is generally miler and sweeter, but it was indeed very good!

The portions were even big enough to compete with American-sized portions. Our dapanji, we were told, included an entire chicken. Which turned out to be quite obvious, as evidenced by this bit of chicken I found (apologies for the faint of heart/weak of stomach):

Don’t worry; we didn’t actually eat the head (though some people certainly do; I’ve had duck brain!). I did, however, finally get around to trying the other end of the chicken — the feet — which are a staple snack in Chinese cuisine, so I’m not sure how I’ve avoided trying them for two full years.

My impression: Well, it tastes like… chicken.  It’s not really that weird. It’s not so different from eating any other part of the chicken, though I did think that, like lobster, it was simply more work than I felt like putting in for a tiny bit of meat (especially considering I was using chopsticks instead of my bare hands).

If you want to check it out:
Ba Yi +852 2484 9981
43 Water Street, Western District

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