Fried Dace Fish Ball Patties 香煎鯪魚餅

These Fried Dace Fish Ball Patties 香煎鯪魚餅  are a delicious seafood treat originally from Shunde 順德 and now a local HK favorite, though usually served up in the form of steamed or deep fried balls.  We love the fragrant golden skin that comes with frying but, since we don't often deep fry at home, we flatten our fish paste balls so that we can just pan fry them instead.

These tasty patties are made with the paste of the dace fish 鯪魚, much loved for its sweet, firm, flavorful meat.  The dace fish paste is used in many delicious dishes like Three Fried Stuffed Treasures 煎釀三寶 and Watercress & Fish Ball Soup 鯪魚球西洋菜湯.   The fish itself is used to make the fabulous and famous canned Fried Dace with Salted Black Bean 豆豉鯪魚.

Crispy Batter Fried Oyster Burger 蠔漢堡包

If you love fresh succulent oysters as much as we do, then you're in for a treat!  This is our version of the fabulous oyster burger, a rare sight, I'll admit, but much loved by those who have met and been utterly charmed by this culinary delight.  

I had my first in Vancouver, at a greek restaurant of all things.  It was love at first bite, really, I just couldn't believe how tasty the oyster burger was, crispy on the outside, juicy and tender and oh so oyster-y on the inside.  Pure heaven!  SO...zip to the future and we have discovered the joys of first rate frozen oysters and naturally decided we had to try to recreate that long ago sea kissed delight.  

It took a few tries, cuz you've just got to get the batter just right, but we do believe that we have nailed it with our Crispy Batter Fried Oyster Burger, a crunchy yet succulent tartar sauce touched seafood burger, or the 'Sea Burger' as we call it around here.

Three Fried Stuffed Treasures 煎釀三寶

If you've ever been in Hong Kong or Macau or Guangdong, you've probably run into these little snacks.  These fish paste stuffed vegetable treats have evolved over the years to become a popular and long standing street side snack, usually skewered to allow you to eat the snack right there in the street.  

I really love these snacks and rather mourn the fact that, nowadays, they are rather hard to find done in the old-fashioned tasty way, meaning pan fried rather than deep fried.  Most street vendors have them precooked and waiting around all day and then just stick it in the hot oil to heat it up after you order.  Um...not too fresh, nor tasty as a matter of fact.  

So we decided to make our own the traditional way, stuffed and pan fried Three Stuffed Treasures 煎釀三寶, a delectable treat that celebrates the original sweet tastiness of the fresh vegetables while a stuffing of fragrant tangerine peel infused fish paste provides just the right contrast of texture and taste.

Chinese Fried Fish Skins 炸魚皮

Do you like potato chips?  I do!  I love crispy crunchy potato chips so much I usually end up eating the whole bag!  Well, if you love potato chips, you'll love, love, love these Chinese Fried Fish Skin Chips as much as we do!  

A local Hong Kong staple available as a side order in most noodle shops, these absolutely deliciously thin, tasty and crispy deep fried Chinese Fried Fish Skin, or 炸魚皮 could possibly be more yummilicious than potato chips! (Seriously, I'm not kidding!)

Chinese Egg Fried Rice 蛋炒飯

Chinese Egg fried rice, or 蛋炒飯, is the quintessential leftover dish.  You open your fridge and you've got leftover rice, leftover char sui, leftover choi sum, etc from yesterday's dinner.  What're you gonna do?  Make chinese egg fried rice of course.   

As long as you have the basics, i.e. rice, egg, spring onion, then you just chop up and throw in whatever else leftovers that you have and you will end up with a easy to make, lip-smacking and creative dish that you can serve instead of plain rice.  (Kids love this!  My dearest Grandma 奶奶 used to make this as an after-school snack everyday.)