Peking Duck @ Cuisine Cuisine (The Mira), Hong Kong

Last Wednesday night, we celebrated not one birthday, not two birthdays, but three birthdays! Hubby's (twin) aunts held their joint 50th a few days prior in Perth, and we were terribly disappointed to have missed it by one lousy day (we flew back to Hong Kong the day before the party). Our flights had been booked and paid for a couple of months before these aunts announced their party plans, and it proved difficult and very expensive to change our flight bookings. So we told them we'd take them out to dinner when they were in HK again. It turned out that the hubby of one of the aunts had his birthday on the following day, and it was quite a treat having a triple birthday celebration dinner. Our original plan to bring them to a swish French restaurant fell through as that restaurant had a no-child-under-8 policy, so instead we booked at Cuisine Cuisine at The Mira, a 2-Michelin-starred restaurant serving modern Cantonese food. We'd been there before, so we knew it was not going to disappoint (I really dig the high chair that our boy got to sit on). We got excellent service (all the staff were informed of our son's allergies so I didn't need to repeat myself), and the food was delicious. Since we had a bigger group than last time, we took the opportunity to try out one of Cuisine Cuisine's signature dish, the Peking duck, which had to be ordered at least one day in advance. The Peking duck courses didn't fail to impress everyone at the table, and our well-travelled aunts declared it to be one of the best they've had so far.

A special trolley was wheeled to near our table, and the waitress brought the whole roasted duck to show it to us:

The roasted duck was then returned to the trolley, where the chef carved up the crispy skin and flesh:

These slices of roast duck were the best we've yet encountered (and we've had a lot in several different cities!), better than Spring Deer, better than the one we had at the famed Quanjude in Beijing itself. Perfectly crispy skin and succulent tender flesh:

We enjoyed the duck with three different kinds of pancakes, which were presented in three tiers of bamboo steamers:

The vegetable sticks to go with the duck inside the pancakes (see here for an image of how I typically assemble the duck and vegetables on the pancake):

There were a couple of options for the second course of the Peking duck, and we chose Sang Choy Bao. Flavourful minced duck with lettuce cups just visible in the background:

Fried Red Rice with Scallops and Seafood, enjoyed by everyone:

Deep-fried Mashed Taro Ring, which I loved last time and couldn't resist ordering again that night. It was quite a novel dish for our relatives who'd never seen this dish before:

Deep-fried King Prawns with a honey chilli sauce. Succulent and juicy prawns with crispy lotus root - yummy!

The restaurant provided a complimentary birthday cake, which was a deliciously light mango mousse cake, perfectly enjoyable even after a big dinner:

We all had a great time savouring good food and enjoying wonderful company, and we all stayed out far too late for a school night. And our boy was such a well-behaved angel which made the night all the more successful.

Cuisine Cuisine at The Mira
3/F, The Mira Hong Kong
118 Nathan Road
Tsimshatsui, Kowloon
Tel. +85 2 2315 5222