Thanks @beefnoguy. Yah it’s sad. During our visits to Sam Woo BBQ at Focus Plaza / Valley, there were zero younger people in the restaurant outside of our group. Everyone there looked older / grandparents, etc. Then 20 feet away at some random Boba Tea shop in the same plaza, there was a massive throng of young Chinese kids checking their phones and snapping photos and talking.
By estimation how many dai pai dongs are still left?
If I go sometime in the next few years will they still be around?
There are fewer home cooking Cantonese joints like Sam Woo now, but it is food that most young Chinese can still get at home, while the older folks find it easier to go to Sam Woo and HoKee than to make the food for themselves. That said, most of the large Cantonese restaurants like Elite, Seafood Harbour, King Hua, and Lunasia are still there, even as many other different types of Chinese food have moved into the SGV.
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how’s the duck skin supposed to be crispy unless the duck just came out of the oven? these places always serve pre-roasted stuff
Hi @Nemroz,
Yah I was thinking that also, but I remember one time (years ago) visiting the SGV with some friends and we had roast duck that had crispy skin at one of the casual HK BBQ places (forgot where).
But recently, we went to Ming Kee BBQ and it had crisped duck skin (even though we showed up late after the lunch rush). 
Hi @JeetKuneBao,
I had to Google that. 
Wow, it sounds really sad! There are only 25 left?!
“There are only 25 dai pai dong left in Hong Kong: 11 in Sham Shui Po, 10 in Central, three in Wan Chai and one in Tai O, according to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, which manages the licences.”
(Source: South China Morning Post.)
Baking soda
In the Ming Kee thread you mentioned roast pork. Ever been to Ruby BBQ in El Monte?
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Roast Pork is the speciality!
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I agree.
Proper preparation of roast duck requires at least 8 hours of drying. California only allows for 4 hours, but that’s acceptable. I’ve never personally use baking soda, but my relatives have used that in their restaurants. You also need to cook it long and hot enough to melt most of the fat. Some restaurants get lazy and don’t do this correctly. If there’s too much fat, there’s no way it’s going to be crispy.
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Great info.
Wing Wah is closing at the end of August 
Supposedly it is because they have no heirs to take over the business, not because of rent or the Michelin curse…
https://www.hk01.com/社會新聞/198515/米芝蓮-50年老字號竹昇麵-永華麵店結業-店員-與加租無關
Oh NO! I need to get out to HK fast for one last bite…
Hi @beefnoguy,
Oh no. Is this the same “Wing Wah Bakery” that makes @paranoidgarliclover’s favorite Moon Cakes? (the super light one with lotus?)
I originally thought that, but there’s a mention of a Wing Wah noodle house upthread. Sad for the noodles, but happy for my mooncakes. 
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And it’s Anthony Bourdain (again), to the rescue… See link above. Lost food arts are heartbreaking to see…
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FWIW, noodle boy is very, very, very good, but not related to the noodle “astronomical” planet/world/universe/big bang series of pan-asian offerings.
and somewhere on this board, some one has to have broached the idea of sam woo/sam wah/sam whatever where ‘sam’ refers not to a person, but the number ‘three’. my understanding is that some places bearing the name are related and some are not.
i patronized the sam woo on valley weekly for almost 15 years before i discovered that one of the waiters was a cousin by marriage when we both attended my aunt’s funeral,
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