Makansutra: Cantonese roast meats to sink your teeth into
Good Cantonese roast meat is hard to find
It is easy to enjoy a platter of Cantonese roast meats laid out prettily on a long plate, with a row of shiny dark brown roast duck, another of crispy crackling roast pork and some char siew gleaming with malt honey BBQ sauce.
It all sits above a bed of cool cucumbers, all ready to be devoured with a mound of steamed rice doused with the stall's rendition of a Cantonese BBQ sauce redolent of hoisin, malt honey and duck fat drippings.
All so easy to like, but not an easy tradition to hold on to.
I sense it will slowly fade away and resurface for a new clueless generation, made by robots in a central kitchen.
Making good Cantonese roast is not just about the recipe.
It's about technique, not often relayed accurately online as there are "secret" methods you will not find there.
Even the duck breed has to be carefully chosen for its purpose - the "fat under the skin" breed for roasting and the fatter, meatier variety for braised renditions.
It's now getting increasingly difficult to find really comforting roast meat hawker stalls.
Cost is going up and quality is diminishing, and not many want to enter the market, let alone the complex roast meat hawker stall business.
And if you can, go easy on those mass market $16 roast ducks - my late foodie father would turn in his grave if it is ever offered at his altar.
Many reviews I find online are not reliable and are, at best, shallow to me.
Then I came across Ju Kee Charcoal Roast Meats at Holland Drive.
Nothing fancy out front - with some roast ducks, char siew and roast pork hung out and shining under the warm spotlights.
But when you tuck in, you know that there are masters behind this stall.
Ju Kee has at least three outlets but this is where I visited twice. The hired cooks tell me they move around to each stall but it was very consistent.
You see the Apollo oven, that ubiquitous charcoal roast meat drum used to fire up the meats.
The control of the charcoal fire temperature, the marinate and plating are all done the way we have grown accustomed to and like.
The roast duck ($44 for a whole duck) was my favourite as it came with roasty skin and moist juicy meat.
There is a faint wistful hint of dang gui herbs, but it's just enough to contain the offending gaminess.
A half bird is good enough for four people.
The char siew was how I like it - chunky bold slices with charred edges (actually burnt marinade) and the flavour permeates the meat.
You can imagine how satisfying it is to sink into a sliver, over soft fluffy rice with some of their BBQ sauce.
The sio bak, or roast pork, offered is classic hawker-style.
They "overbake" the crackling till it comes black and charred, then scrape the outer layer off to reveal a thin, light crisp when you bite in.
Long live good Cantonese roast culture.
Ju Kee Charcoal Roast Meats
Block 46, Holland Drive
(coffeeshop), #01-359
9am to 7.30pm daily
K. F. Seetoh, the founder of Makansutra, dabbles in street food businesses like Food Markets and has his own TV shows on cable. He publishes food guides and online content. He is also the creator of the World Street Food Congress. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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