Poon Choi on CNY

Poon choi (pronounced: pun4 coi3), also spelled pun choi, is a traditional Chinese dish once common throughout China. It first spread to the walled villages in New Territories, Hong Kong, and then to the rest of the territory. It is a Cantonese cuisine served in large wooden, porcelain or metal basins due to the communal style of consumption. The Chinese name, transliterated as Poon choi, has been variously translated as "big bowl feast", "basin cuisine" or "Chinese casserole".

Source: wikipedia

Every year my secondary schoolmates will want to try something different for our CNY gathering dinner. We had Poon Choi once 4 years again which was quite disappointed, so this time we going to try the Poon Choi from a different restaurant.

We decided to try the Poon Choi from Tai Thong after a friend had their CNY dinner there. Other than Poon Choi, he also mentioned their Yee Sang is quite worth the try with some extra ingredients like pumpkin seeds and some berries. That's just mouth-watering thinking about it.

Our Yee Sang. We added smoked duck slices but no pumpkin seeds and berries to be found. It taste much better than those ready made and is fresh.

Poon Choi consist of a layer of yam and Chinese white radish at the bottom, a layer of napa cabbage around the pot follow by a piece of braised pork knuckle, sea cucumber, hands full of button mushroom, Shiitake, dried mussels, scallops, fish maw, pigskin and bean curb. On the top layer is where all the meats are layered out - duck meats, prawns, broccoli and the most important ingredients - abalone.

The reason behind the arrangement is that when all ingredients are layered out, the whole pot will be cook with high heat. Sauces will drip from the top layer's meats and get absorbs when it is dripping down to the bottom of the pot and mostly meats are precook so it does not need to cook for very long.

This pot of goodness can served 10 pax, you can add-on other dishes to go along with or eat it as it is with a bowl of rice or noodles.