Wei Kee Restaurant,
10, Medan Imbi, Jalan Imbi,
55100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-2144 6363
Business hours: Daily and
only on alternate Wednesdays
from 9.00am to 8.00pm.
Non halal.
Century-old family recipe keeps customers coming back for more.
SERVING up a century-old family recipe for roast goose and duck has won Wei Kee Restaurant many loyal customers who continuously make return visits.
“This is actually a recipe taught to my family almost 20 years ago by my uncle who runs a restaurant in Hong Kong. My uncle believed that the dishes would help our restaurant become outstanding,” said the restaurant owner’s son Yong Chor Teck .
He had studied the art of roasting a goose and duck from his uncle for almost two years in Hong Kong.
“My uncle’s restaurant is located in an area called Sham-Tseng that is popular for food. Goose is considered a delicacy among the locals and people in Hong Kong consume it often,” he said.
Yong said that the recipe included stuffing the duck with 14 to 18 types of herbs and marinating it for a minimum of 24 hours.
“The geese are roasted for about an hour and 15 minutes before it is served. Over the years, we have also come to realise that roast goose is a very popular dish to have at family dinners during festivals,” he said, adding that goose meat tasted sweeter compared to a duck’s.
He also said that each goose usually weighed between 3.4kg and 4kg and cost between RM170 and RM200, depending on the market price of the fowl.
“Currently, our geese are imported from China and Hungary. In the past, we had import problems due to lack of supply.
“Sometimes, we have had to wait up to three months in between shipments though this had not happened for the past 10 years,” Yong said.
Yong’s family started up their restaurant back in 1983 and the original outlet, specialising in the famous Hong Kong Sham-Tseng roast goose and duck, is still open for business in the Pudu area.
“We opened another branch in the Imbi market area back in 2002 but had to move out unfortunately to make way for development of the financial district this year,” he said of the new restaurant location at Medan Imbi.
This Wei Kee Restaurant branch has also spread its wings to focus on other dishes apart from the famous roast fowl dishes.
One of these is the appetiser of goose web created by Yong’s mother.
“This dish has a hint of Thai cooking in it. The original uses vinegar that we thought was too sour hence we switched it to a plum and lime sauce.
“Other ingredients included in the dish include groundnut, parsley and chilli padi,” Yong said, adding that only the web’s skin is used in the dish.
Yong also draws attention to his aunt’s homemade taufu that is smooth and can be cooked in a variety of ways including fried or steamed plain.
“One of our specialties is the steamed fish head. We usually recommend four types of fish for this, which are the Tong San Yu, Sang Yu, Tai Tou Yu or Tilapia.
“There are also four different ways it can be prepared, which are ginger and garlic, black bean, bean paste and with soy sauce,” he said.
For those who want a different type of fowl, there is the steamed chicken cooked the Hakka way.
“Kampung chicken is used for this dish that highlights the fresh and sweet taste of the chicken, as it is just rubbed with salt before being steamed,” he said.
This is the writer’s personal observation and is not an endorsement by Star Metro.