I think I’ve been eating too much chashu lately. Not enough charsiu. To me, Japanese chashu is braised pork belly. Texture-wise, I compare chashu to Italian porchetta (have I thoroughly confused you?). Of charsiu, chashu, and porchetta my first love is charsiu. And then there’s Chinese roast pork, which is a whole category unto itself. I’ll stop here before I get myself confused (I’m already drooling, sorry TMI).
Anyway, I had an appointment with my orthodontist to check my teeth and retainers. Nearby is a place called Roast Duck Kitchen (99-115 Aiea Heights Drive, Aiea, Hawaii).
Sign
The place had pretty good write-ups on Yelp, and since I was in the neighborhood (ahem) … I checked it out. It’s basically take-out. In order to get a good sample of their offering, I ordered two combination plates.
Charsiu and Roast Chicken with Rice
I ordered this combo to compare with the crispy chicken and charsiu lunch plate at Lam’s Garden (posted a few posts back).
Roast Pork and Roast Duck with Rice
This plate would be for dinner to be shared with The Cat.
The roast chicken was not bad, but I will give the advantage to the crispy chicken at Lam’s Garden (the crispy skin was the tipping point). The charsiu at Lam’s Garden was fatter (which is not a positive quality for charsiu, in my opinion). However, the charsiu at Roast Duck Kitchen had more gristle. Again, a slight advantage to Lam’s Garden. Fat I can live with, gristle, not so much.
The plate we ate for dinner fared better. Both the roast duck and roast pork were pretty good. Not knock your socks off but extremely decent. Sometimes roast ducks can be too bony. This roast duck had enough meat on it. The roast duck was also pretty tasty.
The roast pork was on the leaner side and was tasty. The skin wasn’t as crispy as I would have liked it but that was probably due to us not eating it right away. Not the fault of the restaurant.
Both Roast Duck Kitchen and Lam’s Garden included vegetables with the plates. Roast Duck Kitchen used cabbage while Lam’s Garden used choy sum. For me, the nod goes to Lam’s Garden.
While it’s probably not a place I would drive across the mountain for, if I’m in the area, a definite option.
On a side note, I used the rice to make The Cat zhou(aka jook) for dinner. The jook turned out a little thinner than what The Cat likes, so I added a little bit of wheat germ. I used the duck sauce and coated the bowl before adding in the jook (inspired by the jook at Lam’s Kitchen, a few posts back).
Bowl with Duck Sauce
Filled with Rice and Wheat Germ Jook
The Cat was impressed. 🙂
Enjoy.
The Mouse
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