Dinner at the American Peking

We wanted to go to an authentic Chinese food restaurant, so went to the American Peking restaurant in Wan Chai. The restaurant's was opened in the 1940s during the war to cater to American soldiers. It's two stories high and very busy. The locals tend to use the bottom level, ex pats and visitors tend to use upstairs. It's a western version of a Chinese food restaurant in that there's a big lazy susan in the middle of the table. Normally we would have Chinese tea before the meal, but didn't this time. Jen and Bob have been here many times and love it!

When the owner died, he bequeathed the restaurant to his waiting staff with the understanding that it will always be the American Peking restaurant. Subsequently, most of the wait staff are in their 70s! We had a marvelous meal of sizzling beef, vegetarian dumplings, deep fried prawns, seaweed with bamboo shoots, bok choy, egg fried rice, lettuce wraps with spicy chicken and of course peking duck. We ate with chopsticks and had a marvelous time. We had Tsing Tao (sing tow) beer and cokes!

Watching the waiter carve the Peking duck, it was obvious he does this most of the evening. The knife was very sharp and he deftly carved the entire duck within a couple of minutes. Sarah and Meg were so excited to share their love of this food with us, it was amazing. We were there at 7:30 and when we left, it was really starting to fill up!