We Tried Hong Kong’s Legendary Whole-Roasted Goose

[man speaking Cantonese]

We are in Shenzhen,

on the outskirts of Hong Kong,

and we're here to see Master Goose Roastery,

specific regional style of roast goose

that's known all over the world.

I grew up eating this stuff. It's really delicious.

Here are the chefs.

[chef speaking Cantonese]

Hiya, hiya.

[Lucas speaking Cantonese]

First things first is the charcoal.

So this is nice, beautiful fruit wood from Southeast Asia.

It's a blend.

Traditionally in Guangzhou,

you will find lychee wood,

but here in Hong Kong,

we prefer a slightly subtler,

less sweet taste in the smokiness.

He's breaking it up, make sure it's all fit in

these large, vertical metal drums.

As the ovens are coming up to temp,

so are the geese.

And in about an hour and 15 minutes,

I'm gonna start cooking them.

The geese, when they're butchered,

are around 95 days of age,

which is a whole month longer than most.

These older geese means that the flesh is more mature,

it's more developed, more flavorful.

This entire little neighborhood was built off of roast goose

and that roast goose industry

was built off of Yue Kee right here, the first.

In the area were factories.

All these sort of like, blue collar workers

were just looking for a place to eat

and they were roasting goose.

It was a perfect lunchtime meal for a lot of the merchants

and the people who worked in the area.

Now, as that expanded, the story goes,

famous Hong Kong television channels

featured Yue Kee as a place

that celebrities playing characters would go eat.

Because they named the restaurant,

that's how this restaurant started to blow up.

People started to come and people started to notice that,

wait a second, this goose is really, really good.

That's how they got famous.

The entire process, from its slaughter to your table,

takes around three, three and a half days.

This is the first thing that happens.

[man speaking Cantonese]

After the fresh goose comes in

and it's cleaned, it's

[Lucas speaking Cantonese]

We're marinating it from the inside out,

this proprietary blend of spices,

sugar, shallots, salt, and five spice.

No MSG. [man speaking Cantonese]

I'm very proud about that fact.

He's rubbing it all inside of the carcass,

right up against that breastbone

just to get all of that flavor in there.

There is no seasoning on the outside at this stage

because any sugar on the outside

will burn a little bit too quickly.

Inside, the sugar is gonna help

bring out a little bit of that natural sweetness

inside the goose. [man speaking Cantonese]

The salt for seasoning.

And this is the stitching process.

But this honestly is maybe the most technical part

of the prep, to seal in all that moisture

so that it's gonna steam in its own juices inside out.

It's also going to keep all of that flavor

and all of that sugar in there.

'cause if any of it drips out

and falls onto the charcoal,

it disrupts the entire temperature

and the smokiness of the product.

After the geese has been stuffed and marinated,

it needs to sit inside of the freezer

because the freezer is just a little bit drier.

If the skin is nice and dry,

the skin's gonna come out nice, consistent and crispy.

For a minimum of 12 hours, the goose gets marinated.

But this is the process after marination,

before it gets hung dry.

The goose gets glazed in a mixture of sugar, maltose,

and a little bit of acid, usually vinegar.

The color changes just a little bit.

As it gets hung up, it'll puff

and pick up a really nice color.

It picks up a little bit of shine,

and you can see that moisture dripping off.

We need to let all of that moisture evaporate

over the next 12 hours before it can get roasted.

So that's a drying chamber.

Some of these have been processed today.

Some of these are going

to get ready for the oven by tomorrow.

What we're looking for is a nice, tight,

dry skin that will puff up,

pick up beautiful, consistent color in the oven.

One of the things that's interesting

and important about Cantonese barbecue

is the flavor of the marinade,

and the flavor of the meat, we believe,

is best expressed when that animal is fully cooked.

The goose is roasted on its backside

at a relatively higher heat, about medium.

For a charcoal oven like this,

the control of the temperature

all comes down to the size of the charcoal

and when he adds the charcoal.

So there's a lot of foresight

and a lot of experience involved.

Chef is gonna be here all day

roasting throughout the day in smaller batches.

That way it makes sure that the consumer

gets the freshest goose possible.

Super dark brown color, past golden, dripping fat.

There you go. Look at this goose.

Nice puffed up skin, super glossy,

nice and straight, prepped totally perfectly.

1958, they've been doing this.

Same, same look.

I know it looks delicious now,

but if we were to cut it open,

all of that liquid would just spill out

and then be on your plate

instead of inside of the goose itself.

Just like searing a steak,

when you're heating it up, you're cooking it,

all that liquid is gonna want to come out.

To make sure that it's juicy,

you have to wait for it to rest.

An order just came in from the warming oven

to the front,

to the butcher corner.

So what's interesting and exciting about this restaurant

is, it's actually multiple buildings.

Smaller buildings bridged together

with a kitchen on the side.

Feels a bit like a maze.

All the different dining rooms are different floors,

different parts of the restaurant.

[Lucas and chef speaking Cantonese]

Let go of the excess grease to make it easier for himself.

[Lucas and chef speaking Cantonese]

Neck comes off.

Hard cuts all the way through,

right along that collarbone.

[chef speaking Cantonese]

Now here comes the front wing.

That drum comes off straight in half.

[chef speaking Cantonese]

Oh, watch out.

Whoa!

Goose is known for its fat,

but just because we want it fatty

doesn't mean we want it greasy.

Yue Kee here scrapes off most of that excess fat

so that it's a more pleasant, less gamey process.

Here's the breast.

See how juicy this thing is?

Damn, almost like a filet.

That, in my opinion, is my favorite part.

Down the middle.

Even cuts, even sizes.

The bone is on here,

so you can take it off the bone as you eat it.

Thorough cuts.

We're reconstructing the natural shape of the goose.

In the front is the breast.

Boneless, easy to eat.

At the back, three luxurious, thick cuts

of the thigh, on the bone.

Head's down here,

sides of the breast.

It's gonna get a little bit of sauce.

Wow.

A little bit of that gloss.

It's basically a reduced goose stock.

All of that goose flavor,

a little bit of that pork bone flavor,

those Chinese medicinal herbs,

basic aromatics like onions and ginger.

Okay, so let's put it in an order.

There we go.

Eh?

Here's the breast meat here.

Look how dense that flesh is.

Unlike many chickens,

goose must be raised

with a good amount of area to play and move in.

Therefore, you get a lot more oxidation in the muscles.

You get a lot more movement of the muscles,

you get a lot more dense meat like this.

I'm not gonna wait for you anymore.

I'm having this on its own first.

So good.

So special.

You know why people prefer dark meat?

Because it's more flavorful, but it's not gamey.

And then bite into the skin itself.

There's a bit of crisp, almost,

and it just sinks into fat that melts inside of your mouth.

This is the cliche,

and this is one of the best things

that you can eat in Hong Kong.

We've known this for a long time.

They here have known it since 1958,

but still, every single time, it's special.

Amazing.

[woman speaking Cantonese]

She's here to show me a lesson.

Second generation owner of Yue Kee.

This is the goose brisket.

[woman speaking Cantonese]

A little bit chewy,

because it has a little bit of that tendon over the top,

but the skin is significantly crisper.

This is a very tender part of the animal

because it doesn't get moved very much.

Let's talk about the goose thigh for a second.

A lot of the time, it's the most prized part of the goose.

It's a little bit softer, it's a little bit more tender,

and it's mostly more gluttonous eating it whole,

just taking huge bites out of it.

[laughing happily]

[Lucas and woman speaking Cantonese]

Kind of like a fish cheek,

this piece is right above the butt,

towards the back of the goose, at the bottom.

It's the most flavorful,

and part of it is because the fibers of the protein

are thinner,

and it's also a relatively less used part of the protein.

This is a very delicious cook.

The brain itself, a little bit like goose liver,

a little bit powdery, a little sandy.

Deep goose flavor.

[woman speaking Cantonese]

[Lucas speaking Cantonese]

The next step, after you've had the goose on its own,

is to have it with a noodle, lai fun.

Magical combination.

This lai fun is a critical and natural complement

to the roast goose itself.

You don't really eat it

outside of the roast goose context here in Hong Kong.

Lai fun is a very slippery noodle.

It's also got a little bit of snap,

unlike most rice noodles, so it's bouncy.

The snap, I think, is textural contrast

to the succulence of the goose,

but the slipperiness mimics the goose.

The soup on its own.

[speaking Cantonese]

Clean, clear, not too salty.

It's like eating your main dish with rice.

You're not supposed to over season this.

Here's the move.

You're gonna take some of the upper back.

You're gonna dunk it inside of your lai fun.

Every time I have friends that come to Hong Kong

and I show them this, it feels like magic.

You're gonna add some of that goose sauce,

season up that broth.

You're gonna take some more of this bone, this upper back,

and immerse it inside of the lai fun

and let those flavors come together.

Wait for that goose to soften

and then start eating that noodle.

[slurping]

Magic.

It just, it feels like,

that the goose is finishing and completing

the seasoning of the noodle.

As I've always said,

some of the most delicious things are about balance,

and they're about, like, a full mouth feel,

and this primarily is my recommendation

for the best way to eat goose.

Okay.

Whew!

That was amazing.

I came here to Yue Kee expecting that

we were just gonna get a little bit of a tutorial

and a little bit of a showing of how this goose is cooked.

That wasn't all we got.

From the sourcing of the geese to the preparation of it,

the cook and the roast,

the butchery and the cutting of it,

to how to eat it

and understanding the different parts of the goose.

This is what the entire Shenzhen roast goose experience

is about.

Now, onto the next.