Restaurant: Delicious Inn Restaurant
Cuisine: Chinese/Exotic
Last visited: May 2, 2010
Location: New Kowloon, Hong Kong
Address:
MTR station: Sham Shui Po
29-33 Shun Ning Road
Sham Shui Po
Tel: +852 2748-0002
深水埗順寧道29-33號地下
Price Range: $40-100HKD about $5-13CAD
1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!
Food: n/a
Service: n/a
Ambiance: n/a
Overall: n/a
Additional comments:
- Hong Kong/Cantonese style food
- Serves regular Chinese food (popular for locals)
- Also served exotic meats/food (popular for tourists)
- Serves donkey meat
- Serves bugs (imported from China… dead already)
- Casual, quick
- Budget friendly, cheap eats
- Pre-order specific bugs
- Reservations recommended (even just for ‘regular dinner’, they’re busy!)
- Video – Part 1 – Eating bugs in Hong Kong
- Video – Part 2 – Eating bug in Hong Kong
- Video – Part 3 – Eating bugs in Hong Kong
**Recommendations: n/a
**WARNING: I am warning you that this post is not for people who are squirmish or have a weak stomach.
I actually came to Delicious Inn restaurant because someone on Twitter had suggested I try something very “special” on their menu – bugs! When I first opened the link he sent me I thought it was a mistake. I closed it and reopened it… and nope it was no mistake. Delicious Inn is a Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong that serves bugs… and yes I had to try it.
Delicious Inn is a fairly large restaurant and they actually serve a lot more than just bugs! I think the bug/exotic donkey meat thing is just a novelty. They get a lot of media/touristy attention from serving these dishes, but locals don’t really order them. They have an extensive menu serving all the regular Chinese food that you would see at a standard Cantonese/Hong Kong style Chinese restaurant. It’s actually a really busy restaurant that’s very popular to locals. It closes in the mid-afternoon and you’re lucky to get a table for dinner.
When we came in we were seated at a table with an electric fly swatter on it. I was so confused. At any restaurant I would have headed out the door, but here I thought it was intentional. I had no idea what to expect and I actually thought the fly swatter was part of my dining experience. However the fly swatter was unintentional and they casually took it off the table (no shame or embarrassment) like it was no big deal… YOU KNOW YOU’RE IN HONG KONG WHEN…!!!!
Bugs.
Donkey meat.
First off… I F-ING HATE BUGS! Seriously. I am a huge FREAK OUT when it comes to creepy crawlers… but I don’t know what’s wrong with me…?! For some reason when I’m traveling I’m extremely adventurous with food. If there was a Chinese restaurant in Vancouver, BC serving bugs I’d probably say f-that… but when I’m traveling I carry a different mentality. Maybe it’s because I think “when else am I ever going to do this?”… that’s why I ate the raw cow’s intestine in Korea and the raw octopus (still moving) in Korea as well. To be honest, this isn’t my first time eating an insect. I’ve actually tried a deep-fried scorpion in Thailand before too…
On the table:
Bee Cocoons – 2/6
- Bee cocoons sauteed with salt, chillies and green onions $40HKD – about $5CAD
- I know, they should be free right? YES, we actually PAID to eat bugs. It’s a standard portion and price.
- They’re imported from China and they come dead already or they can’t cross the border.
- See video part 1 here – eating bee cocoon.
- See video part 2 here – eating bee cocoon continued.
Inside a bee cocoon.
Meal Worms – 0/6
- Meal worms sauteed with salt, chillies and green onions $40HKD – about $5CAD
- Ew… just looking at the picture makes me shiver… thinking back… *shiver*
- Imported dead from China.
- See video here – eating meal worms.
I am a trooper. How I managed to look happy doing it…? I have no idea.
Water Beetles – 1/6
- Deep fried water beetles. Minimum 8 required per order. $80HKD – about $11CAD
- These were expensive too! It’s a standard portion and price and you can’t order just one to try.
- They’re imported dead from China.
- Looking back at these photos… I kind of want to barf…
- See video here – eating water beetles.
They’re huge.
This was already the 2nd water beetle I “peeled” so I had calmed down at this point.
HOW TO EAT WATER BEETLES:
Step 1: Rip off the legs.
Step 2: Peel off the wings.
Step 3: Rip off the head.
Step 4: Eat.
Wings off.
Inside a water beetle.
The bee cocoons and meal worms are usually in stock. They also have water beetles, water roaches, crickets and other bugs that you have to pre-order. It’s actually hard to get them in stock since they’re imported from China, so that’s why they’re actually quite pricey… for something you could find literally on the street.
Delicious Inn is super busy! Honestly, the locals don’t even know they serve bugs here and Delicious Inn doesn’t really promote it either. The people that order them are mainly tourists, like myself. To them, they just don’t really care… if you order bugs then okay, and if you don’t then that’s fine as well. Even the locals freaked out when they saw me eating them… I offered to treat them to my plate of bugs and they all denied the offer. If we were in China and Hong Kong it would have been a different story. REAL China street food is intense.
We actually ended up ordering take-out from them lol. It was so busy and fully booked for the night, so we got curious and had to see how their ‘regular’ food was. See! They serve regular Chinese food like fried rice! It was good too.
Soy Sauce Chow Mien… this was pretty good too. See “normal” Chinese food!
Donkey meat. No I’m kidding. I thought the bugs were enough for a day… this is just a chicken dish. It was good though! Pretty oily, but still very flavourful. Yes, chicken dishes in Asia – the whole chicken – all the parts, bones, skin, feet… everything.
