Houjie Roast Goose Lai Fun

Houjie roast goose lai fun sets crisp golden roast goose over fine, smooth lai fun rice noodles, then floods the bowl with a ladle of boiling broth, so the noodle soaks up the goose juices and turns fresh, sweet and silken — a Houjie speciality more than a century old.

Houjie sits by river and sea, and where the soil once turned too salty for farming the locals went to the riverbanks to cut salt-marsh grass for weaving mats; the worksites were remote, so they carried simple lai fun noodles to eat, and a noodle tradition took root, later wedded to open-fire roast goose to become a dish famed across Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau.

Fresh-roasted goose is sliced over lai fun in a bowl, drenched with boiling broth and scattered with scallion; diners sip the soup first, then eat goose and noodles together, the everyday way to enjoy it at Dongguan street stalls and cha chaan teng.

The contrast of "golden goose, silver noodles," the crisp-skinned lychee-wood-roasted goose and the broth-soaked freshness of the noodles are the unmistakable marks of Houjie roast goose lai fun.