Fok Ken Chow Mai Fun

We went to this restaurant on Saturday, per a recommendation in Creative Loafing:

Chicken Soup for the Chinese Soul It doesn't get any cheaper or better than Hong Kong BBQ
BY CYNTHIA WONG
Those who favor Chinese restaurants cleaned up and pretty should go ahead and strike Hong Kong BBQ off their list. Located in the food court of the Chinatown Mall in Chamblee, the tiny fast-food stand is all business, no frills. Ducks roasted to a rosewood lacquer dangle from hooks behind a glass window smeared with a mosaic of fingerprints and grease. Slabs of barbecued pork in a metal pan soak up drippings from the meats hanging above. The detritus of hacked-up soy sauce chicken clings to the blade of a cleaver wielded with ferocious accuracy and efficiency by the restaurant's cooks.
Ex-pat central: A large, hand-lettered sign referring to the hanging ducks and pork reads "For display only." Posted for the benefit of Anglo diners, the sign is tacked up on the barbecue station window and has no Chinese equivalent. The food court itself — dingy, careworn and populated with older Asian men arguing loudly, sipping tea and thumbing through Chinese newspapers — recalls the hawker centers of Hong Kong and Singapore. It's not hard to imagine the food court is one of the few places in the Atlanta area where Chinese expatriates feel fully at home.
Duck, duck, pork: Diners are informed their meals are ready by way of a cheerleader-like announcement over a P.A. system. The barbecued meats might be the best I've had in Atlanta yet. Barbecued duck (1/4 duck, $3.99) has crisp, tawny skin glistening with soy and honey. It's rich, livery and butter-tender.
Rice dream: Custard-like congee (rice porridge, $3.29) is velvety with the starch of broken rice. Shreds of salty pork and wedges of bouncy preserved eggs dot the creamy landscape. Hong Kong-style wonton noodle soup ($3.79) boasts rich, dark chicken broth as a base for a tangle of fine egg noodles and wontons plump with a treasure of gently curled shrimp.
Go bananas: Banana leaf squid ($6.99) isn't cooked inside the leaves, but presented on one. Underneath a crunchy egg batter, slices of squid are astonishingly tender. A coating of brick-red chili sauce provides heady fire. We'll return to Hong Kong BBQ for a go at the soy sauce duck wings and roast pig on rice. With nearly 100 items and filling portions, you could make a second career of eating your way through the menu. What glorious work it would be.
Hong Kong BBQ 5385 New Peachtree Road (Chinatown Mall food court), Chamblee. 770-451-7277. Daily, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; closed Wednesdays. Entree range: $3.29-$8.29. Cash only. No alcohol served. Lot parking.

Ms. Wong did not mention that this restaurant also offers a dish titled: Fok Ken Chow Mai Fun which sounds vaguely like a strange interpretation of Bite Me. Also this was the most AUTHENTIC Chinese restaurant I have ever been to, which means that A) they offer dishes such as Pork Kidney and Pork Stomach Rice Congee and Assorted Meat on Rice (I don't know which one to be more afraid of) and Braised Fish Head. I am really, really worried that in Hell they might serve Pork Intestine with Black Bean Sauce. Also they butcher their pigs THERE. IN THE RESTAURANT, and I know this because I saw two whole dead pigs carried into the restaurant, perhaps to be turned into Pork Intestine Combination.
This food court also contained several other restaurants, one of which didn't bother to post a menu in English at all, but had covered the surrounding walls with numbers and then chinese script in what was clearly a menu. This restaurant was called something Hot Pot. All of the restaurants had exclusively Chinese people eating there and had menus posted entirely in Chinese with rather grudging English subtitles here and there. Also there was a nice outdoor garden at which one could dine if one so wished.

It's probably rather jejune of me to mock other cultures or find amusement in what they eat; God only knows what they think of something like a HAMBURGER, or meatloaf, or lasagna; or find puerile amusement in the fact that some of the foods sound like Dirty Words but I can't help it. Sorry. By the way, I had Barbecue Combination, which was Ribs, pork, and duck. All of it was normal looking- I also badly wanted to take some of the duck heads with me home, you could play good pranks with them. You could, for example, slip one into an unattended purse at a party; put a bunch of them in a medicine cabinet so that when someone opened the medicine cabinet in the morning they would all fall out; attach one to your car antenna; Put one in your husband's pocket; tie one to your rearview mirror; Put one in your neighbours' mailboxes. But I didn't.

What else happened? We discovered one of Daniel's previously unrevealed quirks; I did not know that he would not ride in anyone else's car. Trey offered to drive the Treymobile but Daniel refused so we went in their car. We went to the Colonnade, which was probably the diametric opposite to the Chinese restaurant in terms of decor and food and familiarity. Trey and Daniel split a 24 oz steak; Sandy got a seafood platter, despite not wanting half of what was on it; I got pompano with Krabmeat stuffing and a white wine-cream sauce. It was fabulous as always. Trey and I wore interesting outfits; Trey said I was the Red Dot and he wore his goth coat and cowboy hat and was Cowboy Vamp and I wore a red blazer, red shirt and red corduroy pants.
Daniel was impressed with the size and cheapness of the drinks. Sandy liked the food a lot. We shall definitely have to go back-

We went to see Fidelio; Rob could not go and then Trey could not go, so Daniel went in his place and then Daniel's allergies acted up and he did not like that too much. It had beautiful music, somewhat reminiscent of Pastorale, especially in the overture- and a HAPPY ENDING. Very rare in opera. I hate the Civic Center, though, our seats are like a thousand miles away from the stage and the sound is terrible. It feels like I am looking at the stage through a microscope and listening to the production through a wall. I don't know WHAT the Civic Center was designed to host- but nothing that I can think of.

O and Trey acted up on Saturday; he came home and was saying, You SUCK, over and over again, to some non existent entity in the dining room. I can divine to some extent why but the rest of it is a mystery.

I would like to note that on the check-in check out list for Monday the 18th, next to Miss Darleen Bolton (one of my students)'s name, the reason for her arrival at school at 12:51 is listed as Spellbound. Interesting.