Hong Kong – Delicious Inn Restaurant (Serves bugs)

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 came to Delicious Inn restaurant because someone on Twitter suggested me to 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! The bugs and exotic donkey meat seems to have gotten them media attention, but it appears to be more of a novelty because most of their regular diners didn’t even know they offered it. They have an extensive menu serving all the regular Chinese food that you would see at a standard Cantonese/Hong Kong style Chinese restaurant and 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 other restaurant I would have headed out the door, but here I thought it was intentional. I had no idea what to expect and I 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… yes, the “opportunities” that traveling can bring me is always a surprise!

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.
• I know it sounds weird, but it actually tasted like french fries and they were salted well with some added chili.
• The inside was almost soft and mushy like a potato and the exterior is crispy.
• Look at that, deep frying anything always makes it better.
• 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 shudder… thinking back… *shudder*
• Imported dead from China.
• I take that back. Never mind, deep frying everything does not make it better.
• I did not enjoy these and they didn’t taste like fries. It had a weird after taste and odd crunch.
• See video here – eating meal worms.

I am a trooper. How I managed to look happy doing it… ? I have no idea.

Water Beetles – 0/6

• 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…
• These were not good either. They were deep fried and that didn’t help.
• They weren’t salty, but had mushy centres and tasted like mushy shrimp paste.
• 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 offer water beetles, water roaches, crickets and other bugs that you have to pre-order. It’s 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 didn’t even know they served bugs here and Delicious Inn didn’t really promote it either. The people that ordered them were 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 not Hong Kong it would have been a different story. REAL China street food is intense.

This is surprising, but we 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 the day. This is just a chicken dish. It was good though! Pretty oily, but still very flavourful. Yes, chicken dishes in Asian cuisine are almost always served whole with all the parts, bones, skin, feet and everything.

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