Lai Bun Fu offers Hongkongers a fine-dining brunch (without the monkey brains)

Camel hump, ape lip, live monkey brains and leopard fetuses were all on the menu at the Manchu Han imperial feast (or Manhan quanxi) – the grandest, and possibly grisliest, Chinese meal ever documented. Thrown for the Kangxi emperor’s 66th birthday, after the founding of the Qing dynasty, the feast consisted of more than 300 dishes, and lasted for a gorge-tastic three days.

Hongkongers hoping to experience a more palatable, 21st-century Manhan quanxi – the term has come to describe a vast feast – are in luck. Chung Kin-leung, a former chef at Government House, has launched a fine-dining brunch at his Cantonese restaurant, Lai Bun Fu.

Giving diners a sample of the dishes he served former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, and world leaders including Hu Jintao, George Bush and Xi Jinping, chef Chung’s brunch is made up of four courses.

First up, choose three of six gourmet appetisers served in a birdcage platter – we’d recommend the steamed egg white dumpling with fungus and the deep-fried breaded crab claw.

There is also a choice of six dishes (we went for Tsang’s favourite; the stir-fried fish maw and shallot served in a sizzling black pot) and the next course includes abalone and e-fu noodles and Hong Kongstyle fried rice. Round it all off with a sago in coconut milk dessert.

The brunch costs HK$368 per person.