Four meals down and one to go, I head back to Hong Kong Island via the Star Ferry, eagerly anticipating the soon-to-be crowning achievement of my Hungry Dan marathon: Hong Kong University Alumni Association's babaoya (eight treasures duck, pronounced bah b-oww yah, 八宝鸭).

Babaoya is a roasted duck, stuffed with mushrooms, coix seed, dried scallops, dried shrimps, Chinese ham julienne, gingko nut and egg yolk, a Cantonese turducken of sorts, and HKUAA has been highly recommended by some locals, so I storm out of the ferry terminal and race to D'Aguilar Street near Lan Kwai Fong.

Buzzing with excitement, my high is swiftly brought to a crashing halt when I see the Members Only sign outside the restaurant door.

. . . %#!@*$ . . . I enter anyway, convinced that I can smooth it over with the maÎtre d'. I'm a famous restaurant critic after all.

I approach the host with caution explaining that I'm only in Hong Kong for the day, but he's un-wavering, simply offering me contact information for membership registration. I plead again, flat out telling him that I traveled all this way just to eat their babaoya and to return to Shanghai empty handed would be devastating.

He doesn't budge, offering the Cantonese version of the old mei banfa excuse.

Hungry Dan, denied at the gates.

But remember HKUAA, I will return and I WILL eat your eight treasures duck . . .

The Conclusion: rel="nofollow" Tsui Wah, a classic Hong Kong diner: Map and store locator