Sang's Special at Sang Sang, Aigburth, Liverpool

This is Aigburth Road, Liverpool, where I grew up. Specifically this is Sang Sang, a chip shop, commonly referred to as Sang Sang's. Sang Sang is the home of the Sang's special. The Sang's special is the most expensive item on the menu at Sang Sang. It costs £4.80. The prices in Sang Sang have not changed since 1996, when a potato shortage led to an increase in the price of chips.

The Sang's Special is served in two containers: the one larger one contains the Special and the smaller one contains either rice, chips or half rice half chips. The majority of chip shops in Liverpool serve chinese food; all meals in these chip shops may be served on a bed of rice, chips or half rice half chips. In this photo the smaller container contains only rice.

The Sang's Special consists of layers of chicken, beef and char-sui sitting atop a mixture of prawns, green pepper, beansprouts, water chestnuts and mushrooms. It is then finished with a fried egg and the takeaway tray is filled up with gravy. I believe that Sang Sang use Bisto brand gravy granules.

To eat the Sang's Special tip the rice/chips onto a large plate then open and invert the larger container onto the rice/chips. This allows any gravy that has pooled at the bottom of the tray to percolate back through the special and into the starch mound. Unfortunately this means that the fried egg is buried beneath the rest of the special; carefull jiggling can allow you reposition the egg on top of the special but this is far from easy.

The Sang Special represents excellent value for £4.80 as the generous portion is sure to sate even the largest appetite and the wide variety of ingredients means you could certainly say that it offers "something for everyone". I would highly recommend the Sang's Special to anyone who likes good Chinese food looking for a great meal to eat at home in Aigburth.

It has only just occurred to me that "the egg problem" could be solved thus: i) remove lid from both tray ii) transfer egg to larger lid using smaller lid for manouvering iii) invert starch tray iv) invert special tray v) replace egg using tray lids, as before. I wish I'd thought of this earlier.