Willie Lai is a man with one crazy talent for crisping up animal skins. He runs both the hidden Chinese barbecue joints in the backs of Dynasty Supermarket (where it’s called Dynasty Chinese BBQ) and in the newer Golden Foods (where it’s Willie’s BBQ). Dynasty is one of the oldest Asian grocery stores on Bellaire. The sounds, smells, and yellow hue haven’t changed much over the last couple of decades. Prepare to be serenaded by the high-pitched sound of whole flocks of animals being mechanically taken apart in the butcher shop. Push around your rickety cart, and you’ll experience the briny spray and smell of fish being cleaned and gutted in the seafood department. Golden Foods is much cleaner and more sparkly…if you like that sort of thing.

In the backs of both, greasy, withering cooks chop up cheap, surpassingly delicious Chinese roast duck, barbecued pork, and crispy-skinned pigs. This is downmarket Cantonese meat at its finest, and anyone nostalgic for Hong Kong’s Mong Kok neighborhood will fall in love. For less than $5, you can get a pile of char siu duck or pork with rice and a vegetable to go. The décor’s not much beyond carcasses hanging medievally on hooks, and sometimes whole roasted pigs ($120-200, if you want to luau, but your HOA forbids digging pits in the backyard).