Mui Kee Congee - Famous Mongkok Porridge with Permanent Outlet in Singapore

Mui Kee is a popular porridge stall that originated in Mongkok way back in 1979. It is currently managed by its third generation owner Ah Tung. The Les Amis Group brought Mui Kee to Singapore last year and it started out as a pop-up stall in Botanic Gardens. I've been wanting to try them out since but busy schedules denied me of this opportunity. In the month of March, Mui Kee opened their first permanent outlet in Shaw Centre. I took the Good Friday break to bring my mom to try it out.

I knew there was going to be a queue so made it a point to arrive early. Nevertheless, I still underestimated the waiting time. I assumed that those chasing the latest fad would have already eaten their fill of Mui Kee when they were at Botanic Gardens. Turns out, there's a lot more people like me who only managed to make time now.

I believed many in the queue shared my sentiments and some left the queue to eat at Tsuta, Kam's Roast and Tim Ho Wan just opposite the street. Are the developers trying to develop some kind of Hong Kong street? My total queue time was 1 Hour 5 mins.

I discovered that the set menus were unavailable during weekends and public holidays. So my mom and I settled for the Sakura Shrimps Steamed Rice Noodles ($5.50) to kick start our meal. The dish was served with a small dish of soya sauce. The steamed rice noodles tasted great and was easy to finish. My mom who basically needs chilli in her food was pleasantly surprised that the dish won her approval without chilli.

As we referred to the staff for recommendations, the staff tried to sell us everything. I selected the Sliced Parrot Congee ($9.80) as I like using fish congee as a gauge among Cantonese restaurants I eat at. This is when the staff suggested also trying the Sliced Threadfin Congee ($16) because its supposed to be sweeter. 

The congee are very smooth and you can hardly feel the grains. However, I felt that the sweetness of the porridge was lacking. It didn't help that I just ate a coffeeshop porridge at Tampines a couple of days back that truly impressed me. Both bowls were generous with their servings and it's definitely advisable to share. I didn't feel the Sliced Threadfin Congee was distinctively sweeter than the Slice Parrot Fish Congee. To be fair, both are definitely above average in terms of quality and for restaurant dining, it's definitely pocket friendly.

I reserved special mention for the dough fritters ($2) which we ordered to go with our porridge. It's fried excellently. There's not a hint of oiliness and it's very crispy. The entire bowl of dough fritters were a joy to eat on its own and really we kinda forgot we were eating flour. I think you know good dough fritters when you don't feel full despite devouring the whole bowl of fried dough and still can eat another bowl.

Would I return to Mui Kee? It's a very attractive place to dine at because of its wallet friendly pricing. I don't think I'd be willing to queue another hour to try their other porridge selections though. I'd highly recommend Mui Kee if you want a good quality meal at the heart of town but would like to keep your dining cost below a $50 budget for two.

Mui Kee Congee
Shaw Centre, 1 Scotts Road, #01-12, S228208

Recommended Food in Hong Kong 2017

I skipped a post over the weekends because I'm away in Hong Kong. If you were following my instagram (@bluntandfussyeater) you would have noticed the overseas activity. This is should be my 5th visit to Hong Kong so am avoiding food I've tried before unless they are my hot favourite. Here's the recommended list from my most recent trip:

What's a trip to Hong Kong without dim sum? So the first stop was at this very instagrammable dim sum restaurant called Yum Cha. Most of the food on their menu is really meant to feed the camera first then the human. A quick introduction of what I ate in clockwise order, siew mai, prawn cheong fun, a combination shot, mango sago with blue cotton candy, piggy char siew bao, salted egg bao who can make vomiting and pooping expressions, spicy dumplings and pineapple bird tarts. I was pretty surprised that the food was surprisingly decent for this kind of novelty cafe. In fact, I'm of the view that Singapore Dim Sum tastes better but this is surprisingly close to our shopping mall establishments. If you love to take photos of food like me, then you can't miss visiting this place! Expect to shell out about $50-80 sgd for 3 pax.

Yum Cha
2/F Nan Fung Place, 173 Des Voeux Road Central

Another standard fixture of ALL my Hong Kong trips is a trip to Maxim Palace for this E-Fu Noodles that one can die for. Yes, plain looking, ordinary E-Fu noodles with mushrooms... yet, you can't find a dish that taste similar in Singapore. This E-Fu noodles doesn't have a strong oily taste unlike the ones back home and they have this addictive wok-hei tastiness that goes very well with the mushrooms that doesn't make me sick of having it.

 

To be fair, Maxim Palace serves up excellent Cantonese dishes. All the dishes at Maxim Palace was impeccably executed. For my mom who hates Cantonese food especially those in Hong Kong because they don't have chilli, she's full of praises of this place. This is also a must visit place for me and in my previous entry last year, I raved about the soups. I'll definitely be back again when I make my 6th trip to Hong Kong and I encourage everyone else to eat here at least once. At the very least, you should know how top quality Cantonese dishes should taste like. Expect a damage of $100-$150 SGD for 3 pax.

Maxim Palace
168-200 Connaught Road Central, Sheung Wan

Australian Dairy Company is also a repeat feature from my 2016 post. I love the milk puddings there. I think it's an acquired taste because my mom and brother didn't like it. Yet, Vain Pot and I vouch that it's heavenly and just have it along with the macaroni and scrambled eggs set. We have milk puddings at Ah Chew's Dessert in Singapore but if you tried it before, you will realise how far apart the standard is from the one at Australian Dairy Company. This is the best I've ever eaten! They have a custard version but I like the milk pudding a lot better. Expect a damage of $16 SGD for a set meal with custard pudding and milk pudding.

Australian Dairy Company
47 Parkes Street, Jordan

Another thing that have always been on my to-try list is rainbow cheese toast. In this case, I always thought that Kala Toast was a cafe-like establishment. I was quite surprised by the hole in the wall shopfront and being a hobbyist food blogger unlike the pros, taking the rainbow toast photo standing proved to be a hassle. The other highlight at Kala Toast is their galaxy drink which they placed luminous ice cubes inside the drink and it changes colour when you stir it. The rainbow cheese toast taste like an excellently prepared grilled cheese. The rainbow cheese makes it a little gimmicky but it's definitely a good representation of a good cheese toast. This is a snack rather than a full meal, you might wanna give it a try if you happen to be in Tsuen Wan for shopping. The shopping malls there are less crowded, making it a more pleasant shopping experience.

Kala Toast
4 Tsuen Hing Path

Before the trip, my mom who hates ramen actually said she will bring us to try a famous ramen place in Hong Kong. Wow! I was intrigued. Turns out that it was Ichiran which I personally haven't tried before but have heard loads of rave reviews on it. So we went to queue for it! When you first step into the place and see this long sneaking queue that extends past 2 corridors it's quite frightening. How long do we need to wait?! Thankfully it's only a 30min wait and we were seated with our food. The ramen lives up to its fame with a very rich and flavourful broth with a spiciness level that gives it its added kick. I very much enjoyed the noodles with the broth but didn't like the char siew which was hard and a little too dry. The egg was awesome, running yolk on the inside and the sturdy egg white to match. Would I queue to eat this again? Not really, I feel I can find equivalents in Singapore without the queue. It's still a good experience especially if you haven't tried the one in Japan before. Expect to pay around $50-80 SGD for 3 pax. 

Ichiran

G/F & Shop B, Basement Floor, 8 Minden Avenue, Tsim Tsa Shui

The visit to Lin Heung was honestly unexpected because I originally wanted to have tomato noodles for breakfast. Hong Kong's Independence Day along with Xi Jinping's visit caused a lot of shops to close on that day. Lin Heung is a traditional dim sum cha chan teng which requires visitors to share their seats and order their dim sum from pushcarts. While the food isn't fantastic, I enjoyed the old school way of having dim sum and the wider variety that I don't find in restaurants. It's also a more affordable way to feast on a lot of dim sum. Expect a damage of $23 for 2 pax. 

Lin Heung

162 Wellington Street, Sheung Wan

If you don't like the chaos of ordering dim sum, here's an alternative typical Hong Kong breakfast set which you can get at another Cha Chan Teng at Honolulu Coffee Shop. In Singapore, Honolulu Cafe is famed for their egg tarts which apparently has a wider variety than their original outlet in Hong Kong. Talk about innovation... However, the breakfast set, ordinary as it looks is really comfort food and I love it. I'm craving for it at the moment and wondering where I can get an equivalent in Singapore. If you want to know how ordinary food like good scrambled eggs, buttered buns and kong zai instant noodles should taste like, give Honolulu Coffee Shop a try! Then you will know the difference back home. Expect to pay about $15 for 2 pax.

Honolulu Coffee Shop
176-178 Hennessey Road, Wan Chai

You know I was quite upset throughout the trip because I didn't have any good authentic Cantonese soup and porridge this time round. So at the airport, I dragged my family to have lunch at Ho Hung Kee, Michelin Star for their Wonton Mee but serves up the best Cantonese Porridge I have eaten. This is a restaurant that I gladly agree deserves their Michelin Star. On the day that Xi Jinping was in Hong Kong, I happen to chance upon a Bib Gourmand restaurant which also served porridge and soup and seriously, that was an epic 'how did they get the Michelin recognition?'. You got to try their sliced fish porridge at least once. Then you will know how far it differs from the porridge in all the expensive restaurants in Singapore and this one is way way way better! I paid about $60 for 3 pax.

Ho Hung Kee
Hong Kong Airport

Honolulu Cafe

This entire month I am overwhelmed with work, in particular this weekend. Didn't have any time to have a complete meal with friends worthy to write about till Sunday. Through a stroke of luck, I happened to be in Jurong East for work. So finally managed to try Honolulu Cafe after putting it off for months.

Honolulu Cafe originated from Hong Kong, and is known as a Cha Chan Teng (coffee place) back in its homeland. It opened its first outlet in Singapore Centre Point and Westgate is its second outlet. Their typical food highlights are its traditional Cha Chan Teng Hong Kong food like tomato spaghetti, luncheon meat and pork chop rice and even dishes that is cooked with instant noodles. I guess the most popular dish in Honolulu Cafe is their egg tarts. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to try it this time round. It is usually sold out by early afternoon and they only start selling it at 12.30pm. 

This visit is spread out over lunch and dinner. Too many dishes to try and not often in Jurong. For starters, Jurong doesn't seem to have much interesting noteworthy mains. In fact, I noted that Jurong East seems to have more interesting desserts like Lab Made, another made in Hong Kong product and the latest one is Doufu.

In any case, I tried the Baked Chicken in Tomato Spaghetti ($9.50) and my colleague settled for Luncheon Meat with Double Egg with Rice ($7.80). I think to judge the food by how much it 'wow' me would be unfair because that's not what Cha Chan Teng type cafes are about. It's more of comfort food. I like the richness of the tomato sauce in my baked chicken spaghetti meal and my colleague had a really runny egg that went really well with his warm rice. It's really just the kind of food to start your day right. I couldn't try the egg tarts because I had my lunch at 11am and egg tarts were only ready at 12.30pm :(

By dinner time egg tarts have sold out. In fact, their bakery was empty when I arrived. I settled for Instant Noodles with Pork Chop and added an additional Chicken Steak ($5.50 + $1.50) to my meal. Greediness overload! Again, it's comfort food at its best. While it's nothing spectacular, the meal made me very happy. The pork chop and chicken steak had the right kind of grilled taste that I expected from Hong Kong food and the noodles were Q and cooked till just right. If this was spaghetti, I'll called it al dente!

I'll definitely be back to dine here again. Honolulu Cafe serves my kind of comfort food. Explains why I love travelling to Hong Kong so much. It's definitely the place to eat if you are a fan of HK just like me.

Honolulu Cafe
#02-06 Westgate Mall, 3 Gateway Dr, S608532

Mak's Noodles & Ice Lab

December, January, February has always been intensive months for my stomach every year. There's a lot of feasting due to the festive mix of Christmas, Birthday and Chinese New Year. And thanks to my Hong Kong trip this year, I quite reached my quota with the body insisting on light food like porridge. Hence the trip to Mak's Noodles was done with the intention of having some good authentic porridge like they do in Hong Kong at other Michelin starred wonton mee outlets like Ho Hung Kee. Ironically, I would only return to Ho Hung Kee for their porridge. As it turns out, I went to the Centrepoint outlet and was disappointed to find out that congee is only available at the West Gate outlet.

I have never eaten Mak's Noodles before despite visiting Hong Kong 4 times. Hence this meal is really to find out what all the fuss is really about. Given that Mak's Noodles originated from Hong Kong and that Hong Kong wonton mee is more popular for their soup base version, we pretty much picked all the soup dishes.

We settled for Wonton & Dumpling Noodle Soup ($8.50) and Wonton & Beef Tendon Noodle Soup ($9.50). My conclusion after my third attempt trying Hong Kong wonton mee is that it's not my thing. I still prefer the local dry version tossed with chilli or sweet sauce, garnished with char siew and vegetables. To be fair, the wonton are big and the prawns are fresh and crunchy. The dumplings are also rich in flavour and Mak's Noodles spared no expense on the ingredients. The beef tendons based on fussy pot's feedback is really tender. (I don't really eat beef so I didn't try) Above all, the noodles were springy and crispy. That said, I didn't like the soup base which I feel is an acquired taste. Besides the noodles, we also ordered a double boiled soup with shrimp roe ($3.50). While the soup is light and the shrimp taste is present, I just feel the soup didn't measure up to other type of better tasting soups in Hong Kong. Being a strong advocate that one of the wins Hong Kong have over Singapore is their boiled soup, this one left us thirsty after the meal which leaves me to question how much MSG was added. 

Mak's Noodles is worth a go if you wish to try authentic Hong Kong wonton mee without the aeroplane. I can attest that their rendition is exactly how Hong Kong Michelin star wonton mee taste. While I probably won't be back for wonton mee, I will be sure to pop by Westgate to try authentic Hong Kong congee which I so sorely miss. 

Mak's Noodles

176 Orchard Road Centrepoint #01-63/64

(The Westgate outlet has a wider menu)

Today feels like try foreign food day. Mak's Noodles offer really small portions, so it's almost certain there will be room for desserts. I picked Ice Lab, which is opened by Korean actor Shin Jung Hwan. It was impeccably decorated and you feel like you are in Korea because of the Korean staff serving you. 

We picked Mango Bingsoo ($19.30) as it is one of the recommended flavours and I've eaten Mango Bingsu at Nunsaram at Orchard Central and Snowman Desserts (the one who started my love for Bingsu) at Nex thus it'll be easy to compare. This one is by far the worst! In my view, whether a bingsu tastes great is based on the milkiness of the milk shavings, if the fruits and ice cream blend in with the milk shavings and the sauce that goes with it. The one at Ice Lab tasted like mango ice kachang with kiwi randomly added into the mix. The milk shavings was sweet ice with nothing that give me indication they are milk shavings if I never ate bingsu before. To top it off, the kiwi tasted sour and fussy pot totally didn't touch them after one bite.

I probably won't be back again if I want my bingsu fix. I'd rather walk a few more steps and satisfy my bingsu craving at Nunsaram where I first convinced Fussy Pot what the fuss over bingsu was about. Please please please don't make this your virgin bingsu experience if you haven't eaten Bingsu before. It's not a good representation of good bingsu. 

Ice Lab

#01-01/02 321 Orchard Road

Recommended food from my last Hong Kong trip

Before the trip, my travel companion has been whining, "Hong Kong nothing to do one, just eat and eat only." Then there will be the question, "why you like to go Hong Kong so much?" Because... I like to eat!

I have been to Hong Kong 4 times in total. The last trip being my most memorable. There's always this noodles I must eat on every trip found in Maxim Palace. Maxim Palace is the Hong Kong equivalent of the Imperial Treasure in Singapore. I must say, their food is really good! The multiple times I have been there have always left me wanting to return for more. Their E Fu noodles, ordinary as it looks, is the best E Fu noodles I have ever had. 

Maxim Palace

B13-B18, B/F, Shun Tak Centre, 168-200 Connaught Road Central, Sheung Wan 

(Currently there's a more popular outlet at Central, but I still like the Sheung Wan one best)

While we are on the topic of Chinese food and dim sum, I tried the 3 Michelin Star Lung King Heen at Four Seasons Hotel. While the food is executed competently and service was awesome, I can't help but feel a deep sense of disappointment. From my experience, my interpretation of the 3 stars was 1 for food, 1 for service, 1 for ambience. Nothing very wrong with that however I kinda was expecting the Michelin stars to be graded purely for food. Having took the trouble to order the Chef's recommendation, 3 Michelin stars really left me not very impressed. To be fair, service was impeccable. ALL the staff can speak good English and know the food well. The quality of food. cutlery and view was nothing short of premium. My only gripe was I was there for the food more than anything else...

Lung King Heen

8 Finance St, Four Seasons Hotel 

(Lunch is from 12pm-2pm, you can make reservations online)

One surprise of the trip was Tomato Cheese Noodles. Honestly I first tried something similar during my first Hong Kong trip at Lan Fong Yuen and it really was nothing impressive. This tomato noodles doesn't taste spectacular either, but it is comfort food I can enjoy on a cold tiring day. One amusing thing the owners told me was that their main customers are Singaporeans. Considering their obscure location in a run-down building, it's funny how we tourist can keep their business going. 

Star Cafe

36 Basement Champagne Court Block A 16 Kimberley Road (Next to Mira Hotel)
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong 

(There's another famous tomato noodles, typical Dai Pai Tong, Sing Heung Yuen, which I was lazy to try the other round)

Another highlight of my trip is the High Tea (Afternoon tea in Hong Kong context). The original plan was to have enjoy the view atop the 103th floor at Ritz Carlton, but alas the window seats were full. We settled for high tea at Intercontinental Hotel and it was a pleasant experience. Unlike Singapore, the high tea offered at Intercontinental Hotel carries seasonal themes. In my case, I was served the Christmas High Tea. My biggest gripe with high tea is that I always never finish the food. I don't enjoy desserts and the sweet part of the high tea usually is meant for my dining companion. That said, the standard of the high tea is pretty high, the scones are soft and fluffy and the savory does not come across as "jelat". Fussy Pot practically finished her half of the sweets so I suppose it's pretty good. I took one bite of mine and that's it. Haha! 

Lobby Lounge

Intercontinental Hong Kong

18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Shui 

Australian Dairy Company is another place I will be back again when I do make my 5th visit to Hong Kong. The steam milk is fantastic and the scrambled eggs on toast is uniquely Hong Kong. To be honest, prior to the visit, I was pretty adamant that the hype is exaggerated. But after eating the scrambled eggs on toast with its unique creamy buttery taste, I'll subject myself to the long queue and rude staff again. Being lactose intolerant, dairy products better be good to make the sacrifice. Trust me, the steam milk here is. 

Australian Dairy Company

47 Parkes Street 

(Closed on Thursdays)

Kam's Roast Goose is one of the places I went twice in a single holiday. The double visit actually highlighted their inconsistency in food quality. My first visit was after a long day of eating and seriously I was full when I arrived. The goose was so good that despite me and fussy pot being full, we finished the entire plate. Worth every bit of the 1 star Michelin they earned. The second visit however was pretty disappointing. The meat was hard and nowhere near the tender meats we found so much joy in eating. 

Honestly after the second visit, I'm not even sure if their Michelin star was a fluke. Anyway to enjoy your goose there be sure to order thigh meat the next time you visit.

Kam's Roast Goose

226 Hennessey Road