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Mui Kee Congee has finally opened a permanent restaurant at Shaw Centre, so you no longer have to travel all the way to Hong Kong or Botanic Gardens where it held it’s pop-up stall.
Renowned for their trademark congee, this restaurant has earned the approval of countless Tai Tais back in Hong Kong.
The mahjong tiles lining the countertop and the ceramic fishes and pots decorating the walls are little details which made me feel like I was transported to Hong Kong.
We wanted to start with something to whet our appetite, and we went with a plate of Sakura Shrimp ($5.50) from the Tea Time Set.
Just look at the dainty pink shrimps decorating the white cheong fun! Doesn’t it remind you of Chinese porcelain bowls?
The shrimps had a rather mellow briny prawn taste and paired well with the plain cheong fun. However, I still found the flavours to be just a tad lacking. But that’s the very reason why the dish comes with dipping sauce.
The sauce gave a much-needed boost of flavour, accentuating the taste of the shrimps with a dash of savoury and sweetness. However, the serving of sauce was rather sparing; there was barely enough for each slice of cheong fun.
I simply had to order a plate of Drunken Chicken In Shaoxing Wine ($10). The boiled chicken is soaked in a marinade which includes Shaoxing wine overnight and is served chilled.
You see, the process of placing the steamed meat in ice water forms a gelatinous layer under the skin, which accentuates the taste and texture of the chicken by leaps and bounds.
With every slice, the taste of Shaoxing wine hit first and lingered as the natural taste of chicken took over. I highly recommend you try this dish, for an intoxicating taste of Chinese cuisine.
Served in a bubbling clay pot, the Beef Brisket ($18) came like a treasure chest of meaty beef chunks, practically worth its weight in gold.
The moment the lid was lifted, an inviting beef fragrance wafted out, prompting me to pick up a piece.
Just look at this delectable and glistening chunk of beef! Each chunk had a decent layer of fat and the meat was really tender but yet firm enough for a nice full bite.
The Sliced Threadfin ($16) takes five painstaking hours to prepare. The raw rice grains are first mixed with mashed century eggs, followed by adding pork bones and fish stock into the mixture which is stirred every five – 10 minutes.
The congee was the most flavourful congee I’ve ever tasted. It tasted strongly of fish stock and there was a hint of wok hei fragrance. The congee was smooth, making it super easy for me to slurp down the entire bowl.
The wok hei fragrance was even more pronounced in the fish slices and complemented the natural taste of the threadfish slices well. To achieve that, the fish slices were first fried in the wok, then sealed in a clay pot along with sliced ginger, spring onion and a dash of triple-distilled rice wine.
It’s pretty apparent why Mui Kee Congee is so popular in Hong Kong. The congee made by this restaurant is in a league of its own, not to mention affordable.
What’s more, it makes for a great place for a supper as the restaurant aims to open until 1am on weekends. So hurry and get yourself a bowl of congee before this place starts to get crowded!
Expected damage: $15 – $25 per pax
