Roasted Pigeon (烧乳鸽) at Shui Wah Restaurant 萃華酒家, Shatin, Hong Kong

The night after my cousin sister's wedding lunch buffet, my uncle decided to treat us (my cousins and another uncle and aunt) for dinner in Shatin (沙田). Shatin is famous for roasted pigeon (烧乳鸽) and chicken porridge. This is my first time coming to Shatin.

I was going on a shopping trip with two of my cousin sisters and my aunt in Tsim Sha Tsui. Elaine, my Hong Kong cousin decided that since there were 5 of us (we later joined up with my uncle), it's more worth it to take a taxi to Shatin instead of taking the MTR . True enough, taking the taxi we saved up a lot of walking time and it only cost us about HKD$100.

There are a lot of restaurants in Shatin that also sells roasted pigeon. My uncle chose to eat in Shui Wah Restaurant. One need to trust the local for their choice, also I am not familiar with Shatin.

Each of us get one roasted pigeon. The skin is very crispy and the meat is tender. Albeit there is not much meat and that's why the marination was absorbed thoroughly making the meat very tasty.

Lotus pancake is one dish that we don't normally order in Malaysia. I think not many restaurants in Malaysia has this dish too. Lotus root cut into slices and then dip into egg white batter and fried. Crispy at the outer and soft inside.

Next dish is prawn cooked two ways. One is stir-fried with mixed vegetable and another way is deep fried. The stir-fried uses prawns that are big and succulent and very fresh too. Timing is just right and not over cooked. The restaurant provided prawn paste sauce for us to dip the prawn. It taste a bit like our belacan.

The tofu is smooth and nice to balance off the heavy tasting dishes that we had.

Of course, need to have some greens to balance the meal.

8 prosperity duck (八宝鸭), the version here is a bit different from the one I ate in Sek Yuen. For one the version here uses more expensive ingredients for the stuffing like fish maw and abalone slices.

Claypot glass noodle.

Steamed pork with prawn paste.

My aunt order a single portion of chicken porridge for us to have a taste. Smooth, sweet (from the chicken meat and bones) and tender.

Last but not least, complementary dessert of taofufa (豆腐花). Which I was informed is house made by the restaurant chef.

If you don't want to take the taxi you can opt to take the MTR Tai Wai station. Shui Wah Restaurant is just opposite the station.


Address:

Shui Wah Restaurant 萃華酒家
51 Tsuen Nam Road, Tai Wai
大圍村南道51號

Tel: +852 2606 7117

Margaret's Cafe e Nata, Macau

After 5 days in Hong Kong, I went to Macau for a 2 days trip before going back to Kuala Lumpur. The recent I visit Macau is mainly because my friend is working in Galaxy Macau and he has a place for me to stay so I can save on accommodation.

I was brought to Margaret's Cafe e Nata to eat their popular Portuguese egg tart. Actually I've eaten the egg tart here before when I was here for a day trip in March. This time I chose to eat in the cafe itself.

As usual the cafe is packed. Long queue of people packing away their Portuguese tart.

To really appreciate the true taste of their egg tarts, I suggest to eat it in the cafe instead of taking away. First, it will still be warm. Second, the skin will be crispier than take away and lastly the butter taste in the skin will still be strong. That is what makes the different, it's the butter taste in the Portuguese egg tart. Of course the soft creamy egg custard is also the reason. I found the egg tart taste way better than I last ate it (I packed the egg tarts last time).

I also ordered a cup of hot latte to go with the egg tarts. Ah, this is how one should enjoy their Portuguese egg tarts. I still haven't had the chance to try Lord Stow's Portuguese egg tarts though. Some say the latter is better but for me Margaret's Cafe e Nata's egg tarts is really very good. So if you visit Macau, trip both of the version and see which one you prefer ;)





Address:

Margaret's Cafe e Nata
Edificio Kam Loi, Macau, China Rue Do Rd. Pedro Jose Lobo
+853 2871 0032

金華冰廳 Kam Wah Cafe, Hong Kong

I've been to Hong Kong quite often, I was there two years ago, this year March and more recently last month. Yet, there are still a lot of eateries that I haven't try yet like Tim Hau Wan Dim Sum, Mido Cafe, and Kam Wah Cafe. I've read some rave review about the polo bun in Kam Wah Cafe from KampungBoyCityGal and James. So, I decided that I must at least go to one of the eateries that I haven't try yet even though I have quite a busy schedule during my trip to Hong Kong last month.

I took the MTR from Tsim Sha Tsui to Mongkok station and exit through B3. Reading the direction from the Word document that I saved in my Nokia E7 is quite confusing because I don't have a compass to go Northbound. So what I do is cross over Mongkok Road using the pedestrian bridge. You'll be able to see Nathan Road just continue to walk along Nathan Road until you get to the first junction, turn right. You are now in Bute Street. Just walk straight and you'll see Kam Wah Cafe across the street. It's not hard to spot because their will be a lot of people queuing outside the eatery to buy freshly baked polo bun.

Obviously it will be packed but luckily I managed to get one seat sharing table with other customers. It's the norm in Hong Kong to share table in a "cha chan teng". Since I haven't have breakfast yet, so I ordered a daily set meal (HKD$30). Minced beef with raw egg rice which comes with pork ribs soup.

Set meal comes with a choice of hot drinks. So I ordered milk tea. The milk tea here is not too bad, their tea taste is stronger than I had in Lai Fong Yuen.

Of course I also ordered their famous 菠蘿油 (polo bun with butter) HKD$7. Coming to Kam Wah Cafe and not eating their polo bun is like visiting The Tavern in GAB Brewery and not drinking their Guinness Draught.

I know why their polo bun is so popular. It's crunchy on the top and so fluffy inside. On its own the bun has a bit of sweetness already. Eating it with butter in the middle lifted up the taste even more. Oh, they also have bun there which is also quite popular. I saw in an ATV's show that one of the secret ingredient in making this polo bun is that they use pork lard imported from Holland instead of using local pork lard. Food does taste better with pork lard eh?

Even though it's usually pack here but the turnaround is quite fast, so you don't have to wait too long for a seat.

If you are looking to explore Hong Kong food culture, then polo bun is one of the snack that you must try and Kam Wah Cafe makes one of the best polo bun in Hong Kong.





Address:

Kam Wah Cafe
G/F, 47 Bute Street, Prince Edward
Tel: +852 2392 6830

Other Ppl's View:

KampungBoyCityGal
Motormouth from Ipoh