Not Your Typical Tourist

A Life Between Two Countries, And All In Between

All In Between

An Unexpected Discovery At Sang Kee Congee Shop

Sang Kee Congee Shop wasn’t our first choice.

We landed at their doorstep on the 1st day of the New Year, because Kau Kee Beef Noodle (within the same vicinity) was closed. Missing Kau Kee was a blessing in disguise really.

Armed with my Food list, we kept a lookout for Sang Kee Congee Shop (生記粥品專家) at Burd Street. 

At Burd Street, there was a “uh-huh” moment. There were 2 shops with Sang Kee (生記) word in the same block! And there were no English wordings at all, for us to be sure. I had to match the shop name to the Chinese characters word-by-word.

A Chinese banana (香蕉人), also known as jook sing (竹升) – I can speak Chinese, but can’t read and write. At situation like this, I always wish that I am Chinese literate.

Now that I am back in Bangkok, after googling for it, the other shop is Sang Kee Noodle House (生記清湯牛腩面家), famous for its beef brisket noodle. Both are under the same shop owner, the latter serves noodles.

 

Sang Kee Congee Shop
Back to the congee shop. It was such a simple and quaint eatery, just like those we saw in Hong Kong series. We had to wait for a table for just a few minutes, but people were nice and polite. See the pink color menu beside the door? All in Chinese. Can’t read, what to order?

I took the opportunity to ask an aunty walking out from the restaurant for recommendation. Kap Dai congee (及第粥) (HKD 25) was recommended by her, a local HK person, who seemed to know her congee.

 

Kap Dai congee
Kap Dai congee (及第粥) is a congee with mixture of pig’s internal organs and meat ball. She told me that she always order the same thing, because it’s hard to find a good Kap Dai congee in HK. I am not a fan of internal organs, but I just followed suit.

As we only saw Chinese menu, we had to agak-agak (guess) and ask the helpful and friendly staff for helps. A Kap Dai congee for me, and a bowl of beef porridge (HKD 25) for bf.

 

Look can be deceiving
Almost all tables had a plate of Fried Meehoon (HKD 13) on their table, so we also followed suit. Do what the local does, and it seldom goes wrong. Look can be deceiving, the fried meehoon is good. I never learn to appreciate one, until I started cooking in Bangkok. It is hard to make a good plate of fried meehoon, to be tasty and with the perfect texture.

 

Be ready to “dap toi”
Just like any other restaurants in Hong Kong, we had to share our table with strangers. This practice is known in Cantonese as dap toi (搭台) (sharing tables).

We shared ours with a pleasant elderly couple – they told us that Sang Kee is one of the best congee in town. The uncle also ordered the same Kap Dai congee, so yay! I got it right. But honestly, I will try other type of congee if we do go back to this place. Some of the ingredients used in the Kap Dai congee is a bit weird, and I dare not think of which part of the pig’s internal organ was that.

 

Soy sauce + spring onion + ginger
Sang Kee serve their congee with a separate bowl of soy sauce, with strips of spring onion and ginger. I dipped my congee ingredients into the dipping, just like what the uncle at my table did.

Lifted this from HK Magazine’s article:

“Sang Kee has been serving congee since the 70s. Most Cantonese congee is quite strongly flavored, but Sang Kee goes against the tide: Owner Mr Au explains that their congee deliberately has a more neutral taste, so that it can better reflect the flavor of its components. That’s why their freshly boiled congee comes with a separate bowl of soy sauce and slices of ginger and spring onions, so that you can flavor it yourself.”

We paid HKD 63 for our hearty meal.

 

 

Sang Kee Congee Shop (生記粥品專家)

7-9 Burd Street, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong Island (MTR Sheung Wan Station Exit A2, turn right and walk about 5 min along Hillier Street)

GPS Location: 22.285307, 114.151679

Opening Hours: 6:30am – 9pm (Mon-Sat), 6:30am – 6pm (PH) Closed Sun

 

Not Your Typical Tourist

Travel opens up a whole new world, which is cliche but true. I am a strong advocate for independent and solo travel. I was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia but now live in Bangkok, Thailand, resulted from a chance encounter in 2009 with my why-are-you-Thai bf. I am now split between two countries. One country for my bf, another for the family, for the occasional weekend together.