It is curious to see how Hong Kong people love going to dessert places. One of my many postulations is that there are little places to go after dinner while the meeting group would hate to dismiss that soon. Dessert places have thus become a place where people could sit round the table, and talk for the rest of the night while having something to munch on. Chung Kee is one of those places, but serving up real good desserts.
You know this place has to be good judging from the cramped seats and the long line out of the shop. You could also tell when the waiters are not particularly friendly and hospitable, tend to be impatient when you are taking your time in placing orders, and occupying their seats for too long while being very efficient and would never go wrong with your orders. I call it the HK style of efficiency and Chung Kee is almost a role model of that.
Back to the food; in spite of the many fancy names and combinations of desserts, I go for the basics as it often could tell how good or bad the joint is. Classics such as bean curd sheets with ginkgo nuts and barley sweet soup could often go terribly wrong, but definitely not this place. The ginkgo nuts and barley are surprisingly not overcook and remain "al dente" which gives a lot of chew in every positive ways to the otherwise silky smooth bean curd sheet solution. Some like it with eggs but I'm not one of them, you can try adding it and see whether it tastes better.
Durian desserts are also very nice in here; if you love durian as much as I do then you definitely can't miss the related items here. The durian related desserts come in various forms in both liquid and solid, which all gives out gas that is heavily scented with durian. How could it be bad if you can enjoy your favorite fruit in all 3 states of matter? For those who hate the smell of durian, I would suggest you to turn away now.
What took me by surprise in this dessert shop is their Bubur cha cha. Normally this Malaysian dessert is rather watery with sago and some beans and taro in it. The Chung Kee rendition is more like a bean salad than anything else and it feels like you are eating 2 bowls of rice at the same time; I was totally shocked seeing a bowl of dessert as substantial as this, especially when I just had dinner. However, i have to give credit to the fact that the beans were cooked well and actually it tasted good. If you come with an empty stomach, I am quite sure that you will be happy seeing that. read more