This is my first attempt at this dish and probably after today it will be my last.
It's supper, past 11.40 pm and we find ourselves at Fa Yuen Street inside this little shop.
Keep your eyes on the road outside, don't look at the floor.
Prices are extremely reasonable but the crowd consists of a motley of tough characters too.
I decided on this shop against a dim sum palace as I wanted a more authentic version as opposed to a more refined recipe of this humble dish.
But nothing prepared me for the things I found inside the congee.
Floured minced pieces of what tasted like some kind of meat which I have no intention of finding out, together with brown squid tentacles and gasp ! is that urchin ? complete with spikes ? then more sea cucumber like strings together with fried peanuts.
Lost my appetite because I find some of these ingredients a little hard to stomach. I think it was the shock of seeing the little spikes on the urchin that made it revolting .
The dumpling on the other hand was much better. There was a thick layer of mashed black eyed beans at the bottom layer, much better than our version.
However when we got to the centre, it was only a small piece of fat from the pork belly minus any meat.
Served on top of a saucer of light soya sauce. Quite nice. If only the plate didn't look so greasy .
Lastly we had the red bean dessert. Pretty much home made and ordinary tasting. Just like what we would cook back home.
