The hungry guppies had a rice dumpling breakfast together today. Papa Guppy bought Hoo Kee Rice Dumplings from Amoy Street. We gobbled on 3 flavours: 1) Chestnut, 2) Mushroom and Chestnut, 3) Salted egg

The chestnut one was packed with sweet chestnuts but doesn’t really excite my tastebuds. The taste of the mushroom-chestnut rice dumpling is better: the sweetness of the chestnuts is balanced with mushrooms that are soft and slightly salt-ish to bite into. I would say that the slightly salty mushrooms worked well with the sweet chestnuts!

But overall, my personal favourite is still the salted egg rice dumplings!

I have always favoured anything with salted eggs in them, be it moon cakes or rice dumplings! I even like salted eggs on its own and will eat them happily with white porridge. Anyway, the salted egg dumpling was really good! The salted egg yoke broke into pieces when bit into and totally complimented the sticky glutinous rice and the meat fillings. I will definitely crave for more salted egg rice dumplings for breakfasts!

If you want to get these dumplings for your weekend breakfast, do it on Saturdays instead as they are closed on Sundays and public holidays. Be there early too as they sometimes would hang the “SOLD OUT” sign as early as 9am! Perhaps to avoid disappointment, place your order in advance by phone (contact details are stated at the bottom of this post).

Laughing Guppy’s Ratings:

..

..

..

What other guppies say:

Sweet-Toothed Guppy says: “To be honest, I am not a fan of rice dumpling. glutinous rice is too heavy for my
digestive system. The only rice dumpling that I will indulge in during the chinese dragonboat festival is the nonya rice dumpling which has a meat stuffing which usually has a slightly sweet taste to it hehe… Oh did i mention that I don’t really like pork already? Usually the meat stuffing is pork… hence this could be a factor in my lack of
passion for rice dumplings…in anycase, these rice dumplings from Hoo Kee proved to be quite ok. My personal favourite is the salted egg rice dumpling which provided a refreshing twist to the traditional rice dumplings that I am used to. But this is not enough to placate my craving for nonya rice dumplings. and I will just like to request for Hoo Kee to come up with one, maybe with salted egg if possible? Yummy!”

..

..

..

Health Freak Guppy says: “Usually I’m not really a ‘bak chang’ (”rice dumpling with meat” in Hokkien) Guppy but my first gulp into the Mushroom & Chestnut ‘chang’ (”rice dumpling” in Hokkien) was delectable. I was pleasantly surprised by the full bodied taste, even in just the glutinous rice alone. The chestnuts were sweetish, so that touched my pleasure point. The other guppies liked the Salted Egg ‘bak chang’ but it was too gelat for me. The cholesterol level is also my concern. On the whole, after a few bites, the bak chans were getting just a little too gelat for me. Let’s say this guppy will only eat this once a blue blue moon.”

..

..

..

Papa Guppy says: “I used to throw ‘BAK CHANG’ (”rice dumpling with meat” in Hokkien) parties for my staff at one of the previous organizations that I worked in. I had to go very early in the morning to Amoy Street Food Centre to order 30-40 Bak Chang from the uncle or otherwise sometimes we would be disappointed as it is possible to see a ‘SOLD OUT’ sign hanging at the stall as early as 8.30am! After all these years it is still the same, GOOD. Not the most healthy of food, probably high fat and high carbo and high glycaemic index, but it also gives high morale ….. so indulging in it once in a while is worth the extra dieting effort and exercise after that. Think my boy boy guppy who loves Lor Mai Kai and glutinous rice would love this …”

..

..

..

Chilli-Padi Guppy says: ” I discovered this Hoo Kee Bak Chang when I was working in the area. I was ‘swimming’ around that area looking for good feed when I saw a long queue, and long queue usually mean good food…. as they say, the rest is history. I introduced this yummilicious Bak Chang to PaPa Guppy who introduced this to his friends, who introduced …… The Bak Chang still as SEDAP, SHIOKUS, OISHI, Delicious, especially my must-have ‘Salted egg, mushroom Bak Chang’…..  wonder if this Bak Chang uncle would agree to experiment and come up with a spicy Hae Bee Hiam Bak Chang … wow, that would be….”

..

..

Grumpy Guppy says: “Yummy yummy. I don’t usually like pork, but this is a definite must-try.

..

..

..

Travelling Guppy says: “Rice Dumplings is a traditional Chinese food that is made of glutinous rice with different types of fillings. The fillings can be sweet (e.g. red bean paste) or savoury (e.g. pork, salted duck eggs). The Chinese call rice dumplings ‘zhong zi’ and the Hokkien word for it is ‘chang’. Rice dumplings is traditionally eaten during the Dragon Boat Festival. Nowadays, it can be found anytime anywhere. This traditional Chinese food is recommended for tourists from Western countries! And I love the rice dumplings from this stall!”

..

..

What: Hoo Kee Rice Dumplings

Where: Amoy Street Food Center, 7 Maxwell Road, #01-18, Singapore 069111

Tel: 6221 1155 (also the number you use for placing orders in advance)

Price: S$2 for each chestnut dumpling, S$2.60 for mushroom and chestnut dumpling and S$2.80 for salted egg dumpling

Opening Hours: Go there as early as possible! Maybe 7 to 8am in the morning. (It’s wisest to place orders in advance!)