Master Congee 大師傅粥品 @ Kowloon

It’s my breakfast for champions – the Cantonese-style congee with all the trimmings. And there are many stores in Hong Kong that I always return to.

Master Congee is a chain porridge shop that has many locations in Kowloon; it has yet to cross the harbour. Because of its proximity to the tourist hotspot, this particular store in Cameron Road is especially popular among tourists, in particular the Chinese tourists as it was featured in three local guide books.

One of the greatest things about congee is that it’s among the cheapest filling meals you can have no matter where you are in Hong Kong. And Master Congee has one of the largest varieties of congees at reasonable prices. Their specialty is the sampan congee 艇仔粥, but I will not be having that today.

I always order three things whenever I am in the city and go for my breakfast congee fix – one congee with a variety of toppings depending on my mood, a dough fritter called “yau zha gwei” and superior soy sauce fried noodles 豉油皇炒面. Two things make or break this simple noodles – the type of egg noodles used, and the soy sauce. The noodle has to have the right amount of alkalinity, and the finished noodles cannot be drowned in its own sauce.

This morning I opted for the Scholar’s Congee 状元及第粥, which is basically a Hong Kong-style pig offals porridge. Legend has it that an impoverished scholar ate this porridge and attained the top position in the Imperial Exams. Locals would buy this porridge for their children before important examinations.

The porridge contains pig offals like liver 豬潤 and intestines 粉腸; while some offer pig stomach 豬肚, others offer pig kidney 豬腰. But everyone would have the pork meatballs 豬肉丸. Their liver was rather thick cuts and cooked perfectly. It’s a pity they do not offer pig kidney.

The “yao zha gwei” 油炸鬼, or youtiao 油条 in Mandarin, is the quintessential deep fried carb pairing with steaming hot porridge. Cut into small pieces for you to dip into the congee, I actually like them whole in a pair of dough fritters. When I was kid, I enjoyed ripping them apart, dipped them in the congee and sucked them like straw. Besides “yao zha gwei”, they also sell the “ngau she sou” 牛舌酥, a tongue shaped dough fritter, and “hum jin pang” 咸煎饼, a savoury and sweet doughnut ball.

Overall a very good eat. It’s a very popular destination for breakfast among tourists so go early in the morning if you can. I went at 7am, and there’s seats available. But 8am, the queue has formed.

Master Congee 大师傅粥品
15 Cameron Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Visited Dec 2024