When I reached Amoy Street Food Centre on a Friday afternoon, I thought I might have missed Hoo Kee Rice Dumpling as the stall would close by 2pm during normal times. It was still opened at 2:30pm this day but most of the rice dumplings were sold out, except for one variant, which was the dumplings with salted egg and chestnuts. Lucky for me, it was also the recommended choice by Michelin Guide 2019.
I bought two of the Hokkien-style rice dumplings as takeaway. They were meant for my dinner that night and for lunch the following day.
However, I was really hungry that night and decided to eat both dumplings, since they were not very big in size. After steaming them for a short while, I removed the bamboo leaves. Surprisingly, the leaves came off easily and none of the sticky glutinous were stuck to them. That was an indication that the rice were well-cooked, had enough moisture and not too dry.
I cut up the dumplings and checked the ingredients.
There were several chestnuts, a salted egg yolk each and lean pork wrapped in the glutinous rice. The savoury meat was not salty and not fatty, which was another surprise as traditional Hokkien-style dumplings always include pork belly meat — which I avoided. The salted egg yolk was not very salty also and blended well with the light sweetness of the chestnuts. The rice dumpling was very nice.
I felt really full after eating the two dumplings. Hunger had made me forgotten that glutinous rice dumpling was never about size. I should have kept one for next-day lunch and enjoy the great taste one more time.
Other than Nonya rice dumpling with minced lean meat, I now have another option to go for Hokkien rice dumpling without pork belly meat.
Address:
Amoy Street Food Centre, #01-18
Opening Hours:
11am to 3pm | Closed on Saturday, Sunday & Monday