Address: 378 East Coast Road, Singapore
Website: www.hkcafe.com.sg

My wife had some friends over for a housewarming/gathering/mahjong session. Erm. Nope, those guys in the picture below are just some random strangers and are not the above mentioned friends.

I was rather excited at having them come over. Erm. Ok. That didn’t sound quite right….

The reason was that they were going to start to learn and play mahjong. I have always had difficulties in getting a 4th player for my mahjong sessions with my friends. So, I had envisioned my wife picking up mahjong and being the ever ready spare player.

Well…that was until I realised that they were going to play without money… Their unanimous reply to my incredulous questioning look was that they were playing for the competitive spirit of the game. “scritch..scritch” To make matters worse, I seem to be the counter-acting force to my wife’s luck at the table. Every single time I stand behind her to observe her game, someone else would win big at her expense. Thank goodness for their competitive but non-monetary policy of approaching the game of mahjong. “scritch…scritch”

Hong Kong Cafe comes in as our spot for some dessert prior to their mahjong game. I still do not get how these cafes are still pulling in the customers. Their Black and White Dessert (黑白两道， S$3.80) consists of mix of white almond cream and black glutinous rice. We had thought that the presentation would be that of a yin and yang symbol. As you can see, there was no such attention to detail here. The taste was distinctly ordinary (bordering on bland).

We had another warm dessert - the Macau Famous Steam Egg with Mild Ginger (S$3.80). I do not really know how it was famous. The girls all commented that they could have easily prepared something similar or other. The sad thing was that I understood where they were coming from. I attribute the change to my recent housework activities.

The Banana French Toast Ice Cream (S$4.80) looked quite pathetic on first assessment.

This perception was mildly adjusted when I realised that there was banana embedded in the French Toast. I appreciated the effort involved in stuffing and frying the bread with the banana. If I were to do this in my kitchen, it would likely entail a troublesome clean-up subsequently. Sigh…the signs of domestication.