Hoo Kee Bak Chang Hokkien Rice Dumplings Since 1948📍Amoy Street Food Centre 和記肉粽 ☎ 62211155

Came to Amoy Food Centre to get the Michelin recommended Hoo Kee Bak Chang rice dumplings. (In Hokkien it is bak chang 肉粽 which literally means meat dumpling.)

The Michelin guide lists Hoo Kee's Amoy Food Centre outlet in its Bib Gourmand honours but the dumplings are made in their Bukit Merah outlet and brought here to distribute.

Hoo Kee founded in 1948 by Chew Hai Chwee is in the third generation now. It began as a mobile street food stall at Amoy Street and its main clientele were labourers, as bak chang was an affordable, convenient, satiating and tasty energy source for a hard day of labour in old Singapore.

I brought home a SGD$6 "deluxe" dumpling that had everything - pork, chestnut, salted duck egg yolk, and shitake mushroom inside the rice dumpling.

They have various options for less such as pork and chestnut for $4, pork with chestnut and egg yolk for $5, etc.

Glutinous rice dumpling is made by stir frying glutinous rice with soy sauce and Chinese five spice powder, packed with fillings, folded inside a dried bamboo leaf parcel. It is cooked by boiling in water.

The Hoo Kee rice dumpling I brought home was tightly, firmly compacted in the dried bamboo leaf parcel. The outside was smooth and shiny.

Cutting open the dumpling revealed its densely packed contents.

Clockwise from top left - pork, salted duck egg yolk, shitake mushroom, chestnut.

The dumpling tasted mildly savoury in layers with different savouriness and textures from the various ingredients. It tasted nice.

However, the dumpling I had felt a little dry as the the pork was lean, so there was no moistness from fat. Personally, I like a bit of fat as it would add a bit of porcine sweetness and juiciness to the rice dumpling. Others, however may prefer the lean and drier rendition I had today.