Hong Kong Local Delicacies - Steamed Red Bean Sticky Pudding (砵仔糕)

"If you are looking for a nice steamed red bean sticky pudding, 砵仔糕 (Pronounce it as Put Zhai Gou in Cantonese), come to this cart by the road at Central (中环), HK Island."

Steamed red bean (sticky) pudding or you called it steamed red bean cake (or kueh) is one of the traditional local snack in Hong Kong since decades. I know I must have one when I travelled to Hong Kong, to taste the authentic steamed red bean sticky pudding here. In Chinese, the name of this snack, Put Zhai Gou, is not a direct translation of red bean cake, it simply means cake in the small bowl. It is because each of the sticky pudding is steamed in a small bowl. It will be transferred out from the bowl by the seller, only when you buy it.

I read a blog where the writer commented that this steamed cake is hardly found in Hong Kong nowadays as compared to last time where it is sold anyway, anytime. Hence, I was determined to find out the exact place where I could for sure get to taste a good one, at least (smile), before the trip. Yes, I found two places.

First, selling at the cart by the road:
The best one I've tried was located at the Central, Hong Kong Island side, this time. When we first looked for it, we thought it will be sold in a shop. We were busy looking far to the rows of shops along Wellington Street, did not realised that it was actually just right before our eyes! It is not in a shop, but just a cart at the T-junction of Wellington Street and Lan Kwai Fong! Laughing..

This steamed red bean cake in its brownish colour (yields from the brown sugar), looked appealing to me. This palatable snack is the best food for tea.

The taste of sweetness was just alright. And, its 'a little' jelly-like texture makes it rather bouncy. Still able to hold firmly on two toothpicks, it is served with the most traditional way, using the toothpicks! I enjoyed chewing it, together with the mouthful red beans in it. Soft and tasty, their business here is pretty good, I assumed. Hundreds of bowls, they start business from 1pm to only 3pm. Isn't my assumption make sense? Chuckling..

More sharings with you:
You wish to know the excat location, and how to get there? Click on My Note Book on The Web, to find out its directions.

Second, selling in the shop located at Sham Shui Po:
Why do I say the one at Wellington Street is better as compared to this 'supposedly' famous shop, 坤记?We travelled to Sham Shui Po, 深水埗, by MTR. This shop is just nearby the MTR station. As expected, there was small crowd, buying their snack food. I had pretty high expectation for the steamed red bean sticky pudding from this shop, as it was also recommended by a TVB programme before. Even local celebrity bought from them. However, it wasn't up to my expectation, sad to say.

I think the cake here is too thick that causes its 'very firm' texture. It is not so chewy, but rather hard for the palate. Same thing, it's also not too sweet taste here, but I find the red beans in it were too little.

Despite its firmness, the texture a little too dry, to me. Kind of over-rated, perhaps, their selling points are the traditional hand-made cooking method, and on its hardship of the store owner in sustaining this low-profit business (which includes some background histories of heritage issue) that brought the fame to their shop.

Frankly speaking, I really prefer the cake selling at the cart by the road at Wellington Street, Central. It's OK, if you wish to support this shop, get one from them. Buy also their famous steamed white sugar cake, 白糖糕, which is another well-known local snack in Hong Kong. I heard it is delicious, not sure as I did not try it though..