Luckily I tried it before it got famous! 第一腸粉專賣店 just got recommended by Michelin.
Before this place opened, people would go straight upstairs for rice rolls and other dim sum delicacies, however this place may be getting the new limelight soon.
There is another congee place before the bird and basket, so serious competition going on here!
I had planned to visit the place next door, but when I saw the reviews for this place, it got my attention even though it only recently opened with six reviews.
According to the reviews it was opened earlier this month (June 2011).
I was attracted to this place because of the rice rolls with shredded roast duck and the congee reminded me of the congee I had at North point.
Almost all the places I have tried and read do not serve rice-rolls with duck.
Rice rolls with liver are rare too unless you go to rice roll specialists, but now other places are beginning to serve more variety due to competition that more dim sum places are opening.
This place is nice and simple specialising in rice rolls.
The menu offers a simple choice of: congee, rice rolls, white carrot cake and steamed rices.
For rice rolls there are eight different types at $15 per order.
The congee reminded me of the congee I had at North point, however the one at NP had more ingredients such as dried oysters.
The congee at this place is runnier than the one at North point, it contains only salted pork, dried vegetables and duck gizzard.
Although the congee wasn’t as strong, the salted pork gave it most of the flavour. There were not too many brittle bones in the congee. The duck gizzard in the congee was really soft, and the salted pork was a dark rose colour, but the meat was tender and fresh.
As a suggestion, the congee should be finished before trying out the rice rolls because after you have had the rice rolls the congee will taste tasteless.
Anyway for the rice rolls there are eight to choose from: 1) honey roasted pork 2) Hand cut diced beef 3) courgettes and mushrooms 4) signature flavour 5) pork liver in ginger sauce 6) spring onions and dried shrimp 7) shun tak sliced fish 8) shredded roast duck, all priced at $15 dollars.
They had a rice roll double choice (sheng ping) for $20, which was confusing, I assumed it would be like Chinese roast where you choose two items with the rice.
It was a bit strange how you could pick two different rice rolls because in a portion there are three, so they cant give you 1.5 rolls of each flavours.
In the end it turns out to be rice rolls made from both flavours.
I think for improvements if someone orders a double choice, they should indicate that both ingredients are mixed together in the rice rolls, because some do not go well together such as fish and beef. Luckily the double choice I ordered was OK to be mixed together.
Fish rice roll:
This one had the lightest taste, but you could taste the herbs in it, it was fresh fish not the frozen pieces, but the problem with this one were the fish scales and grounded bones.
Rice roll with fresh fish slices
The filling looked really dark, but inside it was similar to the fillings found in chiu chow flour dumplings. Very crunchy and strong of spring onions.
The spring onions were still crisp in the rice rolls.
Signiature rice roll
This was my favourite, and the first time I have tried it, the duck was attached to the lovely roasted skin, as well as duck there were tofu puff shreds in it giving it a meatier texture.
Mixed rice roll (Liver and dried shrimp)
Not quite what I was expecting, because I didn’t think both flavours would be combined into the rice roll, but as separate rice rolls.
Luckily the liver, dried shrimp and spring onions tasted really nice together.
The liver was not over cooked and remained juicy.
To finish off the meal, I had the “salted ribs in boiled in congee”, which are just the bones used to in their congee. The pork from the congee tasted really nice, so the ribs were expected to be good.
They were very bony, the meat that stuck onto the bones tasted really nice, but hard to eat if you do not know how to eat it.
Salted ribs boiled in congee
Lastly I had the soy milk which was really good, it goes down the throat with a savoury taste leaving a sweet aftertaste.
However it is not very consistent because the first one I ordered was very strong as everything had sunk to the bottle of the jug, and the second cup I ordered was not so strong as it came from a full jug.
Anyway, expect queues soon! So try it before it gets famous.
They also make their own chili oil which also tastes good.
