When eating out in Hong Kong, I rarely pay attention to the name of the place. Usually because it will be in Cantonese or it just doesn’t make sense.
Like Australia Dairy Company.
It’s a cha chaan teng (tea restaurant) that has nothing to do with Australia but instead, is truly a unique HK food experience.
We arrived at the well-loved establishment and saw to our horror, a line of easily 30 people had formed. It was almost noon and for us, this was breakfast. We lined up anyway, and I set my timer to 15 minutes. We’d reassess the situation after that. To our surprise, we were in the door not even 5 minutes later. Amazing.
The one & only
The menu is simple. There are scrambled eggs or fried eggs. Buttered toast. Macaroni soup. Milk tea or coffee. There were a few other random a la carte options on the menu, but the main draw and best deals, are their combos. They’re known especially for their fluffy scrambled eggs and thick, soft and crispy white toast. It’s funny to have a look around and see everyone having the same food, but sometimes I think there’s freedom in limited options.
We didn’t spy any foreigners, if there were any. I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be to dine here for the first time, having no grasp of Cantonese. Even with 3 out of the 4 of us speaking the language, it was still a bit overwhelming. The servers were brisk and pushy. It was loud and cramp. We shared a table with a few other people, a normal custom in cha chaan tengs. It’s a weird policy of theirs to serve you your tea/coffee closer to the end of your meal.
Lisa wanted to add french toast to her combo, and our server was less than helpful. They are definitely not about customer satisfaction here. I guess that’s part of the charm. Our four combos arrived faster than we could take out our napkin packs. And the food hit the spot. We couldn’t complain.
Eggs, toast, and a very HK dish: macaroni soup
For dessert, they are known for their steamed egg white pudding and egg pudding, white and yellow respectively. These are pre-made and stacked in white ceramic bowls along the wall.
Both kinds are served hot or cold.
We wanted to try both, and opted to have the egg white pudding hot, and the egg pudding cold.
steamed egg pudding & egg white pudding
They were simple, easy to share desserts. There’s something lovely about having an egg dessert after having eggs.
The texture of the pudding almost reminded me of silken tofu, except the latter is much more smooth. Both were light, especially the egg white one, and we detected a hint of almond.
Another lined had formed as we were leaving.
We were in and out in less than 40 minutes. Four combos and two desserts for under $25CAD.
I will certainly miss this.
avec chantilly 