Duelling Laksa!

On Wednesday evening, while looking for a place to eat, we aimlessly wandered down a back ally in Sheung Wan. To our surprise, we discovered two shops with nearly identical menus (but different owners) directly facing each other on opposite sides of the street. Stand off!

Now, it's not like they were selling common, everyday Hong Kong food (it wouldn't be strange to see two bakeries, two congee shops, or two dim sum restaurants across from each other). They were specializing a very specific kind of Malaysian+Singaporean soup noodle dish called "Laksa".

I'm sure you're thinking what we were thinking: It is our civic duty to stage a knock-down, drag-out, no-holds-barred comparison of the two! Well, we're not ones to shirk civic duties, so we immediately dipped into one, gave it a fair shake, and then returned the very next night to try the other. The results...

-Wednesday-

Though the restaurants are right across from each other, the first one we saw was "Katong", so that's the one we tried first...

The decor was simple, but quite comfortable, and the menu was full of temptations...

A few unusal drinks to go with Hong Kong standards

Dishes from Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia

This means "Prawn Noodles in Soup / Dry Prawn Noodles",
but I couldn't help but laugh when I read it. ("Prawn me, fool! Prawn me dry!")

Sweet "barley water"

Katong Laksa!

Tong choi

Beef Rendang with rice

Chunks of watermelon with coconut milk and tapioca
(the first dish which truly allowed me to enjoy watermelon!)

This was a very, very good meal. And Katherine, having been to Singapore multiple times, confirmed that it was very authentic. We knew that it would be tough to top, but we came back the next night with an open mind...

-Thursday-

Across from Katong was "malaymama" (which easily won the contest's "cutest name" superlative)...

The menu was a tad smaller, but there's a lot of overlap...

...and, while we mixed things up a little, the basic structure of the meal was very much the same...

Calamansi lime soda
(I love these things)

Tong choi, like before, but with reconstituted dried squid, peanuts, and a sweet sauce

Their "special" laksa (which was soupier and not nearly as chock-full of goodies as the previous one)

Kaya (coconut-egg jam) spread on toast

This meal was also good, but I found the laksa to be too soupy and too salty. I can, without hesitation, say that Katong won this head-to-head contest. So, when you come to visit, that's where we'll take you.

This street has a few other restaurants that we'll come back to try, but the one I'm most interested in is...

A dessert shop called "McSweety"! We were absolutely full after our meals on both nights, but this cutesy name almost drew me inside anyway. I somehow resisted, though, so that will have to wait for another day...and another blog.