HK Eats – Australia Dairy Company; When Scrambled Eggs Get the GOLDEN Treatment
June 1, 2011 | 5,206 viewsFor the full series on this Hong Kong trip, jump to this link.
Rich, creamy and golden scrambled eggs from Australia Dairy Company @ Parkes Street, Jordan, Hong Kong. Not just any other eggs, this is legendary.
Jumping back to the Hong Kong posts (alternating between all the others, if you don’t mind), let’s see how we finally made it to Australia Dairy Company; the #1 eatery on the Openrice‘s good food list. Back in 2008, we missed this as the shop was closed for some reason. Did not feel that it was a huge miss, until we were back and read up on the massive number of rave reviews on the net.
Then I shot myself in the thigh and vowed to return. With a vengeance.
And we did. Early in the morning on a weekday in fact, only to face an immensely packed environment; so much so that we had to literally squeeze behind a pillar, and seated side by side facing the wall while ‘relishing‘ the priceless Hong Kong’s ‘char chaan teng‘ atmosphere …..
If you’re a ‘banana’ like me, no sweat. Everyone orders the same stuff. Just point to any of the 3 combination on the wall (actually, I don’t even know what they are now, but I had in mind what I wanted)
This place has been granted merits from thousands of fans, but not without earning the ire of the other hundreds. Mainly from the lacklustre service (what do YOU expect when the turnover’s so damn fast you can’t even remember your neighbouring patrons’ faces?), the over-hyped breakfast sets (really?), and the sheer lack of space. Okay, the last one does not count, since you can never stretch your legs to their fullest extent at any ‘char chaan teng‘ (Hong Kong style of cafes) anyway.
Macaroni in Soup with ham slices (comes with the set) – Still, after the subsequent repeated servings of this in the coming days, I started to warm up to this idea of a fusion pasta dish. Though for a start, you might not appreciate the salty broth dunked with soft macaroni and slices of briny ham.
Steamed Milk Pudding, and Egg Custard at the back. Both served warm, almost scalding hot initially. So don’t go gobble this up before testing the temperature of this. Not as brilliant as the famous Yishun, but still the milky pudding was a tummy-warmer of a breakfast. These did not come with the set, but was priced at about HKD20/RM8 per bowl.
Milk Tea, Hong Kong style. You can see the bottles of fresh milk in the glass display in the second picture from above. In Hong Kong, they only put fresh milk, or evaporated milk in their beverages, resulting in a creamy, milky drink rather than using condensed milk like what we do here. (This one came with the set too)
Essentially, a breakfast set (from HKD26/RM10.40 onwards) consists of toast and scrambled eggs (or fried egg), a cup of milk tea or coffee and a plate of macaroni soup with ham. The locals can really eat, and you’ll bear witness to how they can wallop everything in record time. The table next to us came later, and I was halfway snapping before they were already finished and zoomed off.
You cannot even afford to stretch your legs here. And you’d better not take your own sweet time and read papers or such.
The queue started building up just as we were leaving. Australia Dairy Company is opened from 7.30am until 11.00pm daily. Avoid the rush hours (breakfast and lunch), and come at the in-between hours. Like how you should do for Tim Ho Wan dim sum in Mong Kok.
Crisp toasts and golden scrambled eggs go together like bread and butter?
Verdict? Just go for the scrambled eggs with toasts (optional : you can also request for eggs + ham + toast), and you’re good. Skip the macaroni if you’re too full, as they don’t do an exactly impressive version. The milk tea was okay, but a far cry from the few others I’ll be writing in the near future. Though I was having extremely high hopes of being wowed out of my boots, the eggs were just being good. Not exceptional nor deserving of an award of the highest accolade, I felt.
AUSTRALIA DAIRY COMPANY
47-49, Parkes Street,
Jordan, Hong Kong.
Tel No : 2730 1356
Exit from Jordan’s MTR station, at exit C2 and walk towards Parkes Street. Just over the corner.
Motormouth’s Hong Kong Food Map
*By the way, next to this shop is the famous Mak Man Kee Noodles, but they open slightly later. So we gave them a miss. Famous for their wanton noodles etc. So if the macaroni in soup does not appease you, then save some space for some good old Hong Kong wanton noodles next door.
The SOP of how the waiter take th order and serve the food is what amaze me the most!
[Reply]
That is an extraordinary shade of golden for very ordinary eggs!
[Reply]
really? it blew my my mind away. i remember for weeks after the trip, i kept reading recipes, trying to replicate that texture and richness the eggs were..
[Reply]
J2Kfm Reply:
June 5th, 2011 at 12:05 am
Above average, yes. Was expecting really really good scrambled eggs. Maybe used to the local’s rendition with heavier butter taste rather than rich egg flavour.
[Reply]
I love the simplicity aspect of cantonese and HK food!
[Reply]
Methinks that’s the problem with high expectations, the tendency is to be undewhelmed in most cases. I know this happens to me more often than I fancy, so am actively trying to have very low expectations of eateries from now on. Hehe.
[Reply]
oO, yishun’s milk pudding nicer? will go for that next time.
fancy only the scrambled eggs with toasts and the milk pudding here. not the macaroni…
[Reply]
You know I couldn’t read chinese too and ended up ordering egg sandwich instead of the eggs served on the sides like yours. And it’s not even in a set! So I had to order and pay ala carte prices. But damn these eggs are crying out to me again now!!
[Reply]
yup,ate all of those and they are good!!!
[Reply]
J2Kfm Reply:
June 5th, 2011 at 10:04 pm
Yeah … not the macaroni though, but the scrambled eggs with toast and milk tea, with steamed egg and milk puddings were all satisfactory.
[Reply]
ahhh !!! i try it in 2 years back, i love the food here.
The egg with bread is so niceeeeeeeeeeeeee !!!
[Reply]
It was amazing!, I`ve tried twice on my trip, a friend suggested just ask for the eggs catalogued as 80 points for him.
I ordered two the first day, and second day I tasted the macaroni, and was delicious, it was a boost for the eggs, you can try putting eggs into the macaroni as some locals used to eat.
Enjoy!!!
[Reply]
Worst experience ever in my 1 week in Hong Kong. Food is common. Nothing special. Eggs are just regular. Toast too thick and blend. But service .. oh my. I felt that I just fought a war. Service is so rude that made me want to leave without eating. Waiters only treat locals better and speaks loudly to me and shame me for mis-reading a chinese word in the all chinese menu. After that is not all. I was charged HK$60 for eating 2 set meals with should cost HK$28×2=HK$52. WHAT BULLIES THEY ARE! Just becos we dont speak canto they think we are lower class or something. Unless you want to spoilt your whole Hong Kong trip; then I highly recomm to stay far far away from this eat house disaster! Canadian Chinese. -Miss Joanne (review on Australia Dairy Company, Jordan, Hong Kong)
[Reply]