for the love of good food...: Café Matchbox

Saturday 18 September 2010

Café Matchbox - new-style bing sutt.

Date: 5th September 2010

Café Matchbox @ Causeway Bay

Attracted originally by the décor and the type of food they serve here in Matchbox, I brought a friend here to try out the food. Honestly we were quite pleased with this new-style bing-sutt, even though its slightly out of reach. Upon stepping inside we were in love already! After being seated to a mini booth we studied the menu, and decided on the following...

main menu

another menu + dessert menu

B Jai Yin-Yang Drink (Horlicks + Ovaltine)

Chicken Pie in Pea Soup

Pancakes with banana and caramel

We picked two items to share, one being their signature meal set of chicken pie in pea soup with pancakes ($38) which comes with a drink - we ordered 'B Jai Yin Yang' for an extra $5. The other item was a very normal beef and tomato rice (, just to be safe!

The chicken pie in pea soup was a little strange for us, but not bad at all. We agreed we would've preferred eating them separately, and I shall bare that in mind for next time! Here at Matchbox the chicken pie is a Hong Kong-style pie, being made with a sweet shortcrust pastry crust and only a little filling of chicken breast in white sauce with mixed vegetables. The crust was in no way soggy despite being served in the soup, and was quite rich, but good. The pea soup proved to be better than I thought. Green peas are probably one of my most hated vegetables, and this soup in no way resembled the boring old pea. It was flavoured with lots of ginger and puréed, so it was a hearty and healthy contrast to the pie.

Pancakes came with a light caramel flavoured sauce and chopped bananas. The pancakes were warm when served, and nicely browned on both sides and soft on the inside. The caramel sauce is not your typical caramel sauce, this one being lightened by the addition of (corn) starch, which also makes it less-sweet! Although some might think they aren't being genuine, serving 'fake' caramel and all, it is actually the preferred taste of many Chinese people who don't like their sweets too sweet any way! Of course it would've been better if served later, but then again we should have told them to - this is a cha chaan teng after all.

Beef and tomato rice

Beef and tomato on rice ($42) was good as well. Whilst the rice could've been better, the beef was soft but not too much so as a result of tenderizing ingredients (yes, baking soda), and the tomatoes were chopped small enough before being fried so they cooked thoroughly and softened easily, rather than being semi-raw big chunks which I got from Tsui Wah recently. Also in here were button mushrooms, and the main character - the tomato sauce, was not overly acidic and not too sweet either, a wonderful balance!