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Juliette Teunissen

Ma Sa Restaurant

$ - Hong Kong Style - Sheung Wan

G/F, 23 Hillier St, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong


BACKGROUND

This small restaurant in Sheung Wan (north Hong Kong Island) exemplifies the cha chaan teng tradition. These classic Hong Kong restaurants are known for their affordable food, fast service, no frills retro decor, and people packed together. This one, in particular, is well known for their spam with fried eggs on rice, popularized by the movie God of Cookery. It’s deceptively simple in that the amazing taste is not what you would expect from a very simple dish. I’d had friends who had raved about this dish and how it was one of their favorite meals in Hong Kong. I’m neither a big fan of eggs nor did the idea of spam seem very appealing to me but I’d heard such rave reviews that I knew I had to go.

THE VISIT

I was staying in the Sheung Wan district and Ma Sa is very close to the MTS station. I was heading to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddha so one morning I decided to skip the free hotel breakfast and head here - it helped that avoiding the early hostel breakfast times meant I could sleep in.

It took me a while to find the place - it’s not necessarily hard to find on the map but as it is small and unassuming with no English signs, I wandered around for a while before

I got to 11:08, which I found out is 8 minutes after the end of breakfast. The the designated English-speaking server (a common experience in cha chaan teng) very kindly still gave me the breakfast menu. It had a variety of set option but I did not spot eggs and spam anywhere. I asked for it and eventually he pointed to a picture on the wall - there it was! Even though it was no longer breakfast they still whipped it up for me. I found out that there was also a char siu (BBQ pork) option but I had come for the spam and this was a culinary adventure. I also ordered an iced milk tea to finish off this classic Hong Kong experience.

The meal did not disappoint - so simple but the flavor combination of 3 eggs + very tasty spam (I was surprised! It's cooked well with a nice flavor and texture) with rice and soy sauce was very filling and delicious. I very quickly finished my plate and was very ready for my day of exploring. It started to fill up while I was there as lunch time gets very busy but I had a calm breakfast.

Definitely go to Ma Sa if you are in Hong Kong - when (!) I go back I will be giving the char siu a try but definitely have the spam - so good! I'm still in awe how such a simple dish that you could very easily replicate was so good.

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