Food & Dining: Chopsticks Kee

Lunch-getters await their seats
Image from Locky's English Playground

The Central lunch adventure with my wife took us to Chopsticks Kee, yet another restaurant with a lot of history like Wah Fung but in a Macau sense. This shop is located right opposite Wah Fung, attracts its customers with its famously cheap cart noodles and maybe the numerous magazines' recommendations as well, as you can see from the "wallpaper" outside the shop.

Sauces, magazines and menus
Image from Locky's English Playground

We got in in about 5 mins of waiting, which was quite quick if you only have 2 people. Those who have 4 or 6 had to wait a long long time. Why?

Kitchen took up 50% of the space, the rest is the aisle and tables
Image from Locky's English Playground

Because the shop is narrow and small, so much that the customers have sit along both sides of the the aisle.

Image from Locky's English Playground 

And because of the smallness of this place, if a waitress sees you with nothing on the table, they will ask you if you have finished your food, which was the case right after we sat down. And if they realised you haven't ordered, they will push you to do so. The moment you have finished your food, they will immediately collect the bowls and ask you to pay, leaving you sorry to stay at the table any longer.

Photos of Macau covering menus in Chinese
Image from Locky's English Playground

Well, you can't complain about that, with all those hungry Centralians waiting for their bites. Don't forget, this is Central, the word "cheap" is almost extinct.

Even more magazines recommendations (and Cantonese jokes) under the table glass
Image from Locky's English Playground

Maybe this is the reason why the restaurant get so many recommendations from the media too. Hm... can you sense why I suddenly say that?

Curry fishball, chicken wings, fish tofu, flat noodles in satay soup with iced lemon Ribena. $35
Image from Locky's English Playground

Here's why. First, my wife ordered curry fish balls, chicken wings, fish tofu with flat noodles in satay soup with iced lemon Ribena, and one of the fish balls was ancient!!!! You can actually see which one from the photo above. That's scary!!! It looks rotten. Okay, fine, you can choose not to eat it, but... okay, okay. Fine! My wife kind of like it.

Beef slices, iceberg lettuce, crunchy tofu skin roll, flat noodles in curry soup with iced lemon Ribena. $35
Image from Locky's English Playground

But not me. I ordered beef slices, iceberg lettuce, crunchy tofu skin roll in flat noodles with curry soup, ended up the curry soup was in fact curry vomit-looking sauce. The fact that it was still tasteless after mixing with the soup made the whole thing even more disappointing. Everything else tasted isolated, nothing seems to match. Nothing in the bowl resonates with one another. It is like a group of 5 fresh musical instrument learners each playing their own practice song simultaneously on the same stage.

Was it because I have made some wrong food choices or was it just me? After my wife couldn't finish her "tasty" noodles, I tried hers and it was still tasteless.

Pork chop bun (soft bread). $14
Image from Locky's English Playground

In order to for me to not feel so disappointment, and also for the fact that I will not be coming back again, we ordered a pork chop bun as the last hope. And guess what?

Image from Locky's English Playground

It's a very small piece of soda water-soaked pork, meaning pink and tasteless, with lots of mustard in it. Instantly, that $30 pork chop bun from Macau's Tai Lei Loi Kee becomes "cheap". You don't remember? Show you here again.

$30 Pork Chop bun
Image from Locky's English Playground

Can you see the size of that pork chop and the deliciousness of it?

You may say, "$35 a bowl of noodles with drink, $14 a pork chop bun, what do you expect?"
True, the food was edible, but after eating, I felt that those expensive food I've had in Central actually worth their price! And that's just sad! Very sad!

My wife actually kept apologising to me after taking me to this place. Of course, I wasn't actually angry and it was not her fault either.

As for the score, it is lowest on the English Playground ever. Sorry about that. "that" refers to the "food I had" though.



Scores:

Look:            ★★☆☆☆ 2/5

Taste:            ☆☆☆☆☆ 0/5

Smell:            ★☆☆☆☆ 1/5

Textures:       ★☆☆☆☆ 1/5

Temperature: ★★★★☆ 4/5

Overall:         ★☆☆☆☆ 8/25

Vocabulary:
aisle -- (n)[C] a long, narrow space between the rows of shelves in a large shop:
isolated -- (adj)  happening or existing only once, separate:
resonate -- (vb) [I] to produce, increase, or fill with sound, by vibrating (= shaking) objects that are near:
fault -- (n) [U] a mistake, especially something for which you are to blame:


Resources:
Food & Dining: Wah Fung Since 1941 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2013/04/food-dining-wah-fung-since-1941.html

Cart Noodles @ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cart_noodle

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/aisle?q=aisle+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/isolated?q=isolated+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/resonate_1?q=resonate+