Taste Buds, a siu mei (roast meats) shop, has opened in Central. At first glance, it looks like any other siu mei shop: strips of roast pork and whole cooked ducks and chickens hang from hooks as cooks in short-sleeved white shirts busily fill orders. But step into the clean, narrow interior, sit on one of the wooden stools and examine the menu and you'll see Taste Buds is different. For one, there's espresso on the menu (at most siu mei places, hot beverages are limited to plain tea, honey tea, milk tea and coffee-tea). And instead of serving only roast pork, barbecued pork, roast duck and soy chicken over rice, Taste Buds offers items such as a roast duck or barbecue pork 'burger' (right; $19), rice paper-wrapped duck or pork with cucumber, corn and seafood sauce (below left; $22) and braised duck with fresh bean sprouts on Hokkien noodles ($25). You can also choose multigrain rice, rather than the white rice commonly served.
Taste Buds is at 10 Gage Street, Central, tel: 2851 8852. It's open daily from 8am to 8pm.
