New restaurants in Hong Kong: Baba Nyonya Restaurant in Yau Ma Tei celebrates traditional Peranakan fare
- The kaya toast with a slab of butter is a clear winner for just US$4
- The rich shrimp laksa will only set you back US$7, but it could use more spice
Baba Nyonya Restaurant celebrates the cultural heritage of the descendants of Chinese settlers in present-day Malaysia and Singapore who married indigenous Malays.
Pictures of Baba Nyonya-influenced dishes and architecture are arranged on the walls of the restaurant in Hong Kong’s Yau Ma Tei district, with two small Malaysian flags hanging by the counter.
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The waiters were quite friendly and joked around with us. To order food, we wrote on their laminated menu with a red crayon. The menu features a range of Southeast Asian rice and noodle dishes, as well as snacks and drinks.
We started with the shrimp laksa with oil noodles and vermicelli (HK$56). We thought mixing the noodles together was an interesting combination, which is common in some dishes in Malaysia. The broth was mild and less spicy than other laksa dishes we’d tried, but it had a strong coconut taste, which we liked. The shrimp was elastic and fresh, with a tinge of spice, and the tofu puffs soaked in the flavours of the soup nicely.
The kaya butter toast (HK$28) was our favourite dish. The slab of butter went really well with the kaya in the middle of the crisp toast.
