Chicken vermicelli soup, a healthy meal for under US$9 in Central at Taiwanese Mazu Lifestyle Noodles
- Served with cordyceps flower, red dates and black fungus, the chicken was tender, the vermicelli soft and smooth, and the broth sweet and aromatic
- At HK$75, the beef soup was also good value, the meat breaking delicately into pieces
The Chinese name for Taiwanese Mazu Lifestyle Noodles, a new restaurant in Central, refers to health preservation – a tenet of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
Ingredients are often consumed in the form of soups, and Taiwanese Mazu offers 12 types, simmered with beef, farm chicken, pork or dumplings, and ranging from mild to spicy. They’re served with vermicelli, ramen or rice, and cost HK$65 to HK$75.
I tried farm chicken vermicelli soup with cordyceps flower (HK$67). Cordyceps flower does not sound appetising – it’s a parasitic fungi that grows on the larvae of insects – but according to TCM, it has many health benefits, such as improving the immune system and anti-ageing.
The noodle soup arrived with a light yellow broth, which was sweet, mild and aromatic. The soup absorbed the tastes of cordyceps flower, chicken, red dates and black fungus. The chicken meat was tender and the cordycep flowers were chewy, while the vermicelli was soft and smooth. In typical Cantonese style, the whole dish was subtle and clean-tasting.
Beef soup (HK$75), served with a bowl of rice on the side, had tender meat that needed just a touch of the chopsticks to break it into pieces. The broth was dark brown, with a thin layer of fat from the beef floating on the surface.
Two pieces of soft white radish at the bottom of the bowl were juicy and refreshing and balanced the richness of the broth, which was delicious when eaten with the rice as it absorbed the fragrance of the beef.