[Review] Ricerolls at Ricebrothers

The Kitchens at Old Spitalfields is getting exciting with more new faces, some stalls who have made their success through popups.
Ricebrother has been at the Old Spitalfields for a year now serving signature rice rolls and tofu puddings in The Kitchens.

Ricebrother is inspired by a traditional Chinese street food, originating from Eastern China ‘Zifantuan’ – a Chinese style stuffed sticky rice roll made by tightly wrapping a piece of fried dough stick and pork floss with glutinous rice.
You will find these sticky rice rolls wrapped in clingfilm or stuffed in thin white plastic bags which is the basic way they are served. (See picture at the bottom)

At Ricebrother, they have taken the rolls to the next level by wrapping them in paper.
When I saw them,  I thought they were Korritos which are basically Korean Burritos.
Also on the Ricebrother menu was savoury soy pudding (silky tofu pudding) which reminds me Toayuan village, a competitor in a different aspect.
Although I wasn't going to try the dessert, their soy pudding with goji berries and homemade osmanthus honey was healthy as well as unique.
Most soy puddings are just served with syrup or crushed Chinese sugar.

As I was the Old Spitalfields, I decided to try a rice roll.
There was three to choose from: BBQ Pork, Crispy Chicken and Sichuan Pepper Tofu.
The chicken and tofu both have Sichuan pepper which is delicious but in the end I opted for tofu because I like tofu more than chicken.

The roll was ready in a flash and they offered to slice it in half which makes it convenient to eat as well as instaworthy.
It would be good if they served the rolls in a paper tray/box as it was difficult to hold both of them if you have small hands.
Compared to the traditional ones, these are much bigger and look presentable.

Just out of curiosity, I unwrapped it to see if it stuck to the paper and it didn't.
To my surprise, the roll was wrapped in seaweed in the middle which makes it look good as well as tasty.

The taste of the rice roll as a whole was good especially the tofu, if I do get a chance next time I hope to request for more tofu instead of the omelette because I found it a bit boring.
I didn't really like the creamy coleslaw in the roll as it was a strange pairing with the Sichuan spices however I wouldn't mind pickles or something punchy as it would complement the tofu better but this is just my opinion only.

Rice Rolls in wrapped in Clingfilm.

Simply delicious glutinous rice

Keung Kee (Wan Chai)

This joint is located in the middle of no where and it is neither close to Causeway Bay or Wan Chai because it is bang right in the middle with lots of roads to cross from either direction.

I have always wanted to visit this place but getting there was a problem.

I am not the person to like Chinese preserved sausages but I will still try them out when there are a lot of good reviews and I often change my opinion afterwards.

I finally made the effort to go when I saw two consecutive ENGLISH reviews because the previous ones were mainly Chinese and not that convincing but the pictures were promising to be on my to eat list.

The glutinous rice is also Eric wan's (尹天照) favourite but he said that this place was not open all the time.
(This was said quite a few years ago)

After reading the English reviews again and again I finally went on a nice cold day!

The restaurant is quite small and cosy, and it was perfect watching the tram go past because it felt like being a scene from an old Hong Kong movie.


At the front of the shop, there is a cooker of some sort that holds the glutinous rice with holes on the acrylic windows to let the steam out.

It does not look appealing but it is surprisingly delicious!


The menu was simple but it really helped reading those two English reviews by GW98 and Paramexics because it frankly is quite scary going into one of these places.

★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Glutinous rice with an extra preserved blood sausage:
Basically the rice with loaded with preserved meats but I could not get enough of the preserved sausage so ordered an extra one.
I never eat preserved waxed meats because they stink, especially the duck leg but the preserved meats in this tiny bowl of delicious rice did not stink at all!!
The glutinous rice which I dislike was suddenly delicious, it was like every grain of rice was coated with flavour and it was chewy and not too hard.
The spring onions and dried Chinese mushrooms gave it more flavour too.
The tiny bowl was quickly finished leaving you craving for more.
It would be great if the preserved meats could be evenly distributed because I have been here quite a few times and sometimes there was no preserved meat or no preserved duck.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Pan fried rice rolls:
Before I ordered them I assumed they were steamed but they were pan-fried as well.
Part of the rice rolls were lovely and crisp, and the middle was soft as it should be.


They were delicious complemented with the standard sesame and red bean sauce.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Congee:


The congee had almost everything under the sun in it such as dried oysters, preserved egg, pork, pork bone but it was slightly disappointing because with all those ingredients, the taste was bland.
The ingredients in the congee were generous, there was nearly half of an preserved egg there.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Pork skin:
I am not really a fan of pork skin but I was relieved there was no rancid lard taste to it.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★