Kou Kam-chun is the founder of Wing Kei Beef Offal (榮記牛雜) in Macau. A former worker at a sauce garden (醬園), he created his own secret sauce and from the 1930s sold beef offal as a carrying-pole hawker in Guangzhou alongside his wife Choi Kiu (蔡嬌); in 1953, owing to illness, he moved the family to Macau. Wing Kei is famous for slow-braised beef offal in a Macanese Portuguese-Indian-style curry, with branches in Taipa (官也街) and around Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro / the Ruins of St Paul's (新馬路/大三巴). His daughter Kou Ut-sim (高月嬋) took over as the second generation in 1980, and it is now run by third-generation Leong U-weng (梁宇榮). Note: despite the shared "Wing Kei" (榮記), Wing Kei Beef Offal is unrelated to the separate Wing Kei tofu-noodle shop (榮記荳腐麵食).
A pot of slow-braised curried beef offal — from a carrying-pole stall in Guangzhou to Rua do Cunha, Wing Kei's flavour begins with one sauce-garden craftsman's secret sauce.
Kou Kam-chun is the founder of Wing Kei Beef Offal (榮記牛雜), a long-running curried-offal house in Macau. A former worker at a sauce garden (醬園), he created his own secret sauce and, from the 1930s, sold beef offal as a carrying-pole hawker in Guangzhou alongside his wife Choi Kiu; owing to illness he moved the family to Macau in 1953, bringing the craft with him.
Profile
- Brand: Wing Kei Beef Offal (榮記牛雜)
- Founded: 1930s (started in Guangzhou); moved to Macau 1953
- District: Rua do Cunha (官也街), Taipa; around Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro / the Ruins of St Paul's
- Signature: slow-braised beef offal in a Macanese Portuguese-Indian-style curry
Background
Kou Kam-chun was a craftsman who came up through a sauce garden (a sauce-making workshop), where he developed the secret sauce that would become the foundation of Wing Kei's flavour. In the 1930s he sold beef offal along the streets of Guangzhou with a carrying pole, running the stall together with his wife Choi Kiu (蔡嬌); in 1953, in failing health, he moved the family to settle in Macau. Kou Kam-chun's birth and death years are not reliably recorded and are omitted here.
The Brand & Its Legacy
From a carrying-pole stall in Guangzhou to a fixed shop in Macau, Wing Kei built its name on a pot of slow-braised beef offal in a Macanese Portuguese-Indian-style curry, with branches in Taipa's Rua do Cunha and around Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro and the Ruins of St Paul's — a common stop for visitors exploring Macau street food. In 1980 his daughter Kou Ut-sim (高月嬋) took over as the second generation; today it is run by third-generation Leong U-weng (梁宇榮), across three generations. One clarification: despite sharing the characters "Wing Kei" (榮記), Wing Kei Beef Offal and the separate Wing Kei tofu-noodle shop (榮記荳腐麵食) are two unrelated businesses and should not be confused.