Thinking of an economical tai chau (大炒, made to order Chinese dishes, served with rice) for dinner, we ended up at Ming Heong (明香). This busy little corner is actually just an outdoor stall by the roadside right next to Giant hypermart at Taman Paramount in Petaling Jaya.

excellent kangkong belacan

If you can read in Chinese, ordering will be easy enough. At Ming Heong, they have the menu (only in Chinese) on a big board hanging underneath a bright florescence light. For the three of us, we ordered a bowl of watercress soup (西洋菜汤), a plate of kangkong belacan (马来风光), sweet and sour pork (咕噜肉), and clay pot tofu (砂煲豆腐).

one menu to rule them all

As the place was still not very busy since it was only around 7pm, we got our food within 10 minutes. The servings were a little smaller than other places, but that fits just nice as there were only three of us for the four dishes.

The dishes were surprisingly good. The sweet and sour pork prepared the traditional way and not with ketchup, hence the brownish color of the sauce instead of the more familiar reddish tone. It was perhaps not as visually appealing, but has a more original taste to it. The clay pot tofu was packed with meat, green bean, sliced carrot, onion, two types of mushroom, egg, shrimp, and of course, some very smooth tofu. The base, sweet with the taste of meat as well as seafood; and the myriad of ingredients complimented the tofu nicely.

tofu, soup, meat, vegetable, we have it all convered

The watercress soup came in one of those steamed soup servings. Prepared in advance and kept in the steamer, it was well cooked and didn’t disappoint. The best dish of the night, though, was the kangkong. A simple dish with the vegetable fried alongside red chili, garlic, dried shrimp, and oil turned out to be done with the perfect taste and texture. It was easily one of the best kangkong belacan dishes I’ve had for a long time. Best of all, it didn’t even need to be overly spicy to be good.

Ming Heong is situated just by Giant at Paramount

The dinner was an economical RM 13.00 per person. Four dishes, a very good value. Ming Heong only opens for dinner, and I would recommend that you go there on a non-rainy night.

GPS: 3.106995, 101.624190