Last night the infamous #porkgang had our first ever annual dinner at restaurant LYJ. Even though we’ve been having lunches, dinners, and activities like go-karting and such for quite a number of months, it was actually the first time all of us showed up all at the same time.
A little bit of background.
It all started on Twitter, we were organizing dinners and had too many people’s twitter nickname to include on every replies, in a flash of epiphany, I came up with the #porkgang hastag since we love to eat pork, and the group name was formed.
The members are: Kim, Gareth, Suan, Kerol, Eric, Jac, Cheesie, Horng, Ruby, Terence, Haze, FA, and of course, yours truly.
at restaurant LYJ, they serve pork lard with rice, as Kim pointed out
Anyway, for the dinner, Jac and Kim came up with the idea of Poon Choi. Poon Choi (盆菜) is basically a whole lot of top dishes served in a basin (traditionally wooden) to be shared with a bunch of hungry souls.It was said that the origin of Poon Choi came from the people serving their best delicacies to the Song Dynastic’s young emperor and his soldiers who fled from Mongol troops.
Though we’re not fleeing from anything, we felt like we deserved to eat like an emperor at all time, so Poon Choi it is then.
When it comes to Poon Choi, the one place that consistently came up from search result (and recommendations) is Restaurant LYJ at Sungai Buloh. Naturally, we went there.
yee sang is a must, the first one for #porkgang
The restaurant is located at a pretty old school part of Sg. Buloh, parking isn’t the easiest, nor finding the place without the help of GPS assistance, but it is one place that is definitely worth a visit or three.
Since it was still Chinese New Year, (the thirteen day, with thirteen members, how apt) we started off with yee sang (RM 28) – for prosperity, health, and wealth!
glorious poon choi, what you see is only the top layer
Everyone arrived at the dinner table at around 7:30pm, and by 7:40pm the glorious Poon Choi is served!
The RM 238 package comes with 1/2 boiled kampung chicken, 1/2 crispy roast duck, 12 salt & pepper prawn, brewed ma-yao fish, sea cucumber, stewed pork, fish maw, abalone, pork knuckle, chicken legs, and mushroom; while the RM 480 package adds brewed oyster and pork ribs, a whole can of Australian abalone, 12 scallops, and shark’s fin. A plate of vegetable (in this case, kai lan) is served with the Poon Choi.
Naturally we went for the RM 480 package for the 13+2 of us.
kai lan, the glorious pork lard rice, and the second layer of poon choi
The dish is separated into two layers, with the dry ingredients (scallop, chicken, duck, prawn, ribs, abalone, oyster) on top and the soupy stuff at the bottom layer (mushroom, chicken feet, pork knuckle, fish, fish maw, stewed pork). The entire thing were rather delicious, the only criticism, if any, were that there were a bit too much arrowroots for my liking.
As we called ourself the #porkgang, we naturally ordered their pork lard rice (RM 3) to go with everything. It was probably the most impressive rice that I’ve ever had, just very very flavorful. Cheesie said she’s already missing the pork lard rice even as we were having it, I certainly could use a bowl now!
the whole porkgang, all 13 members showed up for the first time
With the yee sang, 10 bowls of pork lard rice, six beer, and that basin of goodness, total bill came to RM 620 for the 15 of us, or just short of RM 42 per pax. It was an awesome feast and I couldn’t wait to go back there again!
restaurant LYJ isn’t too difficult to get to
Address:
PT 11, Jalan Perkhidmatan,
Kg Baru, 47000 Sungai Buloh
Selangor
GPS: 3.196949, 101.569118
Tel: 03-6140 2698
Operating Hour: 11.30 am to 2.30 pm, 6 to 10 pm, closed on Mondays
Two weeks ago, I had to go to Tun Hussien Onn National Eye Hospital to get my left eye checked after being hit by the ball during futsal (now pretty much fully recovered.)
Barely a week after that, having been making too much fun on my injured eye, Cheesie too had something on her left eye. So I took her to the same hospital located near Asia Jaya to have a look. As suspected, it was due to allergy to those colored contact lenses she was wearing.
Moral of the story: 1. Karma is a bitch. 2. Love to appreciate your own eye color
Pork Satey at PJ Old Town food court, Gerai Satay Cina Thoo Yuen
After the whole eye opening experience at the hospital where we also met a reader who came up and greeted us, it was time for dinner. Since this part of PJ is quite notorious for its traffic during weekday rush hours, I suggested that we head to PJ Old Town for for some good old cheap and traditional food that also happen to involve my favorite meat – pork.
We ended up at the food court.
Appetizer was 10 sticks of pork satay from Thoo Yuen stall at RM 0.80 per stick. It was quite juicy, and tasted pretty good with the accompanying peanut sauce. I just wish they serve pork intestine satay too, but they don’t. Bummer.
pork ribs with bitter gourd, steamed tilapia fish with lard at Gerai Thong Kee
To fill our stomach properly, we ordered two dishes from Gerai Thong Kee to go with rice. The stall next to Thong Kee serves umbra juice with dried sour plum (kedondong in Malay) at RM 2 per glass, nice!
Our first dish was bitter gourd with pork ribs. Quite flavorful with the brown sauce, red chili, and ginger. However, we didn’t have very good cuts of ribs, could have been better, but I’m not really complaining here.
KY and Cheesie at PJ Old Town Food court
Our second dish was this steamed tilapia with spicy sauce as suggested by the owner. The paste tasted a bit like tomyam, and went really well with the fish. However, the secret ingredient that made this otherwise very normal dish good was the lard on top.
Adding lard (be it raw or fried lard) on steamed fish gives the fish meat a softer and smoother texture, and of course, that pork fat flavor. I do that too when steaming pomphret fish (hey, I cook too ok)
The two dishes with rice came to RM 28, that’s fish, meat, and vegetable in a balanced meal. Now both of us needs to put eye drops, *drips drips*
Address:
Intersection of
Jalan Othman & Jalan Selangor
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.087519, 101.645948
BB Update
By default, when you reply or send a new email from Blackberry, a default signature is attached at the end of the message. As with any email clients, you can always change the default signature into something that you deem appropriate.
Before this morning, mine said “Sent from my Mobile”. Now it says “Sent from my awesome Blackberry”.
This girl used to not understand why BB is so addictive and now she’s the biggest advocate and addict there is. Cis! You can get your very own BB 8520 at a very good price from Xpax BB!
This is the pork noodle stall that I love to hate, the source of minor traffic jam to the main entrance of the housing area where I stay. The thing is, the noodle is actually pretty good, if you can wait.
over a dozen bowls at a time
A bowl of pork noodle comes with sliced pork, intestine, slices of liver, minced pork, and some vegetables with your choice of noodle (kueh teow, mee, or mee hun). The clear soup is cooked with the pork, and the everything is spiced up with sprinkles of Chinese preserved vegetable, salt, and pepper. Topping everything off (and I always ask for more) is the super unhealthy but ultra tasty fried pork lard.
The end result is instant gastronomical satisfaction, especially if you are a guy that loves pork. The soup is just right, the meat tastes good, it all goes well with some soya sauce and chili padi provided. The intestine though, requires some hardcore chewing, but interestingly one of my friends like it that way.
add some fried pork lard.. *slurps*
At around RM 4.00 per bowl, the pork noodle is slightly more pricey than the usual rate, but within the acceptable range. Expect to wait for more than half an hour during weekends though. The old man cooks over a dozen bowls at each go but takes probably close to 10 minutes per round, never sacrificing quality for speed. The wait isn’t as bad during weekdays non-lunch hours.
you can walk there from the LRT station
The pork noodle stall doesn’t start serving before 9am and usually operates until about 2 something in the afternoon. The restaurant is just a normal kopitiam at the same row of shop houses with the SS3 post office. About 2 minute’s walk from the Taman Bahagia LRT station.
you can walk to this place from the LRT station
Address:
Lorong SS3/59E
Petaling Jaya
47300 Selangor
GPS: 3.109577, 101.611776
