The last time I blogged about pork intestine porridge was over 4 years ago on a hawker stall in Penang. It has always been one of my favorite old school hawker foods, but also one that is increasingly hard to find.

My first time at this small stretch of old school hawker center at Jalan Sayur in Pudu was a couple months ago, and while I had other food at the time, I noticed this porridge stall that offers pork intestine porridge, among other types.

old school hawker center on Jalay Sayur, Pudu

So when pocket Anne asked me out for a little dinner + catch up session in KL, I suggested to head to the very same place just so that I can have my pork intestine porridge.

This particular porridge stall is situated quite close to Jalan Pudu itself, they offer fish ball, salted egg, chicken, fish filet, seafood, and of course, the all important pork intestine porridge (猪什粥).

pork intestine porridge, and chee cheong fun

This bowl of goodness comes with deep fried pork innards, plenty of shredded ginger, some spring onion, and a good shake of white pepper with porridge cooked to perfection.

Compared to the one at New Lane in Penang, this one is less crunchy and has a slightly fresher taste mainly due to the ginger. Both of them are excellent nonetheless, and I am sure someone like Kim who loves intestine from Teow Chew porridge would love it too.

KY and the tiny pocket Anne

Anne also ordered the pretty famous chee cheong fun from another stall, one with the normal sauce, and the other with curry. Plain chee cheong fun with sesame on top and some proper sauce can be very addictive too, not to mention pretty economical. Our dinner came to only about RM 10 for two person, who said dinner at KL must be pricey?

Address:
Hawker center at Jalan Pasar
off Jalan Pudu, Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3135208, 101.713051

Tags:  anne,  hawker,  pork,  porridge,  pudu

Posted by KY | 28 Comments »

It’s been a while since I wrote a bak kut teh entry, in fact, the last one was more than 3 months ago. For a food important enough that I dedicate an entire category on, this hiatus is far too long.

It was not like I’ve stopped eating BKT. The lack of new entry has to do with the fact that it was getting difficult to convince my regular eating buddies to try out new places when they already have their favorite BKT joints. Meng Kee at PJ Old Town, and Yap Chuan at Puchong are the two places we frequent lately.

restaurant Weng Heong at Klang

After a brief retreat to Awana Genting with colleague and a bunch of friends a couple weeks ago, we decided to get some bak kut teh for lunch at Klang. Naturally we head to the BKT capital that is Taman Intan at Klang.

There’s at least half a dozen BKT specialty restaurants within stone’s throw distance, at one point of I had wanted to try all of them but somehow didn’t get around doing it, maybe I should… emm..

Anyway, instead of the over packed Teluk Pulai BKT, we decided to head right next door at restaurant Weng Heong (永香海参瓦煲肉骨茶).

the glorious pot of goodness – Bak  Kut Teh

For the 8 of us, we ordered two pots of clay pot bak kut teh, some yau char kwai, and a plate of vegetable to go with oily rice. We kept it fairly simple, one pot of lean meat, and the other mixed lean and fatty pork, didn’t order any innards either.

I usually do indulge in all sorts of spare parts and not-exactly-lean meat, but the order was a right one as it turned out that I was the only one not on 100%-lean-meat diet around the table. If we had ordered innards and pork knuckles too, I’d probably be typing this at a hospital recovering from heart attack right now.

Yau Char Kuai, oily rice, and of course, some vitamin C

Like most Klang Bak Kut Teh, this one did not disappoint. The soup was rich and full of aroma, the meat too cooked to perfection, soft and flavorful. Fried shallot is available to add an extra character to the yummy oily rice that goes so well with the soup too, no one was complaining (except for the heat and lack of air conditioning).

As per old school bak kut teh practice, boiling water is available right next to our table for self serving hot tea refills. The staffs were quite speedy in refilling soup too, always a good thing at BKT places.

Chloe, Vicky, Li Choo, Ivan, Bee Eng, Roy, Li Zhi, KY

The bill came to about RM 10 – RM 12 per person, pretty much in lined with most other BKT places just about anywhere in Klang Valley. The lunch was mighty satisfying, but next time I should do it for breakfast instead.

Address:
Restoran Weng Heong Bak Kut Teh
28, 30, Jalan 5, Kawasan 16,
Taman Intan, Klang, Selangor
GPS: 3.056268, 101.474018
Tel : 012-382 4408

Tags:  Bak Kut Teh,  bee eng,  bkt,  chloe,  ivan,  klang,  li choo,  li zhi,  pork,  roy,  vicky

Posted by KY | 27 Comments »

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

Tags:  cheesie,  eric,  FA,  gareth,  haze,  horng,  jaclyn,  kerol,  kimberly,  lard,  poon choi,  pork,  porkgang,  ruby,  suanie,  sungai-buloh,  terence

Posted by KY | 37 Comments »

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Have you had your Yee Sang yet?

Well I had, in fact, I had it thrice in 3 successive meals last Monday evening to Tuesday night. First one was with ex-uni mates, then a bunch of Chinese colleagues at Ducking, and finally with Mell at Lucky Loke (one of my favorite tai chau places) the very same night after that.

Mell is a yee sang addict

Yee Sang is originated right here in Malaysia and Singapore (yah I know wikipedia stated Sg., but I don’t care). For the uninitiated, the ingredients include raw/smoked fish (usually salmon), daikon, parsley, crackers, capsicum, jelly fish, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Of course, there’s the all important sesame oil, salt and peper, and plum sauce

Toss em up and yell some auspicious verse while leaving the table super messy is a must (I ended up with yee sang on my hair on my first session). Then enjoy, it’s yummy!

the fried pork belly is super yummy at lucky loke

After the very delicious yee sang, we proceed to order the fried pork belly and spinach with herbal soup to go with rice. That was, of course a little bit too much for just the two of us following a pretty big portion of the auspicious dish.

The fried pork belly was as awesome as usual, with 3-layered meat, a bit of cucumber, some onion, green onion, and generous amount of chili padi, it was hot and very addictive. The spinach too was very good.

Meal for two with Yee Sang – RM 45
Having a good relationship with ex – priceless

By the way, I was going into the cinema last night and there was this guy who got stopped at the entrance.

ticketing guy: “ahh you’re not allowed to bring outside food, what are these?”
chinese dude: “this one is.. yee sang, and this one is.. yok kon lor”

Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone!

Address:
Lorong SS3/59E
Petaling Jaya
47300 Selangor
GPS: 3.109577, 101.611776

Tags:  chinese-new-year,  kopitiam,  lucky loke,  mellissa,  pork,  yee sang

Posted by KY | 21 Comments »

Hoho steamboat is probably one of the earliest “pulau ketam” type steamboat in town, it has been operating for so long that Kim said her parents actually dated there. It is then safe to say that this place has been in operation for well over two decades.

Hoho steamboat, established since forever

Housed at the same premise as the pretty well known Ipoh Road Yong Tau Foo at Segambut just a stone’s throw away from the intersection of Jalan Kuching and Jalan Duta, the restaurant is converted from a former Bungalow with ample parking space. There are tables inside the building, under the tin roof (with fans and ample lights), as well as under the moon light. The usual ingredients for pulau ketam style steamboat.

steamboat set, deep fried dumplings, bacon strips

Most of the porkgang and two extra guests braced the traffic last Friday evening for a good steamboat meal thanks to the suggestion by Cheesie.

For the eleven of us, we ordered steamboat set for nine pax that includes dumplings, pork balls, fish balls, fish noodle, tofu, prawns, vegetable, tofu skin, eggs, noodles (yee mee), mee hun, quail’s eggs, and fish cubes.

Kim and Cheesie doing the hardwork

We added a couple plates of deep fried dumplings to munch while waiting for the soup to boil, and they are actually rather delicious.

Other extra orders we had were clams (to make the soup sweeter), quail’s eggs (cos Eric has low cholesterol), and of course, extra pork balls and some raw bacon. Hoho is one of the very few steamboat places that offers bacon strips, the concept is a bit new to me as I usually like my bacon fried, but the boiled version is actually pretty nice too.

Haze is a very happy girl. Jac doing the “cooking”

Due to a bit of miscommunication, we ordered both tomyam and clear soup for our pot. While the tomyam soup turned out to be pretty tasty, I usually prefer to have only the clear soup. Having the pot split down the middle with two soup base that has very different tastes is usually not a great idea as they tend to mix up quite a bit when boiling.

The sambal supplied by Hoho steamboat is rather potent and fragrant too. To me a pulau ketam steamboat is never complete without good sambal, and this place does not disappoint when it comes to that.

Though not the absolute best out there, the combination of price (less than RM 25/pax with drinks), taste, and experience does make Hoho steamboat a place worth visiting. By the way, they have the best URL too: steamboat.com.my

Address:
Hoho Steamboat
67, Jalan Segambut,
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.180645, 101.677523
Tel: +603-6252 6473

Tags:  cheesie,  dumpling,  eric,  gareth,  haze,  horng,  jaclyn,  kerol,  kimberly,  pork,  Steamboat,  suching,  taka

Posted by KY | 29 Comments »