For a taste of hearty Hakka cuisine

The Drunken Chicken with Ginger and Rice Wine was very satisfying. Pictures by Eu Hooi Khaw

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 29 I like the robust flavours of Hakka food, and Ying Ker Lou comes to mind when I need my Hakka fix. Its not too far away and easy to get to, being located in a shopping centre near where I live.

Familiar Hakka dishes would be braised belly pork with yam or with preserved vegetables. Hakka Lui Char or rice with a variety of stirfried vegetables, finely cut, and peanuts, on which is poured a mixed tea soup that has ground tea leaves, sesame, peanuts, ikan bilis and basil in it, has become popular in recent years as something quite nutritious and tasty to eat.

Crispy pork belly with fermented beancurd... very yummy.

We had this in Ying Ker Lou, together with a Hakka Minced Pork Ban Tiao, as the carbo part of our dinner. The Ban Tiao or noodles were slightly sticky and al dente, lovely with the patty of minced pork with cuttlefish, and then minced pork with a strong whiff of salted fish. I could just eat this and be perfectly satisfied.

The Lui Char was disappointing though: the char or tea part of it was a little diluted and weak in flavour. Stirred with the rice and other ingredients, it tasted flat.

I had been looking forward to the Drunken Egg Omelette with Ginger and Rice Wine but we settled for the Drunken Chicken instead. I once had this wonderful omelette fried with lots of ginger and floating in rice wine in this restaurant.

Stuffed bittergourd is one of my favourites.

Its a traditional confinement food but few breastfeeding mums would take this now. Im so glad ! its on t he menu here, a fluffy omelette redolent with ginger and sesame oil, soaking in a rice wine with a hint of sweetness. Ying Ker Lou does this particularly well.

But I must say the Drunken Kampung Chicken which came in a black claypot, cooked with lots of crunchy wood fungus and ginger, tasted just as good. It was winey enough, with a light sweetness and a lovely aroma. Im told that its hard to get a supply of good Chinese rice wine to cook with. Sometimes a batch of it may even be sour.

Crispy Pork Belly with Fermented Beancurd had also caught our fancy, and a delicious aroma floated up as it was brought to the table. The thin slices of pork had this perfect balance of lean and fat, and they were crispy as promised, without being fibrous.

Hakka Minced Pork Bian Tiao is a must-try.

I can never resist bittergourd if I see it on the menu. This was a bittergourd stuffed with small pieces of pigs stomach, yam, black mushrooms, garlic and chestnuts, and immersed in a stock with wolfberries or kei chee.

The slightly crunchy pigs stomach blended well with the yam and mushrooms, and Im sure if fresh chestnuts instead of dried ones had been used, it would have tasted so much better.

Sauteed Assorted Mushrooms Hakka Style was our other vegetable dish there were shiitake, enoki and eringgi mushrooms, stirfried with red and green peppers that were naturally sweet and tasty.

The sauteed mushrooms Hakka style... absolutely delicious.

Other dishes on the menu worthy of a return visit include the Fried Intestine with Pineapple, Braised Pork Belly with Yam, Braised Duck with Young Ginger, and Dong Jiang Style Stuffed Beancurd in Hotpot.

The prices: Minced Pork Ban Tiao is RM14.90, Drunken Egg with Rice Wine RM16, Crispy Por! k Belly with Fermented Beancurd RM26, Stuffed Bittergourd RM21, Drunken Kampung Chicken RM36, Stirfried Assorted Mushrooms RM19.

Ying Ker Lou is in several shopping centres in Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur. The one we went to is the original one, on the first floor of The Curve, Mutiara Damansara, Petaling Jaya (Tel: 03-7729-4229).

Share it with others

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•