Beggar Chicken @ New Heong Kee Restaurant

For my sister-in-law’s birthday last weekend we patronized this hidden gem that is situated pretty close to where I stay. It’s main attraction is the beggar chicken (or duck upon request).  Beggar chicken is a dish where a marinated whole chicken is wrapped with lotus leaves, aluminium foil and a layer of dough and baked for 3 hours in an oven. That’s the modern way. The old school way is here (along with some back story of its origins) where the chicken is wrapped with mud and baked for a longer period of time. As the sign says, we had to make reservations a day in advance for the chicken to be prepared.

The establishment was decently packed and was served with Acar (pickled vegetables) as an appetizer.

The food did not take long to arrive at our table. We ordered pork ribs in herb sauce, romaine lettuce in creamy sauce and a fish dish that was not worthy to be elaborated on. The portions were decent for a family of 4. The pork was amazing. It was herbish in flavor, tender and moist which is how a good roast should be.

The next is the star of the show. I eagerly made my way to the preparation area and got a shot of a worker ripping open the wrap of the chicken. It doesnt look pretty but I assure you it tastes good.

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The meat is so tender that you could rip the flesh with a mere scooping action with a spoon, like so

Upon the arrival of the chicken, the table of food was cleared in a span of 10-15 minutes for that something that took 8 hours (this is what the  worker told us) to prepare

The entire meal of 4 dishes costed us RM 110. Here’s the contact details of the establishment

New Heong Kee Beggar’s Chicken

446, Batu 7½, Jalan Ulu Kelang, 68000 Selangor (near Zoo Negara, just after the Shell petrol station along the MRR2 highway)

Tel: 03 4106 8698 / 016 393 2632

Business hours: Noon to 10pm

Close: Open every day

Terms: Cash

Budget: $$ (RM10 to RM20 per person)

Type of food: Chinese

Pho in 3 minutes!

I love instant noodles and yes i know its not good for health, but there are certain things in life which we just can’t resist anyway. Some people cant overcome the urge to shop (shopaholic), to stores thing (hoarders), to eat or drink (binge eaters and drinkers) etc., For me, i cant resist instant noodle, ice cream, pork, moist chocolate cakes/fudge and the list go on, blame it on my sweet tooth. Well, as long the urge doesnt consume or cripple your life, i dont think its a big issue anyway.

Come back to instant noodle, there are so many flavors and variety of instant noodles nowadays, its easy to prepare, yummy and filling, who can resist a 3 minutes satisfying meal? Mind you, Instant noodle may not necessarally spell for cheap, I still remember there was one time when i ordered this soup noodle called 出前一丁 in a Hong Kong restaurant which cost like RM10++, and only realized later that the noodle was the instant mee noodle. At first i couldnt understand why is it named in such an alien way which confuse people, but if you think logically, 出前一丁means you just ‘ding’ before you left. I assume that the ‘ding’ refer to the usual microwave ‘ding’ sound, which implies fast and simple.

In my recent trip to Vietnam, one of the ’souveniers’ i bought for myself are PHO INSTANT NOODLES!! It cost 3000 dong (which is around RM0.75) per pack, and i am amazed with the fact that there are so many different brands and varieties available in the mini mart.

Pho Bo typically means Beef noodles, and Pho Ga means chicken noodles. The dried rice noodles are thinner than the regular PHO rice noodle and i think thats why you can cook/microwave/boil the noodles in 3 minutes. Then they have this usual oil and MSG Pack which contains the granules and dehydrated vegetables, meats and FAT bits (no joking it was stated at the packing). The soup was thick and tasty (a bity oily though), and its taste like cheap vietnamese pho. of course real PHO with freshly prepared broth and nice thin beef slices is the best, but for RM0.75, Not bad at all.


These are two other types, namely stewed pork with mushroom flavor (yuhuuu, Pork instant noodle!) and Pepper beef flavor. Anyway, i have been restraining myself with max 1 pack of instant noodle per week, since i havent taken any this week so i will spoil myself with yummy instant pork noodle this saturday. Muahahahaha (*evil laugh)

Al Fresco: Best Pork Ribs in Hanoi

Located beside the Ho Kiem Lake at Hai Ba Trung Street, Alfresco is the perfect Western restaurant to go to in Hanoi if you are over saturated with Vietnamese food and hunger for some good carnivorous meal. It is the home to all western favorites from Pasta, pizza, mexican to burgers, and the self proclaimed ‘best ribs in Vietnam’.

The environment inside is cozy and comfortable, with dim lights and warm tranquility. Big colorful menus hanging on the wall, bottles of ‘today’s special’ wine seating on the bar, for westerern tourists , this is very much homey to them. However, for Malaysian like me, this smells of expensive dining and big dollars.

Me and my mates have ordered shop famous Junior Pork Ribs, Alfresco Special very thin crust pizza and apple crumbles. The Pork Ribs here are to die for, so succulent and delicious, even Toni Romas in Singapore cannot beat them. The dish come together with fresh salad roasted potatoes. They also have mini and Jumbo size to cater for the big eaters.

The pizza did not fail us either. The thin crusty pizza was fantastic, its as though you are biting a crunchy tin biscuit rather than the usual Pizza hut thick pizza bread, the topping are consist of Ham, pepperoni, chilli beef, bell peppers, onion, pineapple, mozzarella cheese. Its very fresh and with hot Tabasco oil (its like the chilli oil but not so pepperish, i was tempted to ask whether i can buy one bottle from Alfresco), its tasted perfectly.

Microscopic view

The entire meal cost us USD 18, i would say the price is fair, cuz it will cost around the same in similar restaurants in Malaysia. So for those who planned to travel to Hanoi, dont forget to drop by at:

Al Fresco’s
23L Hai Ba Trung
Hoan Kiem, Hanoi
Tel: 04-826 7782

Vietname Culinary Experience

Hanoi is indeed a pearl of heritage and culture. Although nowadays it is flooded by sea of foreign tourists (am in no position of complaining as I’m one of them as well), but the deep rooted culture and boundless spirit of the locals is still very much intact and preserved. This has been best portrayed through their culinary and local cuisine.

The local vietnamese cuisine is very much simple (fast to prepare) but absolutely delicious. On top of that, you have the privilege to share the table with the local vietnamese as well as the fellow tourists, very much like in the busy dim sum restaurant in Hongkong. The only thing is that the table and chair are much shorter. And its kinda funny to see the foreigners which is like 5 feet tall sitting on the short chair, its like the giant sitting on the midget chair.

PHO

Pho shop

Half of the Pho menu

Despite of all the stories of diarrhea threat, I have finally tried the famous hanoi street’s PHO at Cham ca street (mind you this is not the KLCC Vietnam Restaurant’s Pho which cost a bomb), of course with charcoal tablet ready in my bag. It’s a rice noodle which taste heavenly with the clear but tasty soup. For 18,000 dong (around RM4), I’ve tried tai chin, which means a mixed of half cooked and thoroughly cooked beef slices. I cant describe the different of the pho with Malaysian’s rice noodles soup but it just different. The beef was soft and tender, and if you have good toleration towards raw meat, half cooked is always a better choice. Well, not to say we didn’t eat raw food like sashimi and sushi in Malaysia.

The cooks prepare the pho behind the glass window (lots of corriander, yucks)

The happy me with the yummy pho

Bun Cha

Bun cha is another great local dish, it’s a dish consist of barbeque pork cutlet, char siew, fresh salad (mint leaves, salad leaves, coriander and some other herbs), rice noodle and a funny tasted soup (sweet and sour) which has pieces of vegetable (carrot, cucumber in it. The way to eat the dish is to mix everything in one small bowl and eat together in a mouthful. The pork comes with some fat and burned choacoal taste, exactly how i wanted it to be. yummy! Apart from that, i’ve also ordered 1 roll of nem (by showing ‘1′ finger), which i have no idea why they have served me a plateful of at least 3 rolls of nem.

Bun Cha Dac Kim at Hang Manh street

Bun Cha

showing the nem

Aunty frying the nem

If you ask anyone what they know about vietnam cuisine, Nem is definitely in their list. Nem is like the veitnamese version of popiah, with pork, glass noodles and some vege in it. They have two types which is the grilled and non-grilled type. Well, unhealthy oily grilled food always tasted better, arent you agree?

Yummy nem served with pieces of tomato and salad leaves

More vieliscious food to come!