Nov 16 2008

Cheap and good yam rice along busy Lebuh McNair

Published by Foong at 1:22 am under Asian Food, Hawker Food, Where to eat |

About two months ago, I was fast running out of food blogging material and in quite a panic. What am I going to blog about now? I can’t just update the blog once a week. Not when I have established a pattern from the start that at the very least, I’d blog once in every two days here, unlike my personal blog where I blog on a daily basis.

Now, I suddenly have a stockpile of blog posts which I have not written and posted. I have recipes of desserts and main dishes and reviews of food places and restaurants and the roadside coffee shop. AND I’ve been tagged and meme’d.

What am I going to do?

Even if I were to blog daily here (which I tried to but did not have the time to do it consistently), I couldn’t possibly fit it all in and sometimes, I’d even forget all about a place I reviewed until I chance upon the pictures while clearing my desktop folders!

Why can’t I just get to the cheap and good yam rice already?

Heheh…alright. I just want to let my blog readers know that I do have plenty of posts coming up, just that I don’t have the time to post it all at once. Slow and steady wins the race.

Now, here’s my review of a yam rice stall in the middle of George Town. Quite a while back, I did a review of yam rice in Bukit Mertajam and how good it is. The yam rice there is really quite good. And now, I am searching for something as good here on the island and found this stall.

Yam Rice stall along Lebuh McNair

Special Flavour Yam Rice along Lebuh McNair

About a few years ago (actually, more like a decade, heheh) we ate at this exact same coffee shop and I was greatly impressed with the food offered. It was also yam rice with side dishes but theirs were with a difference and the tastes and flavours of it stayed with me till now.

However, since we seldom go to the middle of town for lunch (traffic is horrendous!) we had completely forgotten about the place until recently. We went back there and found that it is no longer the same person! The previous stall owner has left and now a new one (well, it’s been there several years so, it’s only new to us) have taken over.  Since we already parked at a perfect spot and walked to the place, might as well give it a try.

Here are some of the selection of side dishes they offer to go with the yam rice

Here are some of the selection of side dishes they offer to go with the yam rice

It didn’t look all that inviting and I was really craving the old yam rice stall’s food so my photography suffered…Here are some of the food we ordered…

The 'Tau Eu Bak' or Soya Sauce Pork with Beancurd

The 'Tau Eu Bak' or Soya Sauce Pork with Beancurd

Okay, so I was pretty impressed by their braised soya sauce pork. This simple common dish is the best way to determine how good their food is. If they can’t make this simple dish taste good, then all is lost. Well, they passed  with flying colours. The pork were tender and the sauce, thick and sweetish without being too oily.

The yam rice

The yam rice

Since this is a special flavour yam rice stall, of course we have to order the yam rice. They do have plain white rice too but we didn’t order that. Though their yam rice is not exactly GREAT, it is not bad at all. Quite good compared to a lot of other places in town.

The chili-stuffed fish

The chili-stuffed fish

I don’t really know what it’s officially called in English but I know in Hokkien, it is often called ‘loomba hu’ or something like that. Or could it be ‘rempah hu’? Hmmm… whatever it is called, it the one of the few spicy fish dish that I simply love to bits. Theirs are pretty okay, I finished the fish so that should mean something…

The boiled egg in soya sauce

The boiled egg in soya sauce

This is Mr Picky’s special favourite dish. Since he won’t eat the fish and finds the pork too ‘chewy’, egg is the best option for him to go with his rice.

Then, there's the soup

Then, there's the soup

Did I mention we are a bunch of ’soup people’? As much as possible, whenever having rice, we will order a big bowl of soup to go with it. It is like tradition but for Mr Picky, it is a MUST especially if we are having rice. This soup, called ‘bak kee’ is medioacre at best. Really nothing to shout about. However, we noticed other tables ordering a different type of soup which seemed popular. Shucks. Must have ordered the wrong thing!

And the overall of what we ate

And the overall of what we ate

All in all, the meal was pretty good and filling. It may not be gourmet or the greatest ever but it passed muster and is a great place for some quick, cheap lunch. Besides, I learnt that this stall is pretty famous when it used to be along ‘gor teow lor’ (5th road) or to be exact, Macallum Street, and now in this new location they are still getting quite a lot of regulars.

They are open daily between 6am and 3pm.  They don’t have a fixed day off. They will take the day off when they feel like it. Seriously. That’s what the stall owner told me.

Here’s the map to their place.

Rating: 6/10

Price:$$ (RM12 for the above food)

One response so far

One Response to “Cheap and good yam rice along busy Lebuh McNair”

  1. 550ml jar of faithon 16 Nov 2008 at 7:12 pm

    That stuffed fish looks award-winning! Not too big a fan of yam rice, so white rice will do for me, thank you!

    550ml jar of faith’s last blog post..Breakfast noodles in the ‘hood