The Food Site

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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)

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I have heard of this famous Koay Teow Th’ng (flat rice noodles soup) stall from friends several times over. I’ve friends who’d go there for breakfast or lunch all the time without tiring of her food. And I wondered why.

You know I am not all that crazy about koay teow th’ng. It is more of The Food Critic’s thing than anything. Still, I was curious.

So, to satisfy my curiousity, I tried out the food there.

The Koay Teow Th'ng stall along Magazine Road

The stall itself is unassuming (except for the Chinese newspaper write-up plastered on the stall front) and handled by an auntie. Alone.

It is one of two stalls in a dinky little coffee shop along a row of dreary shophouses

This coffee shop is often ‘overlooked’ since it is tucked amongst other shophouses along one of the busiest roads in town. Still, this stall has its own regulars especially in the mornings and sometimes, even lunch time.

The lone stall owner aka chef cooking up her specialty

She only has two types of soup, clear soup or tomyam soup. The soups could go with flat rice noodles (koay teow), plain instant noodles or maggi mee, plain noodles and vermicelli (bee hoon).

Naturally, we ordered both types of soup. Mine is tomyam with instant noodles while The Food Critic goes for his all-time favourite, koay teow th’ng.

What we ordered...

I like it that she sprinkles some greens on top for garnishing

Another unique thing about her noodles is that she puts eggs in it. How strange is that? I’ve never tried koay teow th’ng or tomyam noodles soup with eggs in it!

She added some instant noodles seasoning into the soup and though the tomyam soup looks kinda pale, it is pretty tasty. It’s not as sour as I hoped but it is good enough and has an interesting flavour due to the addition of the egg and the seasoning. Fortunately, it is not too salty and I’d have to say, it tastes like homecooked noodles. You know, the ones you’d make in the middle of the night where you only need to heat up some water, dump the contants of the instant noodles in and within 2 minutes, you get a bowl of noodles! Of course, hers is much better since she did add some extra ingredients to it.

Now, on to the Koay Teow Th'ng

Just like the tomyam noodles, the koay teow th’ng also has the addition of some instant noodles seasoning. So, instead of your usual koay teow th’ng taste of clear, sometimes oily, soup, you get one with additional flavours and yes, the egg do add a touch of difference to it.

Here's a closer look at the Koay Teow Th'ng

Although most people would consider it ‘cheating’ for her to add the seasoning to the soup, I think it is perfectly alright since the combination of the added seasoning and her own soup concoction makes great flavours and this has kept her regulars happy.

Take a look at the brown bits on top, these are deepfried lard

Like many old-style hawker food, she also sprinkles some crunchy deepfried lard on top of the noodles as part of the garnishings. I know how artery-clogging these are but I have to say, it sure do contribute to the flavour of the soup.

My verdict: If you are looking for something fantastic, you can forget this stall but if you wanna try out a different type of koay teow th’ng or tomyam noodles soup, then you should try this stall.

She has an ingredient that you will either love to bits or hate. It really depends on your taste and whether you like the added instant noodles seasoning (which may contain loads of MSG). It’s not exactly healthy but hey, most of our hawker foods aren’t all that healthy! As for me, I may think of this stall if I have a sudden craving for koay teow th’ng with egg in it or a simple bowl of tomyam without all the jazz.

Yep, this stall offers simple bowls of soupy noodles and though it is not lip-smacking fantastic, it is still much better than some other places I’ve tried before. Do note that the portion is really small, two mouthfuls and then some and that’s it.But then I’d say it is value for money since it is RM2.80 per bowl. This is for a stall smack in the middle of town where prices of normal hawker foods could go from RM3.50 and higher.

The coffee shop is only open for breakfast and lunch during weekdays. It is closed on weekends.

Rating: 7/10

Price:$

Here’s the map to the coffee shop (along Magazine Road):

Location map

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