Teluk Batik AGAIN/2 Salted Egg Chickens - Happy & Bei King @ Sitiawan

Never say never. I never stepped on Langkawi's soils all throughout my life, yet last month I flew there not once, but twice. (The chocs are STILL in my fridge until now .... a case of over-estimation, at best).

Not of pristine waters & golden sands, but can lah .....

And being a Perak-ian, I only discovered Teluk Batik (physically) back in March. Surprisingly, duty called, and I was there again in April, AND last weekend. Which kind of more or less changed my perspective on life. Good things only happen once? Nah .....

Footprints in the Sand & The Lost Stallion?

Not going to bore you with shots of the beach and its surrounding this time. But instead focusing on some Foo Chow (or Hock Chew) food in Sitiawan. Two of them, to be exact. Told ya good things come in pairs.

Yee Si @ Kg Koh's the place for freshly steamed 'pau' ... but not opened for dinner. Boo-licious covered the 9 layers peanut bun HERE.

For dinner on the first day, we ventured out to Kampung Koh in Sitiawan to meet up an old friend of ours. No, not in the sense that she's OLD (The opposite, in fact. She looks 10 years younger than her age, really!). But a friend since our secondary school days.

Clockwise from top left : Foil-wrapped Sweet & Sour Pork Ribs, Salted Egg Chicken, Oyster omelette and Fried Squids

Staying in Ayer Tawar for a good one year plus certainly has its advantage. She has transformed from a young, naive gal with no sense of directions whatsoever (hehe), to a tough nut making ends meet in Changkat Melintang (even the GPS may falter at this one!), and perpetually searching for yummy food in and around Daerah Manjung. But of course, with a little help from her prince. (Don't kill me ..... LOL)

Foo Chow Mixed Vegetables

The place is easy to find, as the restaurant is located opposite of Kampung Koh's wet market, which in turn is very famous for the Lor Mee (a type of noodles in thick, sticky broth).

The meal was satisfactory in more than one way. Notable dishes include the Or Chien (oyster omelette) which was very crispy, with M-sized oysters, and paired with Kampung Koh's famous garlic chilli sauce. The deep-fried squids was another tasty snack that was complemented well by the aforementioned dipping sauce.

But the BEST dish of the evening, in my opinion at least, was the salted egg chicken. Now at this restaurant, their intepretation of the dish is slightly different from the others. Whereas most restaurants incorporate salted egg in the batter, and deep-fried their chicken, here the dish is slightly 'wet', as the salted egg is added into the gravy used to cook the chicken. The result? A sumptuous combination of tender chicken pieces cooked in the slightly sweet, saltish, and glistening thick sauce, with finely-chopped bird's eye chillies for that extra fiery kick.

How could we NOT be feeling HAPPY?

Secondly, that was a free meal. Hahaha ... us the freeloaders eh? Thanks to her charming prince, for the food, the company, and the recommendation.

Location : Happy Restaurant @ Main Road of Kampung Koh, Sitiawan. It should be somewhere around here, in the MAP. From the traffic lights at Kampung Koh's Maybank, go towards the road opposite of Maybank, and go straight from there. The shop is on the left, about 300m down the road.

So WHERE'S THE SECOND RESTAURANT, YOU ASK?

Bei King of course.

It has been a year, since my last visit to Bei King in Sitiawan. No doubt THE most popular Foo Chow restaurant in Sitiawan (albeit many claimed the commercialization brought about inflated prices and compromised quality), Bei King has been in the business for about 2 decades now.

Sambal Belacan Kangkung - Ma Lai Fung Kong

Their version of Kangkung stir-fried with Sambal Belacan was surprisingly very good. You know they really care for their greens when they do not simply stir-fry them, but instead with enough fire (wok hei), rendering the greens with a pleasant smoky flavour, with piquant sambal belacan paste, chopped onions and shrimps added for good measure. Not a typical Foo Chow dish, but who cares? :)

Sweet and Sour Fish Maw Soup

Now this is one of their signature dish, the sweet and sour fish maw soup. Fish maws are the gas bladders (or air bladders) of certain species of fish, considered a delicacy in Chinese cuisine. Cooking them may be tricky, as they've to be fresh (without the unpleasant overnight/stale oil taste), braised until soft yet maintaining that bouncy texture, and the sauce must not overwhelm the subtle flavour of the maws.

At Bei King, the sweet and sour soup is a suitable choice; thickened with strands of egg whites, and served with other ingredients, the soup was a tantalizing starter. But the fish maws paled in comparison to the ones I've had in Sekinchan.

The golden block of Signature Beancurd cooked in that wholesome stock

Salted Egg Chicken (again?!)

The salted egg chicken at Bei King is the typical batter-fried version, BUT the salted egg was sandwiched between the batter and the chicken meat, instead of being incorporated into the batter mix. Crispy on the outside, tender and savoury on the inside, we could really taste the salted egg in this one.

Red Wine Chicken - Dry version

The epitome of Foo Chow cuisine, the red wine chicken mee sua is being dished out in Bei King as well. Though we opted to have ours sans the mee sua (we had rice), AND without the soup (we had the fish maw one). The dry version was equally good, though first-timers may have doubts, wondering the possible use of excessive dyes/colourings. In reality, the blood red shade comes from the red rice used in the fermentation of the wine. IF my memory serves me correctly.

Location : Bei King Restaurant @ 1, Taman Lekir Baru, Jalan Raja Omar, 32000 Sitiawan, Perak. They've a site HERE. Tel No : 05-6910253/6926951. It should be somewhere around HERE (a Google map)

Happy Sunday Everyone ........