BY TAN BEE HONG
AS WE drove into the open-space car park in front of Jeff Lee Kitchen in Sungai Buloh, I glanced at my watch. It was a few minutes to the restaurant’s dinner opening time of 6pm, yet the two-shoplot restaurant was already bustling.
I was later told that regular customers usually arrive much earlier to make sure they get a table.
We walked in and noticed that most of the big tables were filled. The kitchen is located at the far end of the building, and I could see rows of Pipa Duck and poached chicken hanging on hooks over the open kitchen counter. These two items are signature dishes at the restaurant.
Another popular dish is tung tuk kai (or ‘standing chicken’), where the chicken is roasted upright and served whole, instead of being chopped into pieces as per usual practice.
Diners are provided with disposable gloves to tear the chicken apart. This seems to be quite a popular gimmick, as we spot tung tuk kai at a few tables already.
While waiting for our orders, we sipped on the restaurant’s signature drink, chrysanthemum tea (RM6 per jug). It was slightly sweetened, thick and aromatic, a perfect companion to our meal.
Our appetizer was cold paku salad (RM15). Fiddlehead fern shoots are lightly blanched and then dunked into an ice bath to retain the emerald green hues and crispness.
They are then tossed in a dressing of plum sauce and lime with sliced onion and halved cherry tomatoes added for colour. Very crunchy and fresh tasting.
Our chee chap chuk came in a claypot with deep fried crispy pig intestines and chopped scallions scattered on top. The rice congee was silky smooth, and the claypot kept it hot until the last spoonful was scraped clean.
Fish head with eggplant was one of my favourite dishes. The fish head was chopped into small chunks, battered lightly and deep fried first. The dish was then cooked with eggplant in a salted bean sauce with onions and bits of dried chilli.
Frankly, it was so appetising that I am sure you’ll be calling for more rice.
I was particularly intrigued by the ikan bilis (RM15). Not exactly a dish one would find on the menu of a Chinese restaurant, but there it was, a plateful of thoroughly cleaned ikan bilis, with the bitter stomach bits and heads removed.
These were deep fried with onions and then tossed with garlic and chopped chilli padi as well as spoonfuls of sugar.
I felt it had a little too much sugar for my liking, though. Or perhaps the chef was a little heavy handed that day.
The fook chow tofu (RM20) we ordered was served in a metal cauldron, with a bottle of black vinegar on the side. The serving was enough for four diners, and we struggled to finish it.
The tofu in the dish was chopped into slivers and cooked with lots of mushroom, minced meat, cloud ear fungus and beaten egg in a thickened broth. Sort of like a poor man’s ‘sharksfin soup’.
Jeff Lee Kitchen, located at Lot 4133 Jalan Perkhidmatan (opposite the market) in Kampung Baru Sg Buloh, Selangor, is also known for its wan tan mee which is topped with minced pork, and claypot lou shu fan.
Tan Bee Hong is a food critic-cum-blogger at fatphoenix.my. She can be contacted at phoenixbee@gmail.com.
