It seems that my life for the past few months has been revolving cha cang teng or tea restaurant, which plays a big part of Hong Konger's diet in their life. (No, no, no. cha cang teng is something like ya neighbourhood kopitiam, except that it has a kitchen of their own where they serves drinks, pastries and one dished meals.)
Well, if my memory did not fail, there used to be a cha cang teng at PS basement 2 few years back. Somehow, it seems that the business did not work well. In the end, it's zoi gin to Singapore. From then onwards, cha cang teng goes missing for years.
Well, it seems that cha cang teng makes a silent comeback to S'pore. First, Crystal Jade Restaurants serves cha cang teng food during tea time, then we have Central, which just invaded S'pore at Taka basement 2.
About few months back, Hong Kong Cafe at East Coast becomes a hit with S'poreans.
Mabey it's time to have something closer to home (don't you get tired of years of burgers and fries, sushis, kimchi, pizza or lazagne or even escargots?) even though HK is miles away from S'pore.
My first dining experience in a cha cang teng is a dinner with Tash in KL. The restaurant, known as Kim Gary Restaurant, runs a chain of cha cang teng in HK, and finally they choose KL as their first choice outside HK. I am not surprised, as most Chinese in KL speaks Cantonese. And i suppose they had no problem running a cha cang teng. If you think Kim Gary is just like those old and run down cha cang teng that serves limited food in HK...
Think again.
It is equally as good as Central. New, posh, wide variety of food. And best of all:
The food is cheap and good. Loved the yin yeung (a combination of milk tea and coffee, which i had it in the workplace canteen in every meal.) and the sai to si (better know as the western toast, it is a one inch thick toast, deep fried and served with honey, butter or syrup.) As for the one dish meal, they served CQYD instant mee with egg and luncheon meat. Might be high in msg, but who cares?
But no meal is completed in a cha cang teng without a polo yau (or known as polo bun with butter. Polo stands for pineapple in Cantonese. As the bun outercrust is shaped like a pineapple, so it gotten it's name like this. The bun is served with a sliced of butter.) and thouh it is highly fattening, it is highly addictive.
Now, i had a craving for yun yeung and CQYD mee...give me that!
Now playing: oh no music, but i just finished watching the heavily censored version of Good Times Bed Times, your typical HK romantic drama, seasoned with sex.