KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 30 — Mention Teochew cuisine and what comes to mind are usually these three dishes: Teochew porridge, braised duck or the light and clean flavours of Teochew steamed fish accentuated by sour plums, ginger and tomatoes.
Enter Teochew House: a casual offshoot of the posh Upper Palace Teochew located in The Exchange TRX that offers a different perspective of the cuisine.
The restaurant at Steppes continues Upper Palace Teochew’s mission to champion the finer details of the cuisine, offering staples like noodles served with braised beef and tendons, fish balls, prawn wantans and rice bowls with braised pork trotters or braised goose for quick lunch breaks or family-style meals for leisurely dinners.
On paper, separate menus exist for lunch and dinner, though some favourites overlap. You can also add items from the extensive dinner menu to your lunch order.
There’s also a secret menu, known only to regulars, where you can order the freshest catch delivered daily, whether it’s a particular type of fish cooked to your preference or even crabs to enhance your porridge’s sweetness.
You can’t go wrong ordering the Teochew Oyster Porridge (RM38.80), which diners love for its soupy porridge with soft whole rice grains mingling with plump oysters, minced pork, sliced mushrooms, preserved radish, greens and dried prawns.
For the Teochews, the familiar, simple flavours are reminiscent of home cooking, which they recognise immediately, while non-Teochews appreciate the warmth of the sweet, clear broth and fluffy grains that can be eaten with other dishes.
Pan-fried Teochew Oyster Omelette (RM32.80) can be seen on almost every table, resembling a pizza that servers cut into wedges using stainless steel pizza wheels.
A layer of puffy crispy egg with a light crunch hides plump oysters and chopped greens cradled in the fluffy cooked eggs.
On a good day when the kitchen isn’t overwhelmed, you get a beautiful golden filigree crust dotted with chopped greens as juicy oysters peek through.
During peak hours, however, there’s a possibility of getting a dud — an over-fried omelette with hard oysters — which we encountered during a weekend dinner. Hopefully the kitchen can eliminate these uncertainties over time.
You may think we were mad to order classic dishes like Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple (RM58) and Steamed Pork Patty with Preserved Radish (RM58) instead of more Teochew-style dishes but there’s an important Hong Kong connection: Upper Palace Teochew partnered with Hung’s Delicacies from Hong Kong to introduce these items on the menu.
So we took a chance when we saw them on Teochew House’s menu. Our guess hit the bullseye; the sweet and sour pork was superb and definitely ranks as one of the best in town.
Eat each nugget the moment it hits the table as inside the light crust, you get layers of pork rolled that are juicy as you chew on it.
The pork patty was also good, offering a soft, fluffy texture because of its high fat-to-meat ratio, peppered with chunks of water chestnut and topped with preserved olive leaves.
Chicken and Pork Soup with Hairy Fig (RM88) was another big surprise; a friend who had tried hairy fig root before insisted we order this for dinner.
That became a stealth winner as the hairy fig root imparts a sweet coconut-like aroma to the silky broth.
Don’t ignore the soup’s dregs either, as they aren’t dried out but remain juicy and infused with the herbs’ flavour, making us fight for the chicken meat.
The Teochews are experts at handling seafood, which includes curing it Sheng Yan style to enhance the seafood’s texture and sweetness.
Teochew Marinated Raw Sea Prawns (RM38) is a fine example of the method where tiger prawns are infused in Shao Xing wine, soy sauce, garlic, Sichuan peppercorns, coriander and other spices until they achieve a firmer texture infused with the marinade’s flavours.
The traditional braised items use goose meat, web and wings, various parts of the pig — from its jowl, belly to its ears and intestines — and cuttlefish, braised in a master stock rich with soy sauce and infused with spices
A special breed of goose, known as the Lion Head or Shitou, is used, as it is prized for its rich, flavourful meat, head, and liver.
Braised Lion-Head Goose Meat (RM58.80) has a deeper flavour from the spices and tender meat while the Braised Pork Jowl (RM38.80) has more bite and is paired with a lighter stock.
For lunch, the Pork Trotter Rice (RM32.80) is served in a bowl where the soft, tender meat accompanies rice drenched in the braising liquid.
For a complete meal, an assortment of greens with different textures was added to the table like the crunchier Stir-fried French Bean with Minced Pork & Preserved Olive (RM32) and a softer Baby Cabbage in Rich Chicken Broth (RM33).
Dessert choices are limited to only three items.
The classic Teochew Yam Paste with Gingko Beans (RM12.80) has an enjoyable smoothness but without the essential lard for flavour and a silkier mouthfeel, it feels like a cheat dessert.
On the healthier side, the Water Chestnut and Mung Bean Sweet Soup (RM10.80) is extremely light in sweetness, containing only mung beans and showing no sign of any crunch from water chestnuts.
At the end of the day, Freshly Ground Almond Cream with Egg White (RM15.80) won the sweet battle with its light but distinct flavour of Chinese almonds and ribbons of cooked egg white.
Bookings, especially during peak times, are needed to score a coveted table. It’s also best to pre-book items for faster dish turnaround.
Teochew House
G-05-01, Steppes,
Open daily: 11am to 3pm, 5.30pm to 10pm
Tel:03-62539000
*This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.
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