KUALA LUMPUR, Sep 11 — The first time I tried pao fan — a classic Teochew dish of rice submerged in a pork or seafood broth, usually topped with crispy rice — it unlocked something in me.
Growing up, I did enjoy my rice sufficiently lubricated, but submerging it entirely in broth felt a touch too close to congee territory, which I hated. I wanted banjir, not Guantanamo.
Any concerns about rice soaked to a soggy, mushy death in coloured water were immediately quelled by the first mouthful.
My first pao fan, admittedly, was a pretty luxe one: river prawns gave the broth a rich, sweet flavour and a bright orange hue, while the crispy rice gained a brittle, candy-like texture from the plunge.
It left a lasting impression of what pao fan could be.
So when I heard I might find a great one off Jalan Ipoh, off the deep end I went.
I felt a familiar sensation, yet I was arguably more impressed when the pao fan was presented to me at Sun Kar Hee, a 37-year-old Chinese seafood restaurant in Taman Kok Lian, just off Jalan Ipoh.
Situated on the corner of a quiet row of shops, the restaurant is half air-conditioned, half open-air.
The pao fan here is aptly named Seafood Treasure (RM428), justifying its price with quantity as much as quality: crab, white prawns, lala clams, scallop, dried scallops, abalone and thick slices of giant grouper make up the broth's contents, along with cooked rice and crispy rice. It comfortably feeds four to five.
The thing about most brothy seafood dishes like these is that, for all the work that goes into their preparation, it comes down to how good and — though the two are not equivalent — how fresh the seafood is.
And that is where being as established as Sun Kar Hee becomes a real trump card for a seafood restaurant.
Because the crab and lala clams were sweet; the white prawns and great scallop, buoyant and firm; and even with the odd bone, the thick, meaty slices of giant grouper held their structure like well-rested steak.
And the broth delivered a far more subtle, refined sweetness than the first I tried, leaving room for a more savoury, briny character to come through.
All of it, dutifully soaked into both the cooked and crispy rice.
You could have a complete meal at Sun Kar Hee.
There’s no shortage of large, banquet-style dishes fit for big groups like claypot drunken chicken and stewed pork trotters with sea cucumber, but my decidedly small group had already begun feeling the effects of our pao fan.
In the interest of balance, we ordered a vegetable dish: stir-fried celtuce (wosun in Cantonese) with wood ear fungus, carrots and white shimeji mushrooms (RM18), fascinatingly topped with toasted pine nuts.
Between the tender crunch of the celtuce and the pop of the pine nuts, the dish made for a wonderful textural experience.
And just because we wanted something to snack on while waiting for the pao fan — the restaurant did inform us that it would take 20 minutes — we also ordered a small portion of cili padi pork belly (RM32), and nibbled on slices of fatty belly in a sweet, sticky sauce with spicy bird’s eye chillies and lots, lots of red onion.
It has to be said, the rest of the large-format dishes at Sun Kar Hee looked really tempting. I may even consider trying one or two on my next visit.
But I’d have to come with a really, really big group, because there’s no way I’d bring anyone here without letting them try the pao fan.
Sun Kar Hee Restaurant
Open:11.30am-9.30pm. Closed on Tuesdays.
Tel: 03-6253 1240
Facebook: Sun Kar Hee Restaurant
* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.
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* Follow Ethan Lau on Instagram @eatenlau for more pao fan and other eating adventures.
