Ara Damansara's Ee Hiong Hakka Yong Tau Foo serves up ‘yong tau foo' the traditional way – stuffed with fish paste, minced pork and salted fish!

Malay Mail

18 hours ago

PETALING JAYA, Aug 17 — When in search of rustic, hearty and satisfying food, the vast suburban wilderness of Ara Damansara, with its million-ringgit bungalows sealed behind gates and guards, its broad and empty roads, and the endless traffic lights that seem to lead to more traffic lights, may not be the first neighbourhood that comes to mind.
Yet despite the cushy existence their surroundings suggest, the wealth of kopitiams and roadside gerai in the area shows that the residents here still eat much like everyone else, firmly rooted on planet Earth.
One such enclave for this kind of food is the Ara Permata Business Centre, home to kopitiams alongside newer cafes and restaurants.
There's no sign, but Ee Hiong is located in the Ara Permata Business Centre, next to a branch of BM Yam Rice.
Here you'll find Ee Hiong Hakka Yong Tau Foo, right next to a branch of the famous BM Yam Rice.
Hakka yong tau foo is one of those dishes that I feel both benefits and suffers from its widespread availability; its popularity makes it easy to find across the Klang Valley, but the pressures of staying competitive in such a saturated market mean it can be hard to find really, really good yong tau foo done the traditional Hakka way.
Classically, the filling should be a combination of fish paste, minced pork and salted fish, but rising costs have led most places to omit the salted fish, and sometimes the pork as well. Ee Hiong, however, takes pride in holding to the old formula, with a filling made from all three.
Choose from the usual suspects: white tofu, brinjal, bittergourd, lady's finger, chilli, tau foo pok, foo chuk (flat and rolled), sui kow (fried or soup) and even plain fish paste (fried or soup).
Each piece goes for RM2.50, which proves a bargain, because when our order arrived, each piece could only be earnestly described as colossal.
The white tofu is served unstuffed in soup.
They were almost ungainly to eat, but there is no denying that you get serious bang for your buck here.
The stuffed lady's fingers and white tofu come in soup, though the tofu is left unstuffed, with the filling shallow-fried and served alongside instead.
The rest, including the brinjal, bittergourd, chilli and tau foo pok, are deep-fried. In both preparations, the filling does the talking: springy, meaty and slightly salty, it keeps you coming back for more.
Whether tucked into soup with supple, smooth tofu or wedged between two thick slabs of creamy brinjal, it is a bite worth savouring.
Deep-fried stuffed 'tau foo pok', turned inside out so that the puffy interior becomes extra crispy.
My favourite, though, is the deep-fried stuffed tau foo pok, which in classic Hakka fashion is turned inside out so that the airy, web-like interior fries into a jagged, crispy exterior that you crunch through to reveal the meaty stuffing.
I make these every time I visit my Hakka grandmother, and let me tell you, it is a lot harder to get the ratio right than it looks.
These, despite their size and slightly awkward form, get it just right.
Curry 'chee cheong fun' here is typical, tasting mainly of curry powder.
Like most Hakka yong tau foo joints in the Klang Valley, you can have it with rice or chee cheong fun.
The plain variety comes with sweet sauce (RM4), or you can opt for curry chee cheong fun (RM4.50), and if you are feeling both, the mix (RM4.50) combines the two.
As is typical, the curry here is not spicy at all and tastes mostly of curry powder.
The menu also includes an extensive selection of larger, sharing Hakka dishes such as vinegar pork leg (RM28) and spicy asam vegetables (RM18), each served in hulking portions.
The portion of meat in the vinegar pork leg is also incredibly generous.
They were generous, even if I found both simply serviceable rather than memorable.
I would come here, and only here, for the yong tau foo. Ee Hiong has a branch in the Publika food court, but the filling there skips the salted fish, likely due to cost, and the pieces are nowhere near as supersized.
All the more reason to venture into suburbia.
渔乡客家酿豆腐 Ee Hiong Hakka Yong Tau Foo
28, Jalan PJU 1A/42B,
Ara Permata, Petaling Jaya
Open daily, 10am-3pm, 5-10pm. Closed on alternate Tuesdays.
Tel: [phone]
Facebook: Ee Hiong Hakka Yong Tau Foo
*This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.
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*Follow Ethan Lau on Instagram @eatenlau for more musings on food and self-deprecating attempts at humour.