Tasty Treats From Leong's Kitchenette
Hidden Trove Of Flavours
Leong's Kitchenette was one of the many restaurants I choose to review out of the many food-tasting invites I received as a food blogger. Having done some many western food focusing on porky dishes lately ranging from The Pork Place, Brotzeit German Bier Bar Restaurant to PIGGY Tail, I felt it high time I drop by to check out some local Chinese favourites to share with my readers.
My gastronomic adventures has brought me to this hidden gem located in Subang Jaya, nestled in the enclave of USJ 21 among rows of shop houses, near Main Place. It's a simple with no-frills, typical chinese restaurant set-up that prides itself for serving one of a kind dish in the Klang Valley namely the 'Fried Porridge'.
The family-run business, husband and wife team with Leong helming the kitchen and Joeslin running the restaurant have plenty to offer their diners with a delicious selections of its familiar, home-cooked dishes together with a charming personality of the lady boss, Madam Joeslin.
When Joeslin decided to start a restaurant, she wanted to ensure the dishes served would be as healthy as home-cooked food. Focusing on serving dishes without monosodium glutamate (MSG), low in salt and oil, Leong's Kitchenette whipped up a number of must-try dishes to tempt the palate of their diners.
Value Set Lunch comes with a herbal drink
Since opening in early April 2015 this year, Leong's Kitchenette is fast becoming a popular dining spot in the neighbourhood in this part of Subang Jaya. Drawing in the crowds with reasonable prices and value for money with dishes starting from as low as RM 6.90 to RM 9.90 for their Value Set Lunch.
Choose from a range of rice, noodles, soup and fried porridge with pricing from as low as RM 6.90 to RM 9.90 with a complimentary herbal tea drink.
Mackerel (Tenggiri) Fried Porridge
RM 10.50
Star of the night was specialty dish ~ Fried Porridge. A heritage recipe passed down from Joeslin's dad, a great chef himself, Leong was taught the know how to prepare this delicious and comforting dish. Shredded ginger were firstly fried with egg together with de boned pre-fried shredded mackerel (tenggiri) added in to bring out the flavour. Next, add on some chicken broth and bring to a boil before plain porridge was mixed in. Served a dash of premium sesame oil and topped with chopped scallions and preserved vegetable for the added taste.
Voila, the end result was a bowl of tummy-warming porridge; so complete and well-balanced with protein and carbs. Young and old alike will love it as it's embodied a homely taste of home cooked meal, just like how your mom would cook it!
Abalone Sliced Fried Porridge
RM 12
Another great offering was the Abalone Sliced Fried Porridge. Congee may be considered a poor man's food by some, but the same cannot be said of Leong's Kitchenette's Abalone Sliced Fried Porridge. A similar version of the Mackerel (Tenggiri) Fried Porridge but minus the fish and being replaced with 'abalone sliced' instead.
Served with generous portion of the sliced abalone placed on top of the fried porridge makes it looks a very appetizing dish indeed. A treat on its own and I did not have to add soy sauce or any other condiments to pep up the flavour.
Salt Baked Crab
RM 65 per kg
(500 gram to 600 gram per crab)
(500 gram to 600 gram per crab)
Diners can look forward to some really fresh and tasty mud crabs dishes at Leong's Kitchenette. The Salt Baked Crab was simply the whole mud crab, wok-baked in fragrant margarine and salt and served on a bed of fresh lettuce.
It was nicely done and the flesh of the crabs was sweet. This can be achieved when the seafood is fresh and the preparation method allows its natural taste to shine, instead of marinating it and adding complicated flavours,
Freshness and tenderness in the crab meat was evident as we bite into this piece of mouth-watering piece of chunky crab claw meat. Live crabs cooked in this style will revealed the sweet tasting firm texture of the crab meat and baking seal in the rich taste of the seafood. Well-executed dish!
Milky Spicy Crab
RM 65 per kg
(500 gram to 600 gram per crab)
Milky Spicy Crab, Joeslin's dad signature crab dish should not be missed. The live crabs were cooked with house made spicy paste and evaporated milk for the creaminess resulting in a special sauce enveloping every piece of the crab making you want more.
Its signature crab dish is best eaten with fried mantou. With the spicy milky sauce, you will be drooling and wanting more, and the best ways to eat these crabs, are with your hands. Really finger-licking good!
One of my favourite part of the crab to eat - The Claw
You can have the tasty mantou for RM 4 for 6 pieces and an extra bowl of the spicy milky crab sauce for a mere RM 3 only with order of the crab dishes.
They are having an on-going promotion of LIVE CRABS priced at RM 65 per kg. Do note that the crabs dishes required a minimum order of at least 2 crabs per flavour.
Apart from the crabs and porridge dishes, the restaurant also serves an array of pork, chicken, fish, squid, clam, egg, vegetable, bean curd and soup dishes to go with rice for lunch or dinner. Here are some of their Daily Special Signature dishes in the house....
Asam Flavour Squid
RM 16
A spicy, sweet and sourish squid dish cooked with house made sauce with plenty of long beans and ladies finger. Fresh tasting bringing out the senses in your mouth and great to eat with a warm bowl of white rice.
Tilapia Steamed with Home Made Paste
RM 18
While the fish is fresh, moist texture and well-steamed, I found the sweet, slightly spicy sauce lacks in flavour. It just lacks the kick and intense flavour of spicy bean paste as compared to the better ones I tried in and around Klang Valley. I also suggested to Joeslin to add on some sinful but tasty deep-fried pork lard (chee yau char) into the sauce to bring out the special fragrant in any dish.
Chicken Drumsticks with Marmite Sauce
RM 14
RM 14
Chicken Drumsticks with Marmite Sauce on the other hand was a good choice for young ones. My son just loves the thick sweet and savoury flavour of the Marmite sauce coating the fried chicken pieces. He could down a few more bowls of rice just eating this dish alone.
Hong Kong Style Fried Chicken Wings
RM 14 (S)
Crispy and not oily, this appetising plate of 4 winglets with 4 drummets must be eaten hot upon serving. You can taste the crispiness with a saltish coating on the outside and still juicy on the inside. Nice to eat on its own as fingers food before the crabs dishes arrived.
Braised Pork Belly with Yam
RM 12
Braised Pork Belly with Yam is my family's all-time-favourite as my Hakka mom loves to cook this tedious dish for her family. I grew up eating this dish as a child but failed to pick the recipe from my late mom. Eating this dish brought back lots of happy memories for me, feeling nostalgic and mesmerising the good old days of my mom's home cooked food.
Diners who enjoy braised pork dishes will like soft yam (woo tau) with Pork Belly, where both meat and yam have been braised and soaking in brown sauce, thus absorbing the flavours. And, the dish goes well with rice.
Beancurd Home Made Thai Style
RM 9
In the midst of all the this meatiness, you can also have some healthy and tasty dishes such as Beancurd Home Made Thai Style which, in keeping with the theme, has a lot of shredded onion, chillies, scallion and carrots for the added crunch.
The signature tofu dish is made from egg and pure soya bean water without any water added. Melt-in-the-mouth soft tofu was served with house made sweet and sourish sauce to add some flavour to the bland taste of the tofu.
Stir Fry Water Cress with Garlic
RM 10
Don't forget to order some vegetable dish to complete your meal. Vegetable for the day was this young shoots water cress (sai yong choy miu) stir-fired with garlic.
Old Cucumber Soup
RM 6
Soups are good complement to a well-balanced meal. You can choose from menu 3 variants of freshly boiled soups from Water Cress Soup, Old Cucumber Soup to Lotus Soup with Peanut Soup.
Old Cucumber Soup comes in a soup bowl of generous portion of old cucumber slices, wolfberries (kei chee), red dates and chicken feet. This soup tasted clear and mildly flavoured with sweetness coming from red dates and old cucumber.
Lotus Root with Peanut Soup
RM 6
Lotus Root with Peanut Soup, on the other hand has a stronger taste with the lotus root and peanuts being boiled together for long hours bringing out all its goodness in a soup. Premium peanuts are used too in the soup as I noticed that these are the bigger size peanuts; good for soups and porridge unlike the smaller peanuts used in nasi lemak.
Beancurd Barley Dessert
RM 2.70
For desserts, the kitchen offers Beancurd Barley Dessert, a healthy concoction of bean curd soup boiled with barley and egg. Not sweet at all and that's how I like my desserts to be.
Leong's Kitchenette Menu
My family and I had a pleasant experience dining here as each member of the family get to savour their personal favourites. My daughter, Carmen Hong was excitedly enjoying both the crabs dishes; my young son loves all his chicken dishes, whilst my hubby loves everything on the dinner table and with me was tummy-happy with the special porridge and braised pork dish.
When you are eating crab, you will have that awesome need to snap some crazy and funny shots like these to savour the crab-licious moments! #happycrablovers #happyeats
Happy Eats with my crab-loving daughter, Carmen Hong
Overall, Leong's Kitchenette is truly an affordable and great place to go if you are looking for a decent home cooked meals to dine with your family or friends. You can have 3 dish + 1 soup Set, starting with some pork, chicken, egg or tofu and soup dishes for under the price of RM 50.
Joeslin added that she aims to replicate that of a home-cooked meal unlike many 'tai chow' stalls to feed her hungry diners with her wide range of local dishes. Dining here won't burn a hole-in-your-pockets and you can be assured with real value for money dishes for the quality of food you are getting.
So, if you're feeling a little under the weather and needed a nice tummy-warming porridge to soothe your stomach or too lazy to cook for the weekends, do come over to check out what Leong's Kitchenette have in store for you!
Pictures Credit: Carmenhong.com
Leong's Kitchenette
5-1, Jalan USJ 21/7
47620 Subang Jaya
Selangor
Tel: 012-662 6389 / 012-255 5302
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday ~ 11.00am to 2.30pm & 5.30pm to 10.00pm
Saturday to Sunday ~ 12.00pm to 10.00pm
(Closed for Break ~ 2.30pm to 5.30pm)
Closed on last Wednesday & Thursday of the month
FaceBook: www.facebook.com/leongskitchenette
~ CRAB LOVERS ATTENTION ~
DEC 2015 WEEKDAYS PROMOTION FOR CRABS RM 58 ~ 2XL CRABS
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