Setting up a Hakka restaurant in Klang does not seem like a good proposition as Klang is predominantly a Hokkien enclave. Choosing not to follow the crowd, the owner of the restaurant would like to offer a variety of food option by introducing some of her grandmother recipe of the popular Hakka dishes for the Klang folks.
+BestRestaurant ToEat was invited to taste these Hakka dishes at Good Hakka Restaurant located at 20 Jalan Rodat 4, 11 Avenue, Bandar Bukit Raja, Meru, Klang. Although opened for business for more than 7 months, the spanking clean environment and brightly lit shop does has a plus point. With a simple and no frill set up in a new business area along the way to the Meru town, it is not that difficult to discover this place.
According to the owner, the dishes that are served here is a little tone down compared to the authentic version which tends to be more flavourful and has a strong taste for the Hakka folks and foodie like us. This is because of the feedback from customer which frequent this restaurant which they enjoy the tone down version.
For this review, we will list down by the favourite dishes instead of chronologically basis as what we normally does. My personal best has to be the Fried Tau Foo Pok with Salted Eggs; although this dish is not really a Hakka dish. We loves the crusty and crunchy feel as the Tau Foo Pok is cooked with salted eggs, it was heavenly and we had to order a second dish to fully satisfy our craving.
Next on is the Sizzling Sambal Petai Sotong (RM20.00). The sambal paste are in-house made to the right spicy flavour. Paired with the bouncy white squid it was a delight to be eaten with white rice. Cooked with Petai and onion this dish was very tasty.
Moving on the next dish is the Assam Prawns (RM25.00). This dish is cooked with Assam paste that has a slight sourish taste. The prawns which are sourced from Rompin; has a nice texture and the sauce was fully embedded to the prawn.
This is then followed by the Rendang Pork (RM24.00). The paste that used to cooked the ribs was very aromatic and the meat was cook to the right texture without being too soft or too hard. We have to order another white rie to slurp up the rendang.
Next is the Red Wine Chicken (RM30.00). The Red Wine is in-house made and usually takes about 40 days to brew to this level. I like the wine chicken as the aroma of the wine was very strong. Cooked with the black fungus, black bean (to give it a sweeter taste) and plenty of julienne ginger, we really like this dish as all the ingredient combined to extracted out a superbly strong wine and gingerly flavour.
Followed by the Pork Vinegar Trotter (RM30.00) - compared to the Cantonese version, the Hakka version is usually more on a sweeter note and lack the stronger vinaigrette taste that I like for this dish. If you are used to the Hakka version, you should be right for you.
One of the main dishes as far as Hakka cuisine is the Hakka Braised Pork (RM24.00); it is a must for most Hakka family. I personally would have like the pork pieces to be a bigger piece and should braised to a softer texture with a more pungent taste from the fermented bean curd. According to the chef, the taste was tone down a little to cater to the taste of the locals.
Another one of the favourite Hakka dish is the Yam Abacus (RM22.00). The yam abacus is in-house made and have a dough have a bigger portion of yam as to the flour, this makes the abacus chewy and have a strong yam flavours as compared to some which have the flour taste. It is then stir fried with minced pork, chilli padi, black fungus, dry shrimp and topped with spring onions.
For the fish dishes, we had the Braised Fish Hakka Style (RM30.00-40.00 depends on type of fish). You can order your choice of fish to cook with this style. In fact, they are quite flexible in terms of flavours that you can also choose to cook your choice of fish. This style is very village type as the fish is first fried and it is then braised with slice ginger and Chinese cabbage.
Another one of the favourite Hakka dish is the Yam Abacus (RM22.00). The yam abacus is in-house made and have a dough have a bigger portion of yam as to the flour, this makes the abacus chewy and have a strong yam flavours as compared to some which have the flour taste. It is then stir fried with minced pork, chilli padi, black fungus, dry shrimp and topped with spring onions.
For the fish dishes, we had the Braised Fish Hakka Style (RM30.00-40.00 depends on type of fish). You can order your choice of fish to cook with this style. In fact, they are quite flexible in terms of flavours that you can also choose to cook your choice of fish. This style is very village type as the fish is first fried and it is then braised with slice ginger and Chinese cabbage.
Another very popular Hakka dish is the Yong Tau Foo (RM 9.00 for 6 pcs and RM18.00 for 12pcs). The chef uses the mackerel fish paste with minced pork flavoured with salted fish and onions. Here you can choose from a choice of different vegetable like Bitter Gourd, Tau Foo, Ladies Finger, Chillies and so forth. This dry version comes with a bean paste sauce.
You can also order the soup version for your Yong Tau Foo.
You can also order the soup version for your Yong Tau Foo.
To conclude we would say that the spicy food served here are really good and match to our taste buds. Being a foodie at heart we will always be on the look out to taste the authentic version of Chinese cuisine, although the taste at Good Hakka Restaurant has been tailored specially to customer from this area.
