One of the most popular street food in Macao is none other than the Pork Chop Bun. Nowadays, we need not travel all the way to Macao to try out this famous Bun.
We were invited for a food review session at this newly opened outlet Tai Lei Loi Kei located at 4A Jalan USJ 10/1J (Topspeed Business Centre), 47620 Subang Jaya, Selangor. The first outlet was opened at Lot 10 slightly more than a year ago and now have 17 outlet strategically located within the Klang valley.
These days,
we Malaysian are very fortunate that many restaurants are bringing in popular
foods from around the region i.e. you will have the opportunity to taste these
fares at reasonable price.
At Tai Lei
Loi Kei, they have a stringent rule to abide, the most important is of course
is quality - meaning fresh produce and top quality ingredients.
The
signature buns are bake to reminiscent that of the original taste so baking it
to the standard is top priority. Next, the frying of the pork chop is as important
as the chef have been trained to ensure that every piece of pork chop are fried
to the same intensity. This is to ensure consistency and same taste to the
customers.
Before
hand, these specially prepared pork chop are marinated in the central kitchen
(with more than 10 ingredient) to maintain the quality and sent to each outlet
where they will be fried on demand at that precise temperature and timing which
I was told was 2 minute 40 seconds.
There are 2
offering of these bun that comes with the juicy and succulent pork chop namely
the Signature Bun and the Polo bun. Personally, i preferred the Polo buns
(another very popular Macao food) as it has that tangy soft flavor of the
pineapple taste. The buns here are served Ala-Dante (no sauce like mayo or
black pepper and so forth), so the Pork Chop really have to be good on its own.
At Tai Lei
Loi Kei, you can have your buns, noodles or rice served with add on of Luncheon
meat, Ham, Cheese, Fish Ball and Fried Eggs.
Since, I
was having buns, I ordered the Ice Macao Coffee to goes with the bun. Well, to
me the coffee was rather plain and a little too sweet as I am used to the
strong aroma and caffeine in my coffee.
Next, we
had a different variation of the Pork chop i.e. Comes with Cantonese noodles
(it looks like wantan noodles) but these noodles are made with duck eggs to
ensure that it will remain springy and does not become soggy after cooking.
We were
told that they make 2 types of noodles i.e. one type for the soup which will
not turn soggy after it is cook and simmered in the soup, while the others is
for the dried (kon lou) type. Taste wise, I preferred the dry version as it was
added with a special sauce i.e. Pork lard blended with soya sauce (I am feeling
guilty now). This proves to be a winning combination and it really enhanced the
overall taste.
For the
rice wannabees, you don’t have to be disheartened, you can order your Pork chop
with rice too. For the rice, the special sauce are sparingly coated over the
white rice.
Next, we
tried out one of the side dishes which is the Macao Curry Fish ball . The curry
taste was very pungent probably from too much of the curry powder and it was
not very spicy. Garlic are used to flavor up the curry. Overall, so so.
We had
another try on the curry noodles instead, as this curry was flavored more for
the local market. Yes, this was much much better than the other curry that was
served earlier.
For Chicken
lovers, you can have Chicken chop serves in the buns, noodles or rice too.
Another
side dish, is the Fried Macao Chicken wings. The chicken are also marinated in
the same way as the pork chop, so taste wise, it is quite similar.
For desserts, we were served the Saw Dust Cake. Didn’t know we can eat saw dust too, but the saw dust here are actually biscuit crumbs which are crush to look like saw dust and henceforth it is called saw dust cake.
.To prepare this, the saw dust are put into 3 layers i,e, at the bottom, middle and top layers to provide you with variations and taste at each level. It comes in 2 flavors i.e the chocolate and the milk cream taste.