The Beef House @ 217 Syed Alwi Road

The Beef House at 217 Syed Alwi Road is famed for several things: yong tau foo, beef balls, beef tendon balls, soon pan (笋粄) and suan pan zi (算盘子). 

It is not hard to understand why they are so immensely popular because nothing here is factory made - well, maybe except for the various noodles (bee hoon, kway teow, Hakka mee) used here but otherwise, everything else is handmade.

I ordered a bowl of beef tendon ball soup with bee hoon ($5), two pieces of soon pan ($1 each) and a plate of suan pan zi ($2).

Hakka Lei Cha @ Volcano Coffee House, Kelapa Sawit, Kulai, Johor, Malaysia

In my previous post, I mentioned that we were at Kelapa Sawit checking out the wall murals. Before that, however, we had our breakfast at the local coffeeshop. 

There were a couple of very old coffeeshops offering the usual wanton noodle and porridge fare but, we were actually on the prowl for a very special dish associated with this Hakka neighborhood - the Hakka lei cha.

The word "Lei" （擂） refers to the action of grinding the tea but it sounds the same as the word "Thunder" （雷） so this dish is also known as the Thunder Tea.

My Mum is a Hakka so she got to have her bowl of lei cha which is actually a bowl of plain or brown rice topped with different vegetables and a bowl of soup made by grinding different types of herbs and tea leaves together. 

Traditional Hakka Lui Cha @ Boon Lay Market

Hakka Lui Cha (客家擂茶)

Lui Cha (擂茶) is an iconic Hakka rice dish that is topped with chopped leeks, long beans, kale (kai-lan), mani cai, string bean, cabbage, beancurd (tau kwa), pickled radish (cai pok), and served with a bowl of grinded tea made from a selection of herbs such as basil and mint.

Well, there might not be any hard and fast rule stipulating what vegetables to be used in the making of this dish as I believe the Hakka womenfolk simply used whatever vegetables they have on hand or had growing in their backyard at that moment.

Video: The Tragic Encounter Of A Pretty Reporter

This video of a Taiwanese female reporter from a Hakka TV Station reporting on a secret slide in The Grand Hotel turned viral after she took the plunge down the slide and let out a series of shrieks which bore an uncanny resemblance to the screams of the Angry Birds.

The slide was in fact an emergency escape route for Chiang Kai-Shek - former President of the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Measuring 2.1m tall, 2.2m wide and 90m long, the secret passageway had it's own independent electricity, drainage system and the lamp shades were of shatter-proof quality.