Restoran LYJ (Part Two)

Third time to LYJ this trip, this time to try out the more famous dishes. It is also Kaili's last meal for her trip to K.L.

Char siew.

LYJ's char siew definitely looks the part. Charred, caramelised and glazed on the skin and thick layers of fat in between thin layers of meat. The texture was as expected. The meat was tender and the fat was melt-in-your-mouth perfect. The sauce I am not such a fan of. It was poorly balanced with a potent taste of garlic, which overpowered the other flavours in the sauce.

Bittergourd lala.

The second lala dish I have tried in LYJ. This time, the consistency of the sauce was a lot better than the previous lala with ginger and spring onion. The bitterness of the bittergourd was not completely infused into the sauce, whereas the sweetness was. Also, the bittergourd was tender yet not mushy, just perfectly done. What I do not like about the dish is the black beans. I felt that it spoiled the flavour of the sauce, lala and bittergourd.

Steamed rice.

The steamed rice is amazing. It is difficult to describe the fragrance emanating from that small bowl of rice, even more so to identify the ingredients used in the brown sauce applied to the rice. Do not waste time on plain old white rice in LYJ, go for the steamed rice.

Fried fish with petai (stinky beans) sauce.

Possibly the best fish dish in LYJ. The sauce was so well balanced with the flavours of assam, chilli, onions, sour plum and other unidentified ingredients. Somehow, the sauce did not taste like petai, which is a good thing for me. The problem I have with the fish is that it is deep fried to an extent that it was crispy, but with not much meat left on the fish that was still flavourful. Nonetheless, the sauce is still the main attraction so I will still return for this dish.

Claypot kangkung (water convovulus).

Jeremy swears by this dish. When I told him what I ordered in LYJ the first time I was there, he told me I ordered the wrong dishes and recommended this, saying that "there is nothing quite like it". I took his word for it, and did not regret that one bit.

The dish looked quite harmless but it is nothing like it seems. Beneath the initial layer of bright green kangkung, there were bits of chilli padi (birds eye) in the dish, which gave it a real sting. In addition, the claypot helps retain the heat of the dish, making it even more painful to eat. However, the kangkung was delicious despite, or even because of the sheer spiciness. It had that charred flavour found in vegetables flash fried with what I call jet flames. The belacan (prawn paste) was also very potent, but not overwhelmingly salty. This stands as one of the best kangkung dishes I have ever eaten, perhaps only second to the one in Hock Seng Hin.

Kaili's verdict? "Awesome".