Man Ting Fang 满庭芳茶餐室菜粄 in Kelapa Sawit (near Kulai) is our favourite one stop shop for Hakka dumpling (choy ban) and lei cha (Hakka ground tea rice). Everything is made right there at the eatery / house, so all the food are super fresh.
When you step into Man Ting Fang, one of the first things you see is a large open kitchen where staff knead dough to make the dumpling skin, prepare the fillings, hand make the dumplings, and steam them in large trays. Man Ting Fang serves chive, leek and yam bean (mang kuang) dumplings.
The ingredients like these leeks are fresh, hand washed and diced. With so much human attention, no wonder the food here tastes so good - only good quality vegetables make it into a dumpling.
Deep frying diced bean curd which is used in the dumplings.
The cooked ingredients (chive, leek, yam bean with fried bean curd) are packed into dough skin purses made with rice flour.
Johor Kaki list of Best Lei Cha in Johor 👈 click
Chive dumplings ready for the steamer.
Packed inside the thin soft skin of the steamed leek dumpling was lots of chopped fresh leek and fried bean curd.
The chive dumplings were bursting with chopped chives and bits of fried tofu.
The strips of yam bean or mang kuang were soft crunchy and tasted savoury sweet with peppery aftertaste.
All the three types of Hakka choy ban dumplings were so... good! I love them all 😋
Lei Cha Fun or ground tea rice comes in a set of boiled rice topped with fried vegetables and nuts, and a bowl of ground tea.
The ground tea is made by hand grinding various vegetables (mint, basil, coriander, black tea leaves, sesame seeds, peanuts etc) into a paste and boiling it into an aromatic green tea. Lei cha 擂茶 in Hakka means ground tea. The Hakka word lei 擂 (ground) sounds like thunder 雷, so lei cha is often referred to as "thunder tea" though it has nothing to do with thunder. (Hakka folks also call lei cha, hum cha 咸茶 or "salty tea".)
The green tea - wholesome and so tasty.
Boiled rice beneath that thick blanket of freshly fried vegetables and toasted peanuts.
I like to eat my Lei Cha by pouring the entire bowl of green tea over the rice and fried vegetables.
The whole bowl of rice and fried vegetables flooded by the deluge of grainy hot green tea. (Pour in less green tea, if you prefer less soupy rice.)
I've heard it said many times that lei cha is an acquired taste but I think once one tasted lei cha made with fresh ingredients, many don't just acquire the taste but get addicted to it 😄
Johor Kaki list of Best Lei Cha in Johor 👈 click
Lei cha is eaten with side dishes like yong tau foo - vegetables like bitter gourd, brinjal (egg plant), chili pepper etc and tofu stuffed with minced pork and salted fish filling.
Needless to say, yong tau foo is hand made and freshly cooked here, just like everything else at Man Ting Fang.
Savoury sweet yong tau foo are perfect complements to lei cha. Man Ting Fang is generous with their minced pork, salted fish fillings.
客家炸肉 Hakka fried pork which is pork cubes marinated in fermented bean curd deep fried to a golden brown crisp outside.
👍 If you are in Kulai (shopping at the Premium Outlets or trekking Gunung Pulai, or eating fresh durian at plantation, etc), a stop at Man Ting Fang for authentic Hakka staples like lei cha and choy ban is worth considering. It is one of our favourite stops for authentic local foodie experience.
Restaurant name: Man Ting Fang 满庭芳茶餐室 (客家菜粄)
Address: Jalan Kelapa Sawit 6, Kampung Sri Paya, Kulai, Johor
GPS: 1°40'21.1"N 103°31'42.0"E 🌐 1.672519, 103.528331
Waze: 满庭芳茶餐室 (客家菜粄) (type Man Ting Fang)
Tel: 016-764 4264
Hours: 7:00am - 3:00pm (Weds off)
Non Halal
Date visited: 24 Oct 2018
👆 Click to return to JB Best 100 page
I am glad to finally get a taste of the famous Kulai Hakka dumplings 菜粄 (choy ban) in Kelapa Sawit at 满庭芳茶餐室 (no English name). Thanks to KK, one of my Johor friends 😄 Choy ban 菜粄 is one of the representative foods of the Hakka community. In particular, the Hopo-Hakka, so the dish is called 河婆菜粄 Hopo choy ban.
满庭芳茶餐室 is located in a large standalone family home.
The easiest way to get here is by car with the help of GPS (co-ords 1.672240, 103.528643). You know you are here when you see several cars parked along Jalan Kelapa Sawit 6 (which is otherwise a quiet residential area).
The Hakka dumplings or choy ban are freshly made entirely by hand.
The ingredients like this 韭菜 are garden fresh.
Auntie frying diced tofu in a large wok of boiling oil.
The skin is hand kneaded.
The skin is made by skilfully pressing a lump of dough into a skinny dough cup. The cup is then filled with a large spoonful of cooked fillings such as turnips or leeks.
The cup stuffed with filling is folded into a large dumpling, and laid out neatly in a large steaming tray.
Steaming the trays of Hakka dumplings.
The steaming hot tray of Hakka dumplings are ready 😄
The plump dumpling is as large as my palm.
When I bite and broke the thin tender smooth skin, the green fillings burst out. The leek and tofu filling was juicy, soft, crunchy, and flavourful. The skin was one of the best that I have ever tasted in a steamed dumpling.
Juicy tenderly crunchy flavourful 沙葛 Chinese turnip.
->> Delicious taste of Hakka tradition. Fresh ingredients, everything hand made, eaten hot straight from the steamer.
Restaurant name: 满庭芳茶餐室
Address: Jalan 6, Kelapa Sawit, 81030, Kulaijaya, Johor
GPS: 1.672240, 103.528643 / 1°40'20.1"N 103°31'43.1"E
Hours: 7:00am to 3:00pm (Closed on Weds)
Tel: 6016-764 4264
Non Halal
Date visited: 19 Dec 2015
Lei Cha Fun or ground tea rice comes in a set of boiled rice topped with fried vegetables and nuts, and a bowl of ground tea.
The ground tea is made by hand grinding various vegetables (mint, basil, coriander, black tea leaves, sesame seeds, peanuts etc) into a paste and boiling it into an aromatic green tea. Lei cha 擂茶 in Hakka means ground tea. The Hakka word lei 擂 (ground) sounds like thunder 雷, so lei cha is often referred to as "thunder tea" though it has nothing to do with thunder. (Hakka folks also call lei cha, hum cha 咸茶 or "salty tea".)
The green tea - wholesome and so tasty.
Boiled rice beneath that thick blanket of freshly fried vegetables and toasted peanuts.
I like to eat my Lei Cha by pouring the entire bowl of green tea over the rice and fried vegetables.
The whole bowl of rice and fried vegetables flooded by the deluge of grainy hot green tea. (Pour in less green tea, if you prefer less soupy rice.)
I've heard it said many times that lei cha is an acquired taste but I think once one tasted lei cha made with fresh ingredients, many don't just acquire the taste but get addicted to it 😄
Johor Kaki list of Best Lei Cha in Johor 👈 click
Lei cha is eaten with side dishes like yong tau foo - vegetables like bitter gourd, brinjal (egg plant), chili pepper etc and tofu stuffed with minced pork and salted fish filling.
Needless to say, yong tau foo is hand made and freshly cooked here, just like everything else at Man Ting Fang.
Savoury sweet yong tau foo are perfect complements to lei cha. Man Ting Fang is generous with their minced pork, salted fish fillings.
客家炸肉 Hakka fried pork which is pork cubes marinated in fermented bean curd deep fried to a golden brown crisp outside.
👍 If you are in Kulai (shopping at the Premium Outlets or trekking Gunung Pulai, or eating fresh durian at plantation, etc), a stop at Man Ting Fang for authentic Hakka staples like lei cha and choy ban is worth considering. It is one of our favourite stops for authentic local foodie experience.
Restaurant name: Man Ting Fang 满庭芳茶餐室 (客家菜粄)
Address: Jalan Kelapa Sawit 6, Kampung Sri Paya, Kulai, Johor
GPS: 1°40'21.1"N 103°31'42.0"E 🌐 1.672519, 103.528331
Waze: 满庭芳茶餐室 (客家菜粄) (type Man Ting Fang)
Tel: 016-764 4264
Hours: 7:00am - 3:00pm (Weds off)
Non Halal
Date visited: 24 Oct 2018
👆 Click to return to JB Best 100 page
I am glad to finally get a taste of the famous Kulai Hakka dumplings 菜粄 (choy ban) in Kelapa Sawit at 满庭芳茶餐室 (no English name). Thanks to KK, one of my Johor friends 😄 Choy ban 菜粄 is one of the representative foods of the Hakka community. In particular, the Hopo-Hakka, so the dish is called 河婆菜粄 Hopo choy ban.
满庭芳茶餐室 is located in a large standalone family home.
The easiest way to get here is by car with the help of GPS (co-ords 1.672240, 103.528643). You know you are here when you see several cars parked along Jalan Kelapa Sawit 6 (which is otherwise a quiet residential area).
The Hakka dumplings or choy ban are freshly made entirely by hand.
The ingredients like this 韭菜 are garden fresh.
Auntie frying diced tofu in a large wok of boiling oil.
The skin is hand kneaded.
The skin is made by skilfully pressing a lump of dough into a skinny dough cup. The cup is then filled with a large spoonful of cooked fillings such as turnips or leeks.
The cup stuffed with filling is folded into a large dumpling, and laid out neatly in a large steaming tray.
Steaming the trays of Hakka dumplings.
The steaming hot tray of Hakka dumplings are ready 😄
The plump dumpling is as large as my palm.
When I bite and broke the thin tender smooth skin, the green fillings burst out. The leek and tofu filling was juicy, soft, crunchy, and flavourful. The skin was one of the best that I have ever tasted in a steamed dumpling.
Juicy tenderly crunchy flavourful 沙葛 Chinese turnip.
->> Delicious taste of Hakka tradition. Fresh ingredients, everything hand made, eaten hot straight from the steamer.
Restaurant name: 满庭芳茶餐室
Address: Jalan 6, Kelapa Sawit, 81030, Kulaijaya, Johor
GPS: 1.672240, 103.528643 / 1°40'20.1"N 103°31'43.1"E
Hours: 7:00am to 3:00pm (Closed on Weds)
Tel: 6016-764 4264
Non Halal
Date visited: 19 Dec 2015
That's a good coverage of Choy Ban, Kelapa Sawit. They have Lei Cha & Mi Zhang.
ReplyDeleteYes. Shall try these at my next visit :-D
DeleteIt is very nice. My grandpa hometown. The Hakka Thunder Tea Rice is one of the best too.
ReplyDelete-Old Noodle Hut 老麵家
Wanna ask, do they use non-halal ingredient to make it or just no pork no lard?
ReplyDeleteI believe there are non Halal ingredients as well.
Delete