Tony invited me to visit his kway teow and fish soup stall at Hong Yee Kopitiam 宏艺 in Taman Desa Tebrau.
Hong Yee 宏艺 in Taman Desa Tebrau is a typical bustling kopitiam with many busy food stalls.
Tony and his wife Sally run the (no name) fish soup and kway teow soup stall here at Hong Yee 宏艺. Tony had been a chef for many years - a profession that took him to Neptune at the old Clifford Pier in Singapore and Pine Court in Mandarin Singapore. Tony and Sally also lived a few years in Taipei where Tony worked in a restaurant specializing in Malaysian food.
While in Taipei, Tony was invited to demonstrate how to cook bak kut teh and assam fish on a Taiwanese TV show.
Tony makes his broth the old way, with big socket bones, pork trotter, ti poh (dried sole fish) and soy bean.
Tony's 4 year old stall is a small operation. He gets most of his ingredients at the Johor Jaya wet market, just like we do :D
RM8 got us this fully loaded bowl of kway teow soup with fried "chicken fish" (leather jacket fish 鸡鱼), tau ki, fish balls, lean pork slices, liver slices, a shell fish slice, a good size prawn and lettuce.
Other than the shell fish which is canned and the fish balls which were commercially supplied, all the rest of the ingredients like this good size prawn were market bought.
The broth was tasty with savouriness and sweetness from pork bones and seafood. The soup was medium bodied and relatively clear 清.
We also had this fish head bee hoon soup RM7.50.
There was a generous amount of chunky tender pieces of fresh snapper fish meat in the broth.
The broth was heavy bodied, savoury and naturally sweet. (Tony uses a separate and different broth for his kway teow soup and fish soup.) The broth was tasty though my personal preference is for a clearer looking 清 broth. Tony added fried shallot oil to the broth, so it had that 葱油香 (shallot oil aroma and flavour).
If you are a chili lover, remember to try Tony's homemade sambal chili. It's very spicy hot with savoury notes from belacan (fermented shrimp paste).
If you are around the Taman Desa Tebrau area during breakfast or lunch time, Tony's Kway Teow and Fish Soup Stall is a good option.
Tony declined payment for our meal.
Restaurant name: Kway Teow and Fish Soup Stall at Hong Yee Kopitiam 宏艺
Address: No. 2, Jalan Harmonium 10, Taman Desa Tebrau, Johor Bahru
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/Yw7Br
GPS: 1.564434,103.795110
Hours: 6:30am to 2:00pm (Closed on Monday)
Non Halal
Date visited: 22 Aug 2014
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Our experience there was certainly very different from your invited tasting session. My RM6 bowl of fish head soup had just 3 pieces of fish which were not fresh. My friend's bowl of sliced fish soup was served with less than half a bowl of soup and I had to ask them to top it up! The wife who served us was not rude but certainly not service oriented. Not going back there for sure.
ReplyDeleteOn a more positive note, we found a roadside stall along Jalan Harmonium 9 that sells nice Chinese soon kueh, ang ku kueh etc. They have a good variety. Try it if you're there.
Come to think of it, my bowl of skimpy fish head soup was RM7 not RM6. The only saving grace was that the prawns in my friend's bowl of mixed soup tasted sweet and the bittergourd soup tasted not bad.
ReplyDeleteso much liu!
ReplyDelete