Tai Hong Kopitiam Lei Cha Fun in Taman Pelangi 大丰擂茶

Johor Bahru and nearby Kulai town are good places to get the Hakka staple Lei Cha Fun 擂茶飯 (also known as hum cha 咸茶). There are many lei cha fun stalls and this dish is in many restaurant menus in JB. It says a lot, that with so many lei cha shops around, Tai Hong Kopitiam 大丰擂茶 serves the favourite lei cha of many Johoreans.



Tai Hong started as a single humble lei cha stall in a Taman Sentosa coffee shop. Today, Tai Hong has two coffee shops - one in Taman Pelangi and another in Taman Sentosa, serving a wide range of local favourites from mee siam to kway teow soup, yong tau foo to eggs and toasts.



Lei Cha Fun, Tai Hong's original claim to fame is still Numero Uno on its menu.

(This dish is also known as 河婆客家擂茶飯 Hopo Hakka Lei Cha Fun as it is the speciality of the Hopo branch of the Hakka community.)



For this morning's brekky, we shared a bowl of lei cha fun and indulged in yong tau fu plus a couple of pieces of kueh. Lei Cha Fun costs RM7 a serving and yong tau fu costs RM1.50 a piece.



Lei Cha Fun is a bowl of plain white rice (you can opt for "healthy" brown rice) blanketed with a thick layer of stir fried vegetables and nuts. There are long beans, cabbage, chives, fried tofu, chye poh (preserved turnip), spinach, toasted peanuts etc. The vegetables are cut into little pieces and stir fried separately, so we can taste the distinct layers of flavours.



Lei Cha Fun comes with a large bowl of green broth or "tea". It's a blend of herbs and several greens like cilantro etc which are pureed and then boiled into a "tea". (In the old days, the vegetables are hand grind 擂 using a thick branch from a Guava tree. 擂 means "to grind" in Hakka language.)

Tai Hong's "tea" has always been relatively thick, slightly grainy and a bit creamy. It also has an underlying minty taste beneath the green vegetable flavour - I like.

Many people eat their rice, vegetables and "tea" separately which is polite 😊



Me... I always dump the whole bowl of "tea" over the bowl of rice and vegetables... 😛



Drowning everything under the green flood 😱



The tender nutty rice is of good quality. The fried vegetables still have a nice juicy crunch despite soaking in the green tea. I like the refreshing and minty taste of Tai Hong's ground vegetable tea. I also like it that Tai Hong's stir fried vegetables do not feel greasy.



We had 10 pieces of yong tau foo at RM1.50 each.



We like this sweet savoury clear soup of boiled soy beans and anchovies.



The pieces of yong tau foo are huge. The vegetables, tofu and fillings are all fresh. The pork and fish filling have a large proportion of fish surimi, so I didn't enjoy it so much. Personally, I prefer more minced pork in my yong tau foo.

4-Stars (out of 5). I like Tai Hong's lei cha because the ingredients are fresh, and nicely done - the vegetables are juicy and crunchy even after soaking in vegetable "tea". The "tea" tastes refreshing with a slight minty flavour. I also like it that Tai Hong's lei cha is consistently good during every visit.

My post on Tai Hong when it was a coffee shop stall 👈 click



Restaurant name: Tai Hong Kopitiam 大丰擂茶



Address: 48, Jalan Kuning, Taman Pelangi, Johor Bahru
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/k7XA 
GPS: 1.483541,103.775069 
Hour: 8:00am to 6:00pm (closed on Thursday) 

Non Halal

Date visited: 29 Dec 2017




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