On Saturdays and Sundays, Restoran Tong which normally serves bak kut teh, steam fish and one of my top favourite poached chicken, also serves Hainan Eight Treasures Claypot 海南八寶菜.
Hainanese Eight Treasures is not a luxury dish reserved for the privileged and wealthy. It is really a humble Hainanese home style dish for bonding over the dining table.
There are many variations of the "Eight Treasures" dish. Restoran Tong's rendition has humble ingredients: Stewed fried pork, fried tofu cubes, fried tofu sticks, fried pork skin, cabbage, carrot, mushroom, black fungus and golden needle vegetable 金針菜. They are cooked by stewing in separate large pots.
When there is an order, the eight stewed ingredients are assembled in a claypot and finished at high heat over a gas stove before serving.
The bubbling hot jumble in the claypot was a collection of degrees of soft tender textures as the ingredients were all stewed for hours. There was a bit of residual crunch from the black fungus, tofu stick and juicy cabbages.
Flavours consist of many layers of savoury sweetness from all the ingredients.
For example, the large chunks of pork were deep fried to seal in the natural sweet juices. The fried pork was then stewed in a savoury sweet stock till tender. I love the natural sweetness of the fresh pork.
The soft spongy black mushrooms contributed their own savoury flavour to the stew and also soaked up the complex blend of savoury-sweet flavours from the heap of ingredients.
Ah Tong, the founder of Restoran Tong. He is most famous for his kampung chicken. His bak kut teh and steamed fish are also popular. Every weekend and on public holidays, he serves the traditional Hainanese Eight Treasures Claypot 海南八寶菜.
Helping Ah Tong in the busy kitchen are his wife and son, Kenny. (Front end service is managed by staff.)
👉 Restoran Tong's Hainanese Eight Treasures Claypot 海南八寶菜 is a humble dish but it is delicious and we enjoyed it very much. The ingredients though humble were lovingly cooked, so eating it has a nice nostalgic, homely feel which adds to the pleasure. There is a lot of food in the claypot for two people.
Click to read more about Restoran Tong's kampung chicken - it is one of the top of my mind chicken in Singapore and Malaysia 👈 click
Restaurant name: Restoran Tong 东肉骨茶馆
Address: 41, Jalan Hang Lekir 10, Taman Skudai Baru, Skudai, Johor
GPS: 1°30'09.1"N 103°38'19.7"E | 1.502524, 103.638818
Waze: Restoran Tong
Tel: 07-558-5367
Hours: 9:00am to sold out (usually around 2:30pm). Opens at 08:00am on weekends. (Rest days are not fixed. Rest for a week every two months.) Call 07-558-5367 to check.
Non Halal
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