Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels: YummY! - Ngai Choy Kai @ Lou Wong Ipoh

You are at - Jotaro's Blog / FootSteps / YummY! / Chinese Food / Noodles / Ngai Choy Kai @ Lou Wong Ipoh

YummY!

Jotaro's Food Review

NGA CHOY KAI @ LOU WONG IPOH

Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia - September 2014

I have many a times heard about the renown Nga Choy Kai (Bean Sprouts Steamed Chicken) from Lou Wong in Ipoh. Many had praised it, while others have mentioned that it is overrated.
While on a night bike-strolling of Ipoh, we stopped there to eat. It's my first time at this famous chicken joint as I tend to be biased towards it's detractors.
Since we are here, why not give it a shot; taste it for myself and see whether my view of this place will change.

Ipoh is famous for its Nga Choy (Bean Sprouts). Grown with water from springs sprouting from the surrounding lime-stone hills, the bean sprouts here grows thick, short and stubby and with only a short root.
The Nga Choy served here was as expected, very good. Serve boiled with a simple soy sauce-oil sauce and topped up with garnishing of slices of red chilli and spring onion; it was a colourful delight to the eye. Fresh and crunchy to bite into, it definitely lived up to expectations.

Pork Meatballs Soup.
The\is soup was not that tasty; but it did its job of making the meatballs more juicy. The meatballs themselves were bouncy and yet easy to bite into; with each bite came a succulent dose of porky flavour.

Now comes their mainstay - the Pak Cham Kai (literally translated it means Cut White Chicken). It's chicken boiled to tenderness and cut into thick slices. It is boiled without any seasoning giving it that whitish look; hence the name White Chicken.
Lou Wong's version was not up to par though. Seems like the chicken has been over-boiled as it's meat tasted bland and was wanting in chicken juiciness. The skin too seems a bit thick and lacked that smooth silky texture. I have tested better from Chong Thoong Kee at Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur.
In short, good but not good enough; one needn't have to go all the way there to get chicken of this quality.

Bowls of Keow Teow Soup came to complete our meal set.

The Keow Teow Soup was rather bland too. To boost up the taste I added in some chicken and sauce from the chicken platter. A good dose of bean sprouts also oomphed the dish up.
That improved the taste but it came nothing close to the Kai Si Hor Fun from Kong Heng.
I guess Lou Wong's saving grace is that their food is fairly good AND they open up till 2:30 in the morning.