The first time I heard about
Sunshine Chicken was through
Babe In the City-KL. It was she who introduced and then invited me and some other food bloggers, on behalf of Sunshine Chicken to a sumptuous lunch at Kedai Makanan Chef Tam in Selayang. That occasion was to showcase Sunshine Chicken's chickens, of course, as well as some other dishes courtesy of Jin Chwan Seafood prepared by Chef Tam. Sunshine Chicken has a farm in Kuala Lipis where their chickens thrive on natural food and fresh air & water and generally have free run on the hilly grounds of the farm. Therefore, is it at all surprising that these chickens taste totally different from the usual market chickens, with their superb flavour and distinctly succulent meat texture!
I remember when I was a kid growing up in Ipoh, my mom used to rear chickens in the backyard. I remember that one of my tasks then was to feed them - mixing their feed with water before dumping it into their feeding troughs. We bred them for their eggs (it was fun picking up the eggs among the dirt & chicken poo - yeahhh!) and meat, of course! And a few months before "Koh Toong" (Winter Solstice, which is 1 month before Chinese New Year), this skinny old guy would come pedalling on his trusty-rusty bicycle to "yim" the cockerels in our brood. "Yim" means to castrate - and that fella did it with some thread and a small sharp knife, I remember. And the funny thing was - these cockerels would be just fine & dandy after the "surgery" - like nothing happened, no downtime at all! Yeah, cocks are hardy creatures eh! (LOL!). Anyway, these castrated chickens - "yim kai" (are they even cockerels now?) will then grow and grow and by Koh Toong and CNY, we would be feasting on these giant fowls - I remember we always had slabs of these poached yim kai in the fridge which would last us at least a week after! Mind you, those yim kais could grow into huge birds - at least 5kg in size!
But then sad to say, yim kais seem to be a thing of the past or maybe only available in the smaller towns because once I migrated to KL, I have never had the chance to come across them. Until Sunshine Chicken came along - yes, they do have them on their farm! And when I heard from Babe that this will be featured in the lunch - boy, was I excited! I mean, come on... the last time I ate yim kai was like, decades ago!
Do go and read about how yim kais come about in Sunshine Chicken's
website - the caponisation (castration) and the time taken for them to mature so that their meat will be at the best flavour and texture. Do contact Gerald at 016-662-0105 for orders/queries!
OK, I digress too much - let's get back to the review. Before the lunch started, we took a short walk over to Jun Chwan Seafood Garden a few doors away from Kedai Makanan Chef Tam. The moment you step into the shop, you will be greeted by tanks and tanks of live seafood... the exotic ones ranging from geoducks, japanese snails, moray eels, deep sea garoupas and all kinds of fishes - can't remember all their names!
You can buy your live seafood at Jin Chwan and get it cooked at Chef Tam's or bring home with you...
After the "familiarisation tour" at Jin Chwan, we made our way back to the restaurant, our tummies already growling, hehe!
Kedai Makanan Chef Tam
No.6A Jalan Bidara 2/4, Taman Bidara
68100 Selayang
Tel: 03-6138-8751
First dish to arrive was this plate of humongous Canadian Oysters!
Just look at the size - and these cost only RM4.80 each at Jin Chwan! Squeeze a slice of lemon and add a dash of Tabasco Sauce on it....ohhh.... heavenly!
Now you see it...
... now you don't!
Next, the STAR of the lunch.... definitely is the Steamed Yim Kai!
Served with the yim kai were these delighful spoonfuls of authentic chicken-flavoured steamed Sinchiang rice. The grains were round, fluffy, with an almost-glutinuous texture and totally infused with the juices/essence from the steamed yim kai! The rice was so flavourful you can actually just eat it on its own!
You can see the lovely yellow skin of the yim kai - a result of their special corn feed.... the meat texture is certainly more chewy than the ordinary chicken you get from the market... the more you chew on it, the more you taste the authentic flavour and aroma of real chicken. LL declared that was really the best chicken he had tasted and I couldn't agree with him more!
This was my portion - don't touch!
After we have polished off the yim kai, this beautifully steamed Aussie Jack Pearl fish was placed on our table. The sweet fine texture was enhanced with some superior soya sauce which brought out the superbly fresh flavour of the fish. At RM98 per kg, the price is indicative of the top-notch quality of this fish.
Cheese-baked Japanese Snails was next. The de-shelled snails were overwhelmed in the huge platter of cheese and unless you are a cheese fan, you may find this a bit too cheesy!
Sunshine Chicken showcased their Free Range Chicken in the next dish - Roasted Ma Choe Kai! Ma choe kai - literally translated to mean "horse grass chicken" - and that's exactly what it is: chicken which fed on horsegrass in the free range farm.
This superbly roasted chicken truly showcased the chef's skills... from the almost-paper thin skin to the well-marinated meat.
To get that crispy paper-thin skin, the chicken has to be hung dry (for hours!) before being roasted in the right temperature for the right amount of time...
Just look at that yummylicious glistening golden-brown skin.... utterly delicious when eaten with a dollop of ginger+spring onion dip!
The next dish was Braised Tofu on a bed of baby kailan (choy tam) - perfect blend of protein and fibre! The tofu was very smooth and soft - clear indication of "homemade" stuff - another show-off dish from the chef, hehe!
More fibre... Pea Shoots lightly saute'ed in garlic... plain, simple... just how I like my veggies!
Our affable and friendly hosts - Chef Tam and Gerald of Sunshine Chicken
The meal ended on a sweet note with this super shiny and very black Qwailin Ko (tortoise shell jelly) on its bed of colorful canned fruit cubes...
It was a very pleasant outing for me, despite making a wrong turn looking for the place and eventually "rescued" by Babe & Captain Hook, haha! It was great catching up with some of the floggers, besides Babe (thanks for the white wine!) - Lyrical Lemongrass, FBB, Nomad Gourmand, Ciki... and meeting for the 1st time Cumi, Just Heavenly Pleasures, Tham Jiak and Gourmet Garden (from Penang).
And thanks to Gerald for having us... :-) >>> have cooked the ma choe chicken at home, hainanese-style - it was gorgeous! Will feature it in my next blogpost!
Much had been written and blogged about this Bak Kut Teh joint. Originated from Klang (but of course - Klang is the mecca of BKT after all!) with its mothershop in Taman Berkeley, it has since sprouted several offspring outlets and they are all housed in upmarket malls like Pavillion and now 1 Utama. As 1Utama is just a hop & a skip away from my office and for the longest time there has not been any decent BKT outlet in this mall, I jumped in joy when I heard that there's now a reputable Klang BKT shop in the mall! Without further ado, I hauled a colleague along and made a beeline to Pao Xiang.
Pao Xiang's speciality is their string-tied meats brewed in various chinese herbs. They claim that the tying-up of the meats seals in the natural flavours and prevents the fibres from breaking up during the boiling process. So, what you get are these nice chunks of pork with "fluted" skin (a result of the tying process).
The pork was tender - disintegrated easily off the bone the moment you dig in with your fork or chopsticks, while retaining its porcine flavours. However, I find the BKT soup not as herbally fragrant as I would prefer it. It's thick enough though... with a thin layer of oil on top.
Pao Xiang in 1U serves their portions in these little ceramic bowls with a lighted flame beneath to keep the soup boiling hot. The bowl is just about the size of an ordinary chinese rice bowl and each portion of meat is RM10. Not cheap. Soup is refillable though.
If you want something leaner without much fat, opt for the Ribs. Cut into chunks of at least 5" long with decent amount of meat attached, the ribs would go well for the more health-conscious folks.
If cholesterol is not your concern, what is BKT without the "spareparts", right? Go for the "Teng Kia" - that's the multi-layered intestines, a trademark of Klang BKT.
They have various kinds of meat in the menu - like porkbelly, "long bones", "short bones" (referring to various sections of the trotters), spareparts like regular intestines, "teng kia", stomach... and "soft bones" like these...
Order some greens to offset the guilt - I do that all the time, haha! Here it's RM9 for a small plate.
And... drink lots of chinese tea, of course! Black Tie White Lie believes chinese tea washes off the fat you have consumed but I think that's a white lie! 
Rice is RM1.50 per plate and the jasmine tea we had was RM7 for 2 pax. Total bill for 2 of us was RM54. Pao Xiang in the malls is certainly not cheap - for that same amount you pay, you'd get pots of BKT in Klang! So... I guess this is only for those of you who suddenly get hit by hyperBKTmania while shopping in the mall and you absolutely must have BKT there and then. 
