My friend, Lim, and his wife used to plant…A LOT and they would send some over to my house very regularly so we had had our fair share of it at the time and would never order that when eating out. It did not occur to me that my girl was away studying at the time, not at home, so she had never got to try it ever. She mentioned that to me after seeing it in THE book so that was why I took her here…
…for this…
– their sweet potato leaves. I positively remember ordering that with belacan (dried prawn paste) hay bee (dried prawns) but that was not what we got in the end. This is what they call ching chao or something like that – fried plain/clear with garlic which would allow one to taste the sweetness of the vegetable cooked this way. Thankfully, it was very nicely done and the best thing was that they picked all the young leaves – the old ones can be quite a task to chew and are not as nice.
This is their menu…
…on the wall but I don’t think that’s an exhaustive list – mostly the noodles or fried rice and stuff like that when one drops by for breakfast or something light(er). They do have a lot more than just these and actually, we did drop by earlier in that one-week school break but the place was not open. My girl wanted their sweet and sour fish…
…and theirs is her favourite in town and I would say yes, they do it pretty well here.
We also had their lemon chicken…
…and one thing in their favour would be the fact that they use fresh lemon juice. I do know of some other places that probably use lemon essence for the purpose and one would see the sauce in a peculiar shade of yellow and no lemon slices at all…plus it comes nowhere near and does not taste as nice either.
We tried their salted vegetable tofu soup…
…but at best, I thought it was just so-so, kind of bland and not sour enough.
The total came up to RM53.00 inclusive of rice and drinks for 3 persons and yes, this place is not known for being cheap unlike the one next door which is always overflowing with people, come dinnertime. The saving grace is that they do dish out some pretty good stuff and that is why we keep coming back for more.
If you have no idea where this is, it is in the far end of the Tunku Osman area, in the block to the far left of the blocks of shops where the Big Thumb Bakery is. In fact, if you walk out of the side gate of the Methodist Secondary School here…
…you can go into this restaurant through the back entrance/kitchen.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
I like these food especially the sweet potato leaves or fan shu yeap in cantonese, and the sweet and sour fish. The fish somehow looks like fried sweet and sour pork nuggets or ‘gu lou york’ in cantonese. Nice … I always love ordering dishes with rice. Doesn’t look too foochow this time anyway the food. No red wine chicken, foochow soup…etc.
The guy here is Cantonese – I hear he’s West Malaysian, probably married a local and had never gone back.
The sweet potato leaves/ huan zhu heok is very common here in Penang, you can find them almost in every stall selling “economy rice”, tho not really too economical right now
Yes, that has been the craze for a long time over at your side. I heard about it/had it long before it is available here. Not really catching on though, not many places selling. Maybe it is because it is very easy to plant, will grow out of control…all leaves, no tubers…so everyone cooks their own at home.
The food is pretty homey if you ask me.
Have you tried? Yes, nothing fancy here…but generally, all nice. They have the stewed pork trotters served on mai chai too. Only thing is it is not as cheap as some other places. 😦
“Y2K” – like the virus everyone was fearful would crash systems around the world when we hit the year 2000?
Yes, and when 911 happened, everyone thought it was that initially. The Chinese name is different though.
I love anything cooked in sauce, so the sweet & sour fish and lemon chicken suits me. For the greens, I prefer is fried plain with garlic so one can taste the sweetness of it. Overall everything is nice.
This would be a good place for you then. All to your liking.
The sweet potato leaves remind me of spinach…I do love spinach. The lemon chicken…ummmm. 🙂
Yes, we like spinach too. Good to have some greens for our meals.
Sweet potato leaves, not a fan, don’t really like it, I think it taste a bit bitter, but I will still eat it because most of them like to order this when we “kiu soong” (eat out) in a group during lunch.. Yep, most of them prefer “ching chao”, but some prefer it with “foo yue” (fermented bean paste, correct ahh?)..
Bitter? I wonder why? Not the ones here, just that the old ones would be hard, would need some effort to chew and are not very nice. At home, we fried them with sambal hay bee & belacan, never had them with fermented beans. You’re sure they did not use too much pesticides and that caused the bitterness?
I heard the old ones will cause bitterness (and hardness).. Hmm, not sure, but I don’t like the texture I guess, kinda slimy, hehe..
Yes, slimy…and they turned dark too – not so nice when I cooked myself. They do it perfectly here – not bitter, not slimy and not black. Dunno how they do it – maybe they just blanch or cook lightly and probably I overcooked it so it was not as nice.
Hmm… lemon chicken…
Nice! Yum! Yum! 😀
When my youngest daughter was 4 years old, she used to call Y2K her kedai kopi & we have been going there ever since…we love uncle’s 3layer pork with mantou but he no longer makes them. Our fav is his sweet sour pork & crispy salted fish fillet.
Don’t remember ordering that. Can try next time. My daughter loves the sweet and sour fish fillet, that is why we will always have it that way.
Sweet potato leaves is one of my favorite veges to order at the restaurant. Somehow I have never cooked in myself. Ah, lemon chicken! I love that a lot and I really hate it if artificial lemon essence is used. It has that chemical taste and really spoils everything. Good thing that this restaurant uses the real thing.
I used to cook sweet potato leaves when my friends used to give me but no, I did not do it half as well. Not so nice, just ok, like any other vegetable. Yup…and the yellow colour is horribly off-putting when they use the lemon essence.
Ohhhh! It’s been awhile since I had sweet potato leaves. Usually I will order kangkung or the bean dishes. Got to remember to order this sometimes. Dah lama tak makan.
Kangkong is “cold” and beans have high protein content, bad for people with high uric acid. I don;t cook it as well myself – that’s why I never bother to buy and cook. Only had that when my friends used to give me.
I hardly take sweet potato leaves, usually kangkong…
Kangkong is cold. Got “wind”, bad for people with rheumatism, arthritis and all kinds of pain in the joints. Sweet potato leaves have many health benefits, go google and see – better than the tuber itself, they say.
Y2K restaurant. must have been establish long time ago. at least 10 years? Not bad leh for restaurant business to survive 10 yrs. Food must have been good
Yes, it has been around for a long long time. Does not look nice, a bit more expensive than others but the food is good. Guess that is why people keep coming back.
heheh, ‘the book’ is proving quite handy and beneficial, ya 😀 i like sweet potato leaves, and i could finish that entire plate in your photo by myself 🙂
Yes, at least, ONE person has benefitted from it. Hehehehehe!!!! Gosh! That whole plate? Hmmmm…bet your bowel movement would be real smooth after that. Hehehehehe!!!!!
I’m same with Princess Ribbon, don’t really like sweet potato leaves. They taste rather weird to me. I can tolerate them though, mostly because my parents love it.
Lemon chicken, anytime, anywhere! 😀
Not crazy about them, not really keen to cook…and I was wondering why they were so popular over at your side – saw them often in people’s blogs. I guess I did not know how to cook them well – they sure can do a good job here, wouldn’t mind having them should we drop by again…maybe with sambal hay bee next time.
Those dishes are quite ‘homey’, I like.
Yes, Rose said that too. Small place, nothing grand, more like home-cooked. Only the hubby cooks, not a lot of choices but all are good.
I like the food here. And all the above are my favourite too, so hungry!!
Muahahahahaha!!!! I know! One of your regular stops when back home in Sibu. The Chinese name is Millennium, right?
all the dishes looks so ‘homey’ to me… ;P
Love love love eating’em…(thought presentation not so nice lah)
Ya, they’re not too bothered about presentation here…but I’ve seen at one big restaurant, they would get the lettuce, tomato and cucumber slices ready and stack the plates one on top of the other and they would just take and use, pour whatever they had cooked on top and serve. Eyewwww!!!! I wonder if the bottom of all those plates were clean or not – sure it looked very nice when served. Impressive but you never know what goes on in the kitchen.
I LOVE those smaller pointed trees to the left of that last photo – what kind are they!?
They’re fir trees, one type of what we call Christmas trees here. These aren’t so big, can grow to be very tall, if I’m not mistaken.
Not a fan of sweet potato leaves. I don’t cook them myself and I am usually reluctant to order from restaurants for some of them use the old leaves! No like!
Was delighted that this one only uses the young ones. Very nice, sure will order again. The old ones are really not so nice.