Black dog…

This place…

…opened its doors in June, I was told but that was the time when I was caught up with all the things going on at home so I was unaware of it.

Then, the other day, I was invited to LIKE their Facebook page and so I did and soon after, I received a message from my friend inviting me to drop by to give the place a try and to let him know when I would be going so he could make the arrangements.

Well, I decided to drop by last week and I went looking around and taking photographs of the place. They are occupying two shop lots on opposite ends of two blocks of shops so they have the advantage of using the open area in between as well – there is a shade/roof over that part and it is nice and cool with the breeze blowing through from the front or the back depending on the time of day.

There is a bak kut teh stall…

…in the shop on the left and another stall that was already closed when I was there. I saw a photograph of kueh chap there and I was told that their longevity noodles (Foochow mee sua) would be the one thing one should try. However, one would have to go there early as by around 10 or 11, it would all be sold out and the people would just close shop for the day. In the shop on the right…

…there is a kampua mee stall (priced at RM2.80 a bowl) and this chu char (cook & fry) place…

…at the back. I was told that this guy is the brother of the one at Sibu Town in the Wonderful Supermarket area at Ulu Sg Merah.

A young boy came to take our orders and he gave us the very nice and impressive menu…

…which, unfortunately, was completely in Mandarin…

…so that was Greek to me!

It sure did not help one bit that the boy was mono-lingual but we did manage to ask him to recommend some of their signature dishes. He suggested their 黑狗排骨/Hēi gǒu páigǔ which literally means black dog ribs! My missus was aghast and kept telling the boy that we would not eat any dog meat and the boy kept telling her it was not! I thought that was hilarious!!! What she did not know was that “black dog” or or kaw in Hokkien is the Chinese name for Guinness stout.

Yes, we did order that in the end (RM12.00, small)…

…and yes, it was very nice.

My missus liked our other order more, the fried ang chao pork (RM12.00)…

…and yes, I would say it was good too, not too strong on the ang chao (red wine lees/hong zao jiang/紅糟醬) so I liked it more than the one we had here.

Their Four Heavenly Kings (RM8.00, small)…

…was different from other places where they would fry it with sambal hay bee/dried prawns.

Here, they cook this dish with canned stewed pork…

…and that reminded me of the time when I was teaching in Kanowit in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I did not have a refrigerator then so I would use the meat in cans as an ingredient to cook vegetables. I would have liked the way they did it here if they had not added cornflour which gave the sauce/gravy a somewhat starchy texture.

Well, my attempt to go in and out of the place unnoticed was not at all successful as my friend showed up right after we had struggled to place our orders…and he insisted on picking up the tab! He is running the coffee shop business here, he says. Thank you so much, Philip, for the treat and here’s wishing you every success and all the best in your venture…and incidentally, should anyone decide to drop by and try the food here, be forewarned that the servings are huge even though we ordered all the small ones – enough for 3 or 4 people, at least and there were only the two of us so of course, we ended up tapao-ing the leftovers home.

We certainly would want to go back again sometime as I would love to try their salt-baked tilapia. I bet I will enjoy that very much!

DRAGON DOOR (2.279520, 111.839882) is located along Jalan Aman, among the (new) shops on your left if you are coming in from Jalan Wong King Huo or on your right if you are coming from Lanang Road.