Make a little difference…

I can make pretty nice meat balls, simple but nice and I love them served with sweet and sour sauce…

…the way we grew up eating them at this old school restaurant here. We specially ordered those when we went there sometime ago with my brother, home from Auckland, New Zealand but we were somewhat disappointed – it somehow was not the same anymore. Anyway, the owner at the time had sold off the place and somebody is running it now – I have not been there but some say they have new dishes on their menu, not those old school ones from long ago that we loved so well.

My missus makes her meat balls quite differently and of course, with the special ingredients added, more often than not, that would make more than just a little difference and hers would turn out bursting with flavours, very much nicer than my simple ones.

However, she does not use crushed crackers and egg like me as a binding agent – as far as I know, she did use an egg and maybe some flour but sometimes, her meat balls fell apart in the course of deep frying. I don’t know if it was because she had added too much ingredients and not enough of whatever to hold everything together.

Anyway, she made these mini meat patties…

…the other day. I guess those were nothing more than flattened meat balls and yes, they were absolutely delicious.

I did see her preparing a whole lot of things and I heard her telling my girl that she added mashed tau kua (bean curd cake)…

She also made this special dip…

…to eat them with and they went beautifully together. She makes this same dip whenever she cooks those gorgeous tod mun pla (Thai fish cakes)…

…that I absolutely love!

HOCK CHU LEU RESTAURANT (2.288654, 111.826974) is located at No. 30, Jalan Tukang Besi, formerly Blacksmith Road, opposite the LehDo Hotel, formerly the Lido Cinema which is right beside the Standard Chartered Bank, Sibu branch.