taukee.... and coconuts...!

Braised tau-kee mince pork

If you are a Hailam pherng** fan – then you would know tau-kee mince pork.

**Hokkien dialect for Hainan Curry Rice – as it is particularly popular in Klang – where there is a dominant Hokkien community**

This innocent looking dish had to come a long way before appearing on your plates and on this blog! It all starts with the beancurd sheets – these are made from freshly extracted soymilk from ground soy beans. The soymilk boiled, and poured on to large trays to steam and dry as a layer of thin beancurd sheet. This is what you can buy also from local shops specializing in Chinese ingredients and condiments – and what is known as ‘tau-kee’.

The resultant beancurd sheets are then steamed for one hour before used to carefully wrap marinated and spiced minced pork. The beancurd roll is now lightly seared on a hot pan in order to seal in the flavors and maintain its shape for its next journey.

Finally, this ‘tau-kee’ mince pork roll is braised in sauce of numerous herbs and spices for at least another hour. This allows the subtle flavors of the tau-kee and the braising sauce to infuse in to the mince meat, and give you a remarkable taste experience. The beancurd sheet has now also taken on flavors from the mince pork.

What a lot of work for an innocent beancurd roll, you might say… well, that’s the promise of quality, attention to detail, and sincere practice of tradition that you will experience at Restoran Hainan Curry Rice. Try this ‘tau-kee’ pork dish on your next visit here if you haven’t already.

This is as home made, organic and as natural as it gets!

We're also serving up free coconut jelly desserts to finish off your meal. If you didn't also know, Hainan island is famed for it's agriculture activity. Crops like sugar cane, coconut and pineapple flourish in the warm, tropical, and moist monsoonal climate. Since these were abundantly available to the Hainanese people, it's no wonder that these crops feature in some of the tastiest home made foods in our culture. We have rich 'kaya' - that goes on lightly toasted wholemeal bread (available for breakfast through to tea-time) - rich in coconut milk. We also serve refreshing coconut jelly desserts - made from freshly collected coconut water. Hainan Island celebrates a 'Coconut Festival' every year, on the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month.

Besides coconut, the climate also favors pineapple. A typical Hainanese dish is a mixture of pineapple and deep fried intestines. The pork intestines are cleaned thoroughly, seasoned and fried to a crisp. Then further tossed in a special sauce with chunky pineapple pieces, fresh spring onions and sweet chillies.

Wow... there are so many typical Hainan dishes yet to be featured. Catch them all here in another blog entry soon, and taste them at Restoran Hainan Curry Rice!