Came back here again with my family to try the wat tan hor and to let my family members try a healthier version of the wat tan hor served here. As stated by other OpenRicers,the chef does not use any oil or garlic to cook it. I love the sauce as it was smooth and thick and it was sweet as well. My family members agree that there is enough wok hei to the dish and gives it a thumbs up.
Apart from being well known for their seafood and wat tan hor, Sam Kee also serves one of the best tofu. The picture above is the crab meat agedashi tofu. Normally, this dish is served with minced meat cooked in a layer of soya sauce but the chef made a few tweaks here and there. The tofu was soft and did not leave any harsh aftertaste unlike some tai chow that I know of. The crab meat went surprisingly well with the tofu though it was my first time trying this unique way of cooking.
We were told by the chef that the recipe used to cook the restaurant’s famous wat tan hor has not been changed for the last sixty years. The same wok that is used to cook the noodles has been handed down generation thru generation for the last sixty years and the chef also told us that oil and ginger is not used in the cooking as he wants the eater to taste the authentic taste of the ingredients. The noodle was grilled instead of fried and it had a springy texture even after soaking up the sauce. The sauce was my favourite part of the dish as it was gooey and the taste of the egg was very distinctive.
Among all the dishes served that night, my favourite dish would be the claypot cooked tilapia with lala. Though it is not really a claypot unlike those you find in claypot chicken rice outlets, the pot was deep enough to hold an entire fish with space for lala and glass noodles. The sauce was sweet and you can taste the freshness of the seafood. We were told that the owner imports his supply of seafood daily from pulau tioman to ensure the freshness and to avoid compromising the taste. The lala was huge and the flesh was tender and soaked up the sauces of the dish.
This is one of the unique dishes served that night, a hollowed out pumpkin stuffed with seafood and vegetables. The pumpkin is steamed under extreme heat and pressure to bring out the taste and flavor of the ingredients. The gravy at the bottom has a tinge of the sweetness of the pumpkin and the pumpkin is soft enough for you to scrape off bits to be eaten. The vegetables were not overcooked and still have the crunchy texture to it. The dish is known as pumpkin treasure which I find befitting for it.
A few weeks back, I received an invitation to attend OpenRice event at Sam Kei and there was a bunch of other people there who was also invited when I arrived. The first dish of the night was prawns cooked in Japanese unagi sauce. The sauce was thick brownish and gave off a slight tinge of salty aroma. The sauce was thick and clings onto the prawns which in my opinion were big and juicy. The sauce had a salty and sweet aftertaste which reminded me of the Chinese style stir fried prawns.
i am used to eating tofu with minced pork and the last time I ate at this restaurant I had it too but this time the chef whipped up crab meat agedashi tofu. The texture of the tofu was smooth and dense while the crab meat give the dish a new and complex taste. The crab meat was fresh and silky while the soya sauce was not too salty.
