Craving for another artery clogging entry guided and fueled by the desire to locate this one undiscovered stall, I found myself and two buddies back in Salak old town hunting down what claims the be the most mouth watering char siew (barbecued pork) anyone could find.

It all started when our friend Win-son was on his wedding shoot in a junkyard nearby and his photographer’s aide bought them char siew rice for lunch. Ever since that day, my friend Win-son has been craving for this particular char siew rice but yet again he does not know the location of the stall. The only information he had was this – Salak old town. So the last weekend on a Saturday afternoon, me and my buddies went around Salak old town hunting for this particular char siew rice.

The place was not hard to find since Salak old town is really a small town and there weren’t many stalls selling char siew rice. We stumbled upon this shop called Kedai Kopi Tian Hong (in direct translation to Cantonese it sounded more like Tin Fook Cha Sat) and they were hanging up these delicious-looking char siew for sale along with some grilled chicken. We stopped by this shop being only half sure that this was the shop until our order arrived and Win-son confirmed that this was the shop with THE  mouth watering char siew rice. The shop was just located opposite the 7-11 in Salak old town with the coordinates of 03° 05′1.17″ N, 101° 41′46.65″ E.

kedai kopi tian hong a.k.a. tin fook char sat

Upon arriving at the shop, we were kind of surprised with the amount of people queuing up. The owners were so busy chopping up the char siew and chicken for take-aways and also serving the seated customers that they didn’t even have time to prepare drinks for the customers! The only drinks served were simple drinks like instant herbal tea and chilled Chinese tea as the lady in charge of the drinks was too busy helping out up front!

look at the queue! this angle reminds me of a scene from sepet

Seeing the crowd in this place made me wonder if the char siew was really that good. We were tempted to order everything which was hung up for sale but instead we kept to our sanity and ordered only 3 servings of char siew and grilled chicken. We were here for the char siew only and the best thing to compliment it would be grilled chicken. Having two helpings of pork would make it too sinful but having char siew with chicken would be just nice.

3 servings of grilled chicken and char siew

When our food arrived we quickly inspected the star of attraction which was the char siew. Indeed it looked scrumptious and seemed that it would melt once you put it in your mouth. Win-son confirmed that this was what he had the other day and instantly we dug in without even waiting for the rice to be served. The char siew was glazed with honey and grilled to perfection. And by perfection, I mean PERFECTION. The meat was so crispy on the outside yet so succulent on the inside and the thick slices it came in made the texture of the char siew better. Chewing down on the char siew would give you the impression that you were having char siew from some 5-star hotel. The only difference is the method of presentation where in restaurants the char siew would be arranged neatly as opposed to the scattered display of the ones we were having.

But that is what exactly we were after. Just like what Tune Hotel promises – a 5-star sleeping experience just with a fraction of the price, we were looking for food which tasted heavenly but still we would only need to pay the normal price for it. That’s the absolute satisfaction when we go for food hunts. No need for the classy environment, no need for all the bullshit service – just give us the good food.

thick slices of honey-glazed char siew

Not being biased just to the char siew, we also tasted the grilled chicken which was surprisingly delicious as well! I was only expecting the char siew to be good but I did not expect the grilled chicken to be this good as well! The chicken skin was crispy enough for you to remove it whole from the meat and the natural juices of the chicken were still locked in between the meat and bones. Inspecting further, it seems that the owners had their own secret to the chicken which was to add a scoop of minced ginger sauce to the chopped-up chicken. The minced ginger sauce seeped into the the meat and complimented it so well making it one of the best grilled chicken rice I have had in a long while!

grilled to perfection

the secret to the chicken - minced ginger sauce

I’ll let you in on another secret of this shop that makes it even more special. The chili paste which they provide looks like just any ordinary chicken rice chili but one can tell that it tastes much better and is very different with the usual chicken rice chili paste. The secret is that lime has been added to the normal chili paste which you get usually and this automatically boosts the fragrance of the chili! One helping will never be enough! Trust me!

traditional chicken rice chili paste, with a twist of lime

The meal came to about RM30 and that’s including drinks! Things couldn’t get better than this! Extraordinarily delicious food at a fraction of the price! Someone should start a no-frills food chain. It’ll be a hit for sure!