It is a weekday. You are on leave because you need to clear it or else burn it before the year ends. You can’t sleep in and you get up early just like usual. You have nothing to do that day until later in the afternoon. Just when you least needed it, just when you have nothing on your to-do list and here you have it, a bright and sunny morning with no plans whatsoever. DAMN IT!
Well if that scenario so happens to befall you as well, you can consider hopping over to Imbi wet market for some good old Ah Weng Kor Hainanese breakfast! Here are the coordinates – 03° 08’37.5″ N, 101° 43′ 1.2″ E.
So what’s so good at Ah Weng Kor’s Hainan Tea that you have to get it on a weekday? Well, nothing much – just a PERFECT blend of Hainanese tea paired with the PERFECT yin yong toast and PERFECT half boiled eggs thats all :) You see, Ah Weng Kor’s shop here in small lil’ Imbi wet market is packed, and I mean REALLY packed during the weekends. Even on Saturday mornings it is super difficult to find a table. I can’t imagine what it is like on a Sunday morning!
Note #1 – Take note to sit only at the RED table as these are the tables which belong to Ah Weng Kor. Seriously, trust me on this one.
Now when the place is packed, do you know what happens to the workers of busy shops like this? They get cranky and believe me when I say cranky I mean VERY. There was one time when I was there on a Saturday morning and after locating a seat, one uncle approached me and asked me, “Yiu mat yeh? (What do you want?)”
I haven’t really made up my mind yet at that time and he shouted out again, “Fai dit la, teng! (Faster la, chinese curse word!)”
So I blurted out, “Kopi, teh, yin yong min pau liong gin, sang suk dan liong lup. (Coffee, tea, yin yong toast two pieces, two half boiled eggs.)” and the uncle walked away.
Not long after making the order, I realized I didn’t order the famous Hainanese tea and when he came back with our order I said to him, “Uncle ga dor yat pui char (Uncle, add one more cup of tea)” and guess what the uncle replied?
“Mat yeh char? Fai dit la, ngo lum ju nei dei liong gor yan hou fai geh. Yiu mat yeh char? Teng! (What tea? Faster la, I thought you two would be very quick to deal with. What tea do you want? Chinese curse word!”
“Hoi Nam char (Hainanese tea)” I replied after being cursed two times in a row.
Note #2 – Make up your mind on what to order BEFORE you even get seated.
It not that bad actually to get shouted at by some grouchy tray-toting-middle-age-man early in the morning while everyone fixates their eyeballs onto you. At least the food arrives quickly enough that you forget about the whole incident and start slurping the Hainanese tea and inspect the well toasted yin yong bun. The Hainanese tea is smooth and well mixed with the right combination of coffee and tea and of course – prepared by a Hainanese (Okay I don’t really know if the guy stirring this stuff up is actually Hainanese but I’ll try and find out next time).
Hainanese people have been known to be good at making tea and thrive in the coffee shop business. If you compare a Cantonese or Hokkien coffee shop to a Hainanese coffee shop, you will be surprised in the difference of the amount of customers. There is one shop back in my hometown which the food really isn’t that great but still it is jammed packed every morning and when queried most people say they like the place just because of their drinks!
Another novelty of Ah Weng Kor is their yin yong toast (butter and kaya toast – this is supposed to be the part where I translate kaya into English but I cant find any so I’m leaving as it is) which has luxurious amounts of butter and kaya. Biting down on it will make the kaya ooze out the sides of the bun while you make your way through the half-molten butter slice. Definitely a heart stopper this one. The bun is crisp but not too crunchy and should be eaten while fairly hot, before the bun turns into a soggy pile of dough.
While slowly enjoying the yin yong toast, the half boiled eggs will keep on calling out to you but do not rush it. Finish up your yin yong toast first and then the eggs will be perfect. After you remove the eggs from its hard protective cover, the bare naked eggs are ready to devour. I’m not quite sure if they use kampung eggs or just normal eggs because I was not really paying attention but the eggs seemed perfect to me. All that is left to do now is to down it in your own special way be it yolk first or sans yolk. My style is just the plain old method – add a bit of soy sauce and a dash of pepper, mash the yolk and the white up and slurp it down in one go. If you have any more left over toast, wipe the bowl clean if you feel that licking the bowl in public is too unmannerly.
A colleague recommended me to have the g yuk fun (pork noodles) at this stall which is situated to the right most of Ah Weng Kor’s Hainan Tea. I could not read what the sign said so I just ordered what was recommended. The lady at the stall gave me a little badge with the number 3 and “Have a Nice Day!” on it so if you got a number badge as soon as you ordered then yes that is the right stall.
I could not comment much on the g yuk fun as the stock was somehow too salty that day. Maybe I was there too early in the morning and the lady was not fully prepared yet. What I can say is that if the stock had less salt in it then probably the bowl of noodles would have tasted far better. Taking the soup out of the picture, I’ll give credit to the rest of the stuff as the minced pork was fresh, the intestines chewy and bitter-free while the noodles were cooked just right. You might be much luckier than me and the lady gets it right on your order so go on ahead and try it!
Cost wise frankly speaking I couldn’t remember how much was the whole meal, but I could roughly remember it was well below RM20 when I went with my girlfriend and around RM25 when I went with my house mate. Parking was free and it was just 15 minutes from where I was staying (This information is dedicated to zewt haha :p ). I would say it was a good deal nonetheless. The breakfast was fantastic and I will definitely come back again. The only drawback is the amount of people who rush to Ah Weng Kor’s Hainan Tea on the weekends so remember to NEVER go there on a Sunday. Unless you are a foreigner who has never seen such havoc, then be my guest ;)
