WE came to Big Big Bowl Hakka Kitchen in Kepong for Lui Cha, and it lived up to its promise of a thick, fragrant soup of ground tea, nuts, sesame and fresh herbs, with rice, myriad vegetables, tofu and peanuts.

It was my second time there, and I love the authentic flavours of the Lui Cha, or Thunder Tea. I have seen how this tea soup is made, with all the ingredients placed in a big clay bowl with grooves, and a guava stick used to grind them into a paste. It’s a food tradition that belongs to the Hor Por Hakkas. Of course, it’s done differently now.

The Lui Cha at Big Big Bowl is excellent. We had rice covered with finely cut white and purple cabbage, French beans, kai lan, carrot, choy poh, or preserved radish, fried tofu and roasted peanuts. There’s a lot of crunch and flavour, and stirred together with the viscous green soup scented with lots of fresh basil, we’re in Lui Cha heaven.

Big Big Bowl serves other Hakka dishes as well, such as Yong Tau Foo, Rice Wine Chicken, Yam Abacus, Pan Mee and Claypot Vinegar Pork Trotters. We had all these, and added Claypot Braised Pork Ribs.

The Rice Wine Chicken left me drunk with delight. The wine is home-brewed. It looks milky, and is punchy with all the requisite alcoholic favours. It is complex, has a well-balanced sweetness, and together with ginger, embraces the tender chicken in the claypot. I couldn’t get enough of this.

Claypot Vinegar Pork Trotters is more soupy than most, like what my mum used to make. We are supposed to drink up the vinegar, which is good especially for women in confinement, to get back in shape in a healthy way. I liked its sweet-sour tang, though I would have loved more ginger in it.

The Yong Tau Foo of bitter gourd, eggplant, fu pei and ladies’ finger hits the right spot, with the pork and fish paste filling sitting in a naturally sweet, clear soup topped with fried garlic and spring onions. Once Chinese New Year is over, you can expect fish balls made from ikan parang, no less.

The Claypot Braised Pork Ribs stood out in the sweet, intense taucheo sauce they were stewed in. A little chilli and lots of garlic brought out the flavours of the tender, meaty ribs. They are so good eaten with rice.

Suen Pun Chee, or Yam Abacus, is a typical Hakka dish. The smooth, chewy abacus beads, shaped with yam and flour, are fried with cuttlefish strips, minced pork, mushrooms, dried prawns and black fungus, and generously topped with fried shallots and spring onion. There were also balls of pure yam, providing a textural contrast.

Pan Mee is also a specialty of the restaurant, so we tried the Spinach Pan Mee in soup. The handmade noodles were fresh, smooth and good, with spinach and fu pei in the soup.

The Lui Cha with brown rice is just RM10, Pan Mee (RM7), Rice Wine Chicken (RM21), Vinegar Trotters (RM18) and Braised Pork Ribs (RM18).

Big Big Bowl Hakka Kitchen is located at No. 5A, Jalan Desa 2/7, Desa Aman Puri, Kepong, 52100, Kuala Lumpur. The restaurant is open from 8am to 5pm, and closed every other Tuesday.

Call Angie Lim at 012-211-5564. These traditional Hakka dishes are cooked by her mum. – February 16, 2019.

* Eu Hooi-Khaw has been writing about food for the longest time, covering all aspects, from restaurant reviews to cooking and recipes, as well as the healthy side of it. She has written for major newspapers and magazines, published the cookbook Fresh Ingredients, and also writes for her website hooikhawandsu.com.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.