As we mention that in our invited review post of Kang Beef House that we will return to try their noodles, we did on last Friday (2nd Apr) night. We were in between appointment, thus on the way to Bayan Baru we decided to stop by at Kang’s for dinner. What meant to be a touch n’ go meal turned into a fast sampling of some of the items that we did not have the space for the other day.
The last trip or review was on the house and arranged by Steven, this time it is less stressful and more enjoyable because it is on our own expenditure and most important it is what we like best; the freedom to comment our will desires. Our dinner began with a piping hot bowl of their clear soup Beef Noodle at RM6.00 for the smallest serving. Because of our mistake we did not get what we would normally order which is the flat rice noodles (koay teow), but instead we were served with a special flat body yellow noodle. I am not sure how the noodle should feel like, to us that faithful night it was not as springy as wantan noodles but not soft like the usual lye water (yellow) noodles.
Back to the star component for this dish which is the soup. The soup had flavour but was still slightly bland which may be due to the contamination of water from the cooking of the noodles, otherwise it would have been almost perfect. Next time will try to ask for separate serving of soup plus toppings and noodles. As for the beef slices, when served it still maintained a pinkish hue which denotes just the right cooking time was put into these tender slices. The only thing that we found short for these tender slices of beef was that the texture was slightly rough due to the cut it was from.
Next on our table was their Dry Fried Hor Fun with Beef at RM9.80 with small bowl of beef soup and beef balls. Previous trip we did not really sample what they could offer for this dish as it was served “vegetarian” style as we a guest who does not take beef. Too bad for her! The portion was big on the ‘hor fun’or noodles but the beef slices were a bit scarce. Taste and texture wise it had standard, and can be considered better to some of those that we have eaten in the past.
Before we were forced to leave, we managed to grab a single person serving of their Clay Pot Beef Soup at RM8.00. The soup base is similar to the soup base of the steamboat that we sampled previously. It had Chinese preserved salted vegetable that gave the soup additional flavour and chunks of white reddish. Even the toppings like tripes, muscle meat, beef belly, tendons, etc seem to be more in volume. This dish would be our choice order if and when visit this specialty shop again.
While composing our invited review post last month, we were confused with many of the terms used for the various parts of the beef used in their dishes. Now I have got a clearer picture on the various innards that were used. The photo below belongs to the muscle (牛腱), usually it is sliced into thin 3mm slices.
As for the beef tripe, they served 3 out of the 4 types that the cow has. The first photo is the first of the 4 stomach that the cow has. The 2nd stomach which they run out of stock has a honeycomb like physical texture. The 3rd stomach has a similar outlook as the pigs stomach which is seldom sold. And the last or 4th stomach has spotted flaps which are shown on the next following photo. Tye 4th tripe has a crunchier texture.
Another body part which is commonly found in the serving of beef noodles or beef specialty house is the tendons (牛筋).
To sum up our experience at Kang Beef House:
Taste & Texture: 2.9/5 (may be can look into the supply of beef)
Money Value : 2.8/5 (meat portion could be more generous)
Service: 2.9/5 (slight improvement)
Cleanliness: 3.5/5
Atmosphere: 2.8/5 (improved with less noise from the street)
Address: 474, Jalan Jelutong, Penang, Malaysia, 11600