Yong Tau Fu

Yong Tau Fu is a famous Hakka dish favourited by Chinese people as well as other ethnics in Malaysia. It is so famous until I need a special post for it instead of grouping it together in the restaurant post. While Kepong area has famous Jalan Ipoh Hakka Yong Tau Fu, there are also many other good YTF restaurants that are recommended for all Kepong folks to try. The price for each piece may vary from RM0.80/piece till RM2/piece, while the portion is very subjective.

As quoted in Wikipedia:

Yong tau foo ( also spelled yong tao foo, yong tau fu, or yong tau hu yong tofu) is a Chinese soup dish with Hakka origins commonly found in China, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. There are also Teochew and Hokkien variations.

In Malaysia, the Ampang region of Kuala Lumpur is particularly famous for this dish. It is ubiquitous in Singapore food courts, too. Essentially the dish originated in the early 1960s in a restaurant called "Chew Kuan" as tofu stuffed with a meat paste of fish and pork, thereby earning the dish its name "Yong Tau Foo," which means "stuffed bean curd." Since then all variety of vegetables and even fried fritters have been similarly stuffed, and the name Yong Tau Foo has thus been used liberally to apply to foods prepared in this manner.

Yong tau foo is essentially a clear consomme soup containing a varied selection of food items including fish balls, crab sticks, bittergourds, cuttlefish, lettuce, ladies fingers, as well as chilis, and various forms of fresh produce, seafood and meats common in Chinese cuisine. Some of these items, such as bittergourd and chili, are usually filled with fish paste (surimi). The foods are then sliced into bite-size pieces, cooked briefly in boiling broth and then served either in the broth as soup or with the broth in a separate bowl. The dish is eaten with chopsticks and a soup spoon and can be eaten by itself (served with a bowl of steamed rice) or with any choice of egg or rice noodles, or bee hoon (rice vermicelli). Another variation of this dish is to serve it with laksa gravy or curry sauce. Essential accompaniments are spicy, vinegary chili sauce, similar to Indonesian sambal oelek, and a distinctive brown sweet bean sauce or hoisin sauce for dipping.

In Malaysia, the Malay Muslims have taken to yong tau foo in a big way. As pork consumption is prohibited for Muslims, halal yong tau foo is generally soy based or stuffed vegetable fritters or steamed bean curd with fish paste stuffing. To prepare the dish, these, a steamed rice-flour roll (similar to that used for chee cheong fun) and a vegetable called kangkong are boiled to heat and soften them. The food items are drained and eaten with sprinkled toasted sesame seeds, chili sauce and a hoisin based sauce. Another version commonly found in Perak state is the soup type where the food items are served in a broth and provided with chili sauce and hoisin based sauce dipping. Halal yong tau foo is normally sold by Malay vendors at night markets (pasar malam) and at halal food courts by non-Muslim vendors.

Source: Wikipedia

List of Yong Tau Fu restaurants available around Kepong Area

• Chan Chan YTF - Menjalara
• E Sou YTF - Menjalara
• Kepong Baru Hakka YTF - Kepong Baru
• Jalan Ipoh YTF - Jalan Ipoh
• Jalan Ipoh YTF - Jinjang
• Jalan Ipoh YTF - Metro Prima
• More adding soon!

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