Restoran Famous Yam Rice @ Pandan Perdana

My husband who doesn't like to drink soups (nor eat soup noodles) will happily make an exception when it comes to pork offal soup made with either ham choy (salted vegetables) or white peppercorns.  I recently discovered one near us, Restoran Famous Yam Rice @ Pandan Perdana (self-proclaimed lah) and decided to pay a visit.

I'm not sure if this one is related to the BM (as in Bukit Mertajam) Famous Yam Rice which has an outlet in Mahkota Cheras.  From some Google photos, their signboard used to be similar (even some of the poster boards inside the shop) but the words BM is no longer in their signboard currently (maybe they once were the same but no longer the case now).  Similar or not, it doesn't matter to us since this is our first time eating there.

We came here for one thing and one thing only.....the Mixed Pork (Offal) Soup @ RM9.50 (S) with salted vegetables.  It had all the usual innards of pig stomach, kidney, liver, tongue and intestines (good...no blood cubes) including some meatballs, pork belly slices and lean meat too.

The soup base made with ham choy (or salted vegetables) which is my husband's favourite type of soup is slightly murky in looks.  I can't say that I loved the broth as much as I found it a bit too salty (of course, when it's salty, my husband likes it even more) and a little on the sourish side too for my taste bud.

We had a bowl each, he had it with white rice @ RM1.30 (L, RM1 for S) and tried to pour it scarcely over his rice as he wanted to reserve it for drinking later (but that was before we realised we could have asked for soup refills...haiz).

I had it with yam rice @ RM1.80 (L)....after all, the restaurant is called Famous Yam Rice, is it not? ;D  Not to worry, the L size rice is not big at all (RM1.20 for S), in fact they gave us default L without asking us.  I thought that the yam rice was pretty good, filled with yam chunks (decent amount for the price), fried dried shrimps and some fried shallots.

What I appreciated the most were the abundant mini dried shrimps which gave it that sea-salty and umami flavour.  These are unlike the larger, meatier dried shrimps that we usually use in our day-to-day cooking as these are extremely tiny, unshelled, paper-thin, translucent dried shrimps which are crispy and fragrant (they're called papery shrimps or shrimp skin in Chinese).

On another visit, we decided to get the Mixed Pork (Innard) Soup @ RM17 (medium or RM25 for large & RM33 for XL).  With more meat in the same-sized bowl, it meant we got less soup...and thought it'd be better if we stick to ordering our own bowl in future (that was before the server came and automatically refilled our soup twice which they didn't do the first time we dined here).

I notice that Chinese celery leaves (or daun sup) are more commonly used (instead of Chinese coriander which I much prefer) in strong tasting soups like pork innard soup (or beef) soup.  Perhaps the more intense flavour of these leaves are needed to take away the strong porky (or beefy) taste of the meat.

Well, if you're not an offal-type-of-person, you could always ask for just the Meat Ball Soup @ RM9.50 (small).  Not bad, good value for 12 decent-sized pork balls I have to say with a bit of fragrance from the dried cuttlefish embedded in the meat balls.

What I found quite different from other shops/stalls selling pork innards soup is their chilli condiment.  Here it's served with some kind of sambal paste with a squeeze of thick dark soy.  I didn't fancy this and didn't think it paired well with the offals.  I thought those that use a freshly blended chilli sauce (something similar to those served in chicken rice shops) was way better to provide a spicy, tangy lift to take away the meatiness (as well as provide freshness) to the dish.

Besides rice and soup, they offer dry egg (or more commonly referred to as wantan) noodles and meehun soup but with porky stuff lah (such as pork knuckle, pork belly, intestines, stomach, kidney, meat ball, minced meat or lean meat.  I gave the Pork Stomach Meehun @ RM7 (S) a go during one of our visits.

I believe it came in the same soup base (with ham choy) although I felt this one was a little bit clearer, cleaner and lighter in taste (which I preferred).  Maybe this one had less spare parts steeping in the soup?  I liked the texture of the meehun (slightly different from the normal ones) and appreciated the inclusion of some pieces of crispy pork lard.

I also tried their Braised Pork Belly Egg Noodle @ RM7 (S) just to see how their dry noodles fared (with my husband eating most of the pork belly!).  Not my favourite as the texture of the noodles is the QQ-curly-type + the sauce was a bit too wet for my liking.  I was expecting it to be like the sauce for wantan mee but I was not expecting it to be so watery.

As with any shops selling braised meat, there's always the Braised Eggs @ RM1.50 each which I can't resist.....a must-order.  The braising liquid wasn't the best I've had as it has not quite achieved that lovely thick, dark, sticky sauce that I favour.

Then there's the Braised Tau Fu @ RM2 a piece (this was one piece, a rather huge piece).  From the looks, the tofu obviously needed a longer braise to take on a darker, more caramelised colour for the flavour to steep into the tofu.

In one of our visits, we also ordered the Braised Pork Meat @ RM9.50 as a side dish.  Though the description said pork meat, I think it was more pork belly meat as the layers of fat can be clearly seen.  It was tender nonetheless (and I can eat the bottom half...hehe!).

The Baby Romaine Lettuce (in oyster sauce) @ RM5 was there to fulfill something green in a meal.  Glad to see that it came with some freshly fried (but limp) shallots.

One side dish that I was very interested to try was the braised intestines but, alas, I wasn't fated to eat it. On my first trip, they ran out of the small intestines at dinner time (but had large intestines which I've never liked).  On my second visit for breakfast (at around 10am), it wasn't ready yet (even though their business hours was supposed to start at 9.30am).  And on my third visit for dinner again, they ran out of intestines again (both types).  I really hate it when shops run out of this and that...and cannot fulfill what they promise in their menu.  There was once they even ran out of pork belly! >.<

My Personal Opinion

From the name in the receipt (it says Zheng Ji Restoran Famous Yam Rice), I don't think they're the same ones as BM Famous Yam Rice (maybe they were affiliated once but not anymore although they do sell almost identical food).

When I looked closely at their Google photos (after 2019 + compared them to the BM Famous Yam Rice in Mahkota Cheras), I think I saw some subtle differences especially in the colour of their braised items and the thickness of their braising sauce.  This yam rice also comes topped with fried papery shrimps which the previous version didn't have.  That's just my observation but I could be wrong lah.

Seeing that 1) the flavour profile of the soup didn't offer much complexities other that just salty for me, 2) the chilli dip wasn't to my liking and 3) chasing after their ever elusive braised intestines isn't something I'm thrilled about, this will be a once-in-a-while mixed pork innards soup for us as we've had eaten better tasting ones elsewhere + it isn't something we should eat too often anyway.

Restoran Famous Yam Rice

25 Jalan Perdana 6/4

Pandan Perdana

55300 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 012-234 6881