KEN HUNTS FOOD: Harbin Tasty Kitchen 哈尔滨私房菜 @ Bay Avenue, Bayan Lepas, Penang.

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Harbin Tasty Kitchen 哈尔滨私房菜 @ Bay Avenue, Bayan Lepas, Penang.

For a taste of China Dong Bei cuisine, make your way to the newly opened Harbin Tasty Kitchen 哈尔滨私房菜 at Bay Avenue, Bayan Lepas. The Chinese restaurant is manned by a China Chinese couple with heavy China Chinese accent. The menu is written in Mandarin, featuring some common China Chinese dishes as well as some unfamiliar ones (at least to most Malaysians). Items are reasonably priced here but you will have to be mentally prepared for a culinary journey through exquisite dishes.

Dong Bei Cold Skin Noodles 东北拉皮 (Rm 15)

Dong Bei Stew Beef 筋头巴脑 (Rm 58)

Zha Jiang Noodles 炸酱面 (Rm 10)

A common street food in Dong Bei, the Dong Bei Cold Skin Noodles is made of chewy, translucent noodles served with various condiments like Bean Curd Skin, Cucumber, Carrots, Spring Onions etc and dressed in light Sesame sauce. It was our first encounter and we thought it was good. The seasoning was spot on and the texture was addictive. The Zha Jiang Noodle was unlike anything we've had. It's a common dish in many Chinese restaurants but Harbin Tasty Kitchen's seemed very different. The sauce carried an extremely strong Fermented Black Beans odor. Also, we thought it was over seasoned, we did not enjoy this dish at all. One representative Dong Bei dish at Harbin Tasty Kitchen is their Dong Bei Stew Beef, almost like a mild version of Mala-Tang. There were beef and various innards in it, with some vegetables. Not that it was bad but it was quite an acquired taste.