Madam Kwong's Kitchen
1025 Whitehorse Road
Box Hill, VIC 3128
(03) 9898-8108
I caught up with my parents for lunch last week at Madam Kwong's Kitchen, a cheerful little restaurant in Box Hill serving Penang hawker-style food. Opened exactly one year ago today, (Happy Birthday!), it has become one of my parents' regular haunts, and based on the day I visited, seems to be frequented primarily by middle-aged Hokkien-speaking Penangites. Win! Penang people, especially the older generations, are notoriously fussy about their food, so any place where they congregate to eat must be good. (See Pat Nourse's article on Penang in Gourmet Traveller for an excellent run down on Penang food culture).
Madam Kwong's Kitchen is a small, canteen-like space, selling Malaysian groceries, like frozen durian, dried chillies, hae ko (prawn sauce), sambal blachan etc, as well as some snacks and kuih, and a concise menu of Penang hawker-style favourites. The menu itself is quite specialised, with only five rice dishes, six noodle-based dishes, a couple of snacks and three drinks. (Compare this to say, the gargantuan menus at places like Pappa Rich). They rotate different specials though, and announce these on their Facebook page.
Left: Kuih, Ba Chang & Otak Otak Right: Curry Puffs |
Popiah - Combination of shredded yam bean, beancurd, prawns with a dash of chilli and hoi sin sauce. Wrapped with spring roll skin - $7.00 |
Popiah innards |
Penang Assam Laksa - Laksa noodles in tamarind fish soup, garnished with mint, onions, pineapple and lettuce - $10.50 |
Chicken Laksa - Spiced coconut soup with chicken, bean curd & fish cake - $10.50 |
Penang Hokkien Mee - Combination of rice vermicelli and Hokkien Noodles, topped with prawns and sliced pork - $10.50 |
One of the ladies working there upsold us a tau foo far, which we also shared.
Tau Foo Far with dark sugar - $3.00 |
We also picked up some chicken and veggie curry puffs to take away, which I enjoyed with dinner that night.
Curry Puffs - $2.00 each |
9 comments
I can't believe I didn't know/find out about this place till now! Definitely going to check it out very soon!!!
ReplyDeleteI've never had true Malaysia Hawker style food but if you say it's good, then it must be!
ReplyDeleteI'll recommend this to my bf's family next time we need to find a place for lunch. Thanks :)
I can't believe I didn't know about this place too! Having massive popiah cravings
ReplyDeleteLook at all of that glorious food! :D I could just dive right into it all!
ReplyDeleteThis has been on my list ever since I moved to Box shame they don't have dinner hours :). Can't wait to go! That popiah has my name on it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this place! I wouldn't have known about it otherwise. I must go check it out. The curry puffs look authentic with the "spiral" look!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great find - love that you eat sitting amongst all the groceries.
ReplyDeletecltw - Well I only discovered it last week too, lol. Let me know what you think; I hope you like it!
ReplyDeleteSophie - Thanks! Hope you enjoy it when you visit!
Shellie - I always associate popiah with tedious family gatherings, hahaha, so it's good to have found a place where I can just buy it!
Lorraine - Thanks! I was impressed that we didn't have any dud dishes that day. :)
idreaminchocolate - Yes, I hope they open for dinner soon too!
myfoodtrail - No worries! Hope you enjoy it. :)
Cara - I think it's a clever sales idea, after looking at all the groceries while eating, I really felt like shopping! My dad picked up some Musan King durian while we were there.
xox Sarah
ReplyDeleteJin S. Kong Daniel n I had char Kwai Teow n it's is not up to expectation. Suez delight is CKT is so much much better. More fragrant. Nasi lemak is bland plus point the beef is tender. Prawn paste Chee cheong fun is nice. I bought kueh talam the white layer taste flat as there is not enough salt n can't taste the coconut milk green layer taste very pandan essence. Ang ko skin is ok but the mung bean paste is not nice. Overall it is not up to my expectation and to the review
32 minutes ago · Like