Passion is Thy Name!

“Yam rice? Go Chai Leng Park! Best of the best!”
“Penang yam rice not nice wan lah. You must go to Chai Leng Park.”
“Why go all the way to BM for yam rice? Go B’worth and head to Chai Leng Park lah! It’s the best!”

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Praises for this place were flowing right, left and center as soon as I mentioned yam rice to friends. Admittedly, It got me mighty piqued. Being an islander, it’s not often that I venture out of the island for food (not often meaning not a weekly affair).

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In the past months, I’ve driven twice to Bukit Mertajam (BM) to savor their yummy yam rice and am now a loyal fan. Read my reviews here and here. Last weekend, I decided to finally try out the much talked-about Chai Leng Park yam rice.

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Name of place : KEDAI KOPI SOON LONG
Location : Chai Leng Park, Butterworth
Opening hours : 9.30am to 4pm
Opening days : Mondays thru Sundays (only closed during CNY)

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Click here for map, direction and pictures taken of the food.

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Verdict :
Disappointment! The soup was just average, there were no huge fragrant chunks of yam in the rice as I expected, the vinegar pork knuckles were mighty salty and there is no extra side dish of taukua and hardboiled eggs. Again, disappointment.
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I bitched abt it to friends who sang praises for that place and then one of them told me :

“Actually, their standard went down a little bit dee. It was better when the dad was running the business. Go try the other one in the same area. It’s called KUAN NAN and serves yam rice too.”

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Aiyoyo! Why lah didn’t tell me earlier to go KUAN NAN first, then only go SOON LONG? At least I won’t get so disappointed. I know I can be really scarifying when I get disappointed with food. Oh well….never try, never know, right? Thx for your recommendations anyway. Will go check out KUAN NAN another day. Maybe not so soon since I need to get over the sub-standard yam rice. Ish…

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They say taste is very subjective. I so agree. What is OMG-U-MUST-GO-TRY-THIS-FOOD to someone may be WTF-IS-THIS-THING-U-CLAIM-TO-BE-FOOD to someone else. Tiok boh? Hehe….

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Ok ok. I will get off my soapbox now. You go try it, then go try the BM version…and let me know if you agree with me.