Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Best Bak Chang in NJ

We went to Penang Restaurant in Edison for dinner a couple of days ago. When we were about to pay, I saw some bak chang hanging at the counter. It's not part of their regular menu and it's the first time I saw them being sold there. I was thinking to myself, "hmmm is it already the Chang festival"? I am really not that good with the Chinese Lunar calender (it's confusing), but I know that Wesak Day (my chinese birth date) was only a few days ago. Wesak Day is the eight day of the fourth month and the Chang festival falls on the fifth day of the fifth month, so it can't be the Chang festival yet. Oh well, I don't know :P Anyway, we bought two bak chang ($2.50 a piece) from Penang Restaurant home to try.

You can buy frozen bak chang all year around in Chinese grocery stores like Hong Kong Supermarket or Kam Man and fresh from Chinatown. However, they taste different from the bak chang that I am used to. They are more the Hong Kong and Taiwanese type of bak chang. This is what the bak chang from Penang Restaurant looks like inside.

It's really really yummy. When I split the chang into half, it was just filled with pork, salted egg, chinese mushrooms, chestnuts, nuts...really good :D

What about the taste? Well, the rice was a tad bit too sticky but overall, it was great! I think that its as close to Penang (the island in Malaysia) style bak chang as you can get here in NJ. My other complain is that it was too small. Oh well, I guess that if they were to charge $5 a piece, then they can make it bigger. But then again, who would buy a bak chang for $5? Hmmm maybe I will...coz it's really authentic!! I just wish that Penang Restaurant would have this on their regular menu all year round!!

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