Eats: Shark Bone Soup @ Chuai Heng Restaurant

I was fortunate that Lil' Sis decided to give my mom and myself a lunch treat to Chuai Heng. She was introduced to this restaurant, specifically for their shark bone soup by one of her client.

So come Monday, I drove my mom and self to downtown KL to meet Lil' Sis at the restaurant. Chuai Heng is one of those modern Chinese restaurants, similar to Palace or Oriental group of restaurants. And typically at these restaurants, dim sum lunch are available but we decided to do their ala carte menu

So here it is, the star of the lunch. Double-boiled shark bone soup. I didn't get to read the menu when Lil' Sis placed the order, so I'm not too sure what was added in the soup apart from the obvious which is shark bone. Based on what i read online, the Chinese believe that shark bone marrow has healing properties such as healing joints and it's a good source of collagen. It's a very typical Chinese concept of to strengthen parts of the human body, you can do so by eating the same parts from animals (i.e. yi xing bu xing). The soup has a very smooth "gelatinous" texture to it, as a result of long hours of boiling. I would like to think all the collagen benefits have gone to my face and improve my skin texture! LOL!

This is stir-fry green dragon leaves (qing long cai) with garlic. I seriously have no idea how this vege come about but I can assure you, that it is the "rage" these days. Every Chinese restaurant you go in KL these days, they would be recommending this vege. And the price is not cheap as well when I check it out in the supermarket. I can't seems to find any English name equivalent and most sites just cite the direct Mandarin-to-English translation of this vege. It's from the Chinese chives family, has slightly broader leaves and less pungent than Chinese chives. The taste is almost like a cross between leeks and chives.

The last dish we had was steamed dragon tiger grouper (long hu ban). Apparently it's a cross breed between the giant malabar grouper and tiger grouper. As you can see here, we didn't get the whole fish, just the belly portion but even that it was too much for the three of us. The meat has a rather oily feel to it, very fleshy but firm. After just about two pieces, I was quite filled up already.

All in all, it was a very yummy lunch. Highly nutritious too after all the collagen and omega-3 from the soup and the fish. :)

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Chuai Heng Restaurant
231, Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2141-5666