Happy Birthday, Mum!

It's been quite a few years since I've been home to celebrate the birthday of any member of my family, so it was nice to be around for my mum's birthday this year. As my grandmother was having dinner with us, it had to be Chinese food and so Oversea Restaurant it was. A firm family favourite, it never lets us down (let's not count a dish or two over the years, shall we?:) As I booked the table that night (a booking is almost always necessary especially at their Jalan Imbi branch), I was told off for not reserving a plate of their char siew as well :( Their char siew really is quite delicious but sells out notoriously quickly. But let's not dwell on what we cannot have :) It was the usual order of dishes and none let us down.

Pei kuat wong - deep fried pork ribs in a sweet and sour sauce with caramelized onions. The ribs were meaty, the batter nicely crisp, the sauce tarter than the usual sweet and sour and the onions melded into the sauce perfectly. To make us feel slightly healthier, the ribs were served with slices of fresh cucumber and tomato.

The obligatory vegetable - fried choi tam with garlic. Choi tam looks rather like Brussels sprouts but leafier and crunchier - making it nothing like a Brussels sprout :D I basically have no idea what it's called in English but I've never seen it served anywhere else but Chinese restaurants. I am rather sure though that they fry their vegetables in lard. It's sooooo good! And in true Oversea style, they also added tiny strips of very salty Chinese ham. Emm!

My mother loves her bean curd and gluten, so we had serving of fried tofu, gluten, bean curd skin and fish paste. It's was good but no different from other restaurants with the thick, cornstarch sauce.

We actually had a few more dishes - steamed wan yue (grass carp) belly with minced ginger and clay pot chap chye (the usual braised vegetables, bean curd skin and fermented bean curd but with the addition of dried oysters and touch of chili). My mum loved the chap chye so much, we had two portions .... wayyyyyyyy too much but we're a greedy little family ;) Except my grandmother... but we certainly made up for her.

Oversea Resteaurant
84-88 Jalan Imbi, 55100 Kuala Lumpur