New Beggar's Delicious Restaurant @ Ijok

More Good Dishes Besides A Yummy Beggar Chicken!

There aren’t many places to enjoy Beggar Chicken but those that exist are pretty decent in flavours. While some restaurants may offer this classic Beggar Chicken, many may not be as authentic as the two more famous ones in Banting and Ijok.

According to Wikipedia, Beggar Chicken originates from Changsu, Jiangsu Province in China. It’s a dish of whole chicken with herbs, wrapped in clay and baked slow for hours in hot fired up mud. The name of the dish relates to how a beggar once stole a chicken and hid the wrapped chook in mud, only to later cook it. The mud forms a crust around the chicken and cook the chicken till it was tender and aromatic.

Now I have been to both popular restaurants in Banting and recently to Ijok for Beggar’s Chicken. A recent with my glutton gang had us taking a day trip to Ijok to try out the much raved Ijok New Beggar’s Delicious Restaurant. The drive there was easy and it’s basically a short drive of 35 minutes from Kepong. Use Waze or GPS and it will lead you there. It’s advisable to make a reservation before you go to ensure that you get your order of Beggar’s Chicken and other signatures.

Unlike the one in Banting, New Beggar’s Delicious Restaurant offers more dishes including plenty of seafood choices besides the variations of Beggar dishes. The restaurant is located off site from the town and has a large al fresco dining area. We were there around 1pm and it is surprisingly cool and very comfortable despite no air-conditioning.

We were even allowed to roam the back kitchen area where the Beggar’s Chicken were cooking. The place is really hot from all the hot coals and we can see lots of Beggar’s packages uncovered from the blazing grey ashes. The restaurant has special built brick ovens to make their Beggar’s dishes.

The Beggar’s dishes are then brought here to be cracked open from their hard dough casing…

All their Beggar’s dishes are well prepared and sealed in foil and paper. We got really excited to see these parcels as we couldn’t wait to open them and hail in the glorious aromas of Beggar’s Chicken, Beggar’s Duck and Eight Treasure Rice.

Our Beggar's Chicken (RM49) was sublime. The aroma was lush of Chinese herbs. The beautiful pale yellow chook looked so gorgeous at sight. We dived in and was awarded with tender and juicy meat well infused with Tong Kwai and other Chinese herbs. Though the chicken wasn’t too big, it was really a perfect size with enough meat and yet tender.

There was enough herbal flavours to keep me happy and I gladly drank the broth. I also like how the chicken had very little fat and yet it remains moist and tender in the lean meat. My family loved it so much we order a second Beggar’s Chicken and polished that off as well.

There is also the Beggar’s Duck (RM49). Duck prepared the same way as the chicken and yet somehow the flavours are not as tasty as the chicken one. Nevertheless the duck was very tender and moist. It is tasty but we felt that it could have been better. We still enjoyed this but the chicken is definitely better.

The Eight Treasure Rice (RM39) is a must-order. I swear that there was more meat and salted egg yolk than the glutinous rice itself. Every spoonful was chockful of tender pork belly, mushrooms, dried shrimp and sublime salted egg yolk. The rice was soft without being mushy and tasty too.

We couldn’t resist putting in an order of Salted Egg Bittergourd (RM22). I like how they sliced the bittergourd thickly and braised it till soft. Unctously coated with a thick and creamy salted egg sauce, this was heavenly good. I could barely taste the bitterness but just pure salty luscious and creamy salted egg yolk.

A house special soup of Pepper Soup with Pig Stomach and Black Fungus (RM39) is very tasty too. Generously filled with lots of tender pig stomach slices, crunchy black fungus and straw mushrooms, the peppery soup is served in claypot to keep it warm. I love pepper soup and I love mine with bold hits of peppery note. The version here is one of the better ones and has all the sufficient taste of a good hit of peppers. It’s a big pot so do make sure to have enough diners to share.

Unlike the Banting one, Ijok New Beggar’s Delicious Restaurant serves up a long list of other seafood and dishes besides their signature Beggar Chicken. Since we are a family of crab lovers, we also took this chance and put in an order of Crab Beehoon (RM95). Happy to say, the Crab Beehoon was pretty good. The crab was fresh and sweet. The rice noodle was cooked well, soft and yet has a good bite with moreish flavours.

New Beggar’s Delicious Restaurant turned out better that we expected. I would come back for the Beggar Chicken and Eight Treasure Rice with that yummy Salted Egg Bittergourd anytime. Price was decent too and the restaurant is spacious and cool. Do call for reservation to avoid disappointment.

Total bill was RM369 inclusive of beverages and rice.

NEW BEGGAR’S DELICIOUS RESTAURANT

Lot 894, Jalan Hormoni,

45620 Ijok, Selangor

Tel: +603-3279 1936 (Mr. Tee)

GPS: 3.307116, 101.418736

Business Hours:

Wed, Sat, Sun & Public Holiday (1pm to 3pm / 5pm to 7pm)