Hakka Pun Choi

Last week my mum called for a Pun Choi gathering. What's Pun Choi? Here's a description from our dear friend, Wiki-san:-

"Poon Choi (pronounced: Phùn-tshoi), also known as pun choi or Big Bowl Feast, is a traditional type of dish originated from Hong Kong villages cousine. It may also be found in different parts of Hong Kong. It is served in wooden, porcelain or metal basin."

But i think Wiki got it wrong, its actually a Hakka Dish. China's Hakka. Not the hakka with the dancing. :-) Though i think i'm an ok dancer...

As you can see, ours was in a metal basin on top of a very modern burner.

Recommended numbers of ppl was 10-12 to tuck in the standard sized Pun Choi. Our table sat 10 ppl, 5 men and 5 women, very equal numbers. And the set included the above Pun Choi, a vege dish and fruits for dessert. Everyone called for rice too, which nobody managed to finish, last i checked.

Wiki-san also said :-

Poon Choi includes ingredients such as pork, beef, lamb, chicken, duck, abalone, ginseng, shark fin, fish maw, prawn, crab, dried mushroom, fishballs, squid, dried eel, dried shrimp, pigskin, beancurd and Chinese radish.
Poon Choi is special in that it is composed of many layers of different ingredients. It is also eaten layer by layer instead of "stirring everything up", but impatient diners may snatch up the juicy radish at the bottom first using shared chopsticks.

Well, ours was the 'cheaper' version Pun Choi (there were only 2 variants) which didnt include abalone, ginseng, sharksfin, crabs, the expensive stuff.

Here's with the top layer gone, the gravy was amazing, great for 'lou' with rice. The color looks slightly funny here, but what was left was mainly pork and some chicken. Have i already said great gravy?! heh..

By that time, everyone was pretty much pooped. yup, 5 strong men and 5 strong women couldn't finish that. Though the next table's skinny teenagers were able to. hahah..



So we did what prudent Cina ppl would, Ta pao larr...Quite heavy too that takeaway bag..

My mum said the next day, my mum, my bro in law and my sis cooked the leftovers with some noodle and still was tasty.

Groovy Gravyyyy....

Total sum paid= RM270.