I have past by Harbin Cafe many times but never really been there until recently. What actually caught my attention was the fact that they advertise themselves as having the one of the best Hainanese lor me in town. What's also intriguing is that lor mee is suppose to be a Hokkien dish ergo a Hainanese lor me warranted some investigation on my part.
The typical lor mee consists of a mixture of white rice noodles or beehoon and yellow noodles served with thick starchy gravy made up of corn starch, egg and spices. This is usually complimented by slices of pork and a half boiled egg. In some stalls, they might surprise you with innards like intestines or chicken feet which would put off most Westerners. Lastly, it comes with chili and ginger paste to compliment the thick gravy noodles just like the one shown below.
Hmm. I can't seem to find the slightest difference between this and the Hokkien style. The ingredients are the same except perhaps they added in the pork belly. Not sure.
What a tempting looking pork belly. I could just eat this minus the noodles.
I decided I wasn't in the mood for innards and just had the normal one. I think it cost around RM3-3.5. The lor mee was just average because it tasted like any ordinary lor mee you would get in Penang. Perhaps because of the marketing hype I expected more. Anyway, you are not going to see me doing any back flips or somersaults on this.
Nonetheless, Harbin is still quite a popular cafe since it also sells Malay economy rice and Western food. The Malay food is a crowd puller during the day time where as the Western food seems to do better during the evening. For directions to Harbin Cafe, it is located at the intersection of Jones Road and Burma Road. Alternatively, you can use the SOCSO building at Pulau Tikus as your landmark since it's just directly opposite it.
