Dong Yi Shun @ The Strand, Kota Damansara

“Eat me, or I’ll eat you back!” – is what I heard the fish say. So what did I do?

I ate it of course. It was delicious. Scrumptious morsels of fish meat doused in perfectly balanced sweet and sour sauce, hard to find indeed. Rich in flavour, defintely not in colouring like most sweet & sour dishes are. Where did I get this, you ask? Why, it’s in a neat little restaurant called Dong Yi Shun, the first of Halal-certified chinese muslim cuisine that I’ve ever come across!

There’s a surau found inside the restaurant, a definite must for the Muslims to have their prayers in. So for those who live around Kota Damansara and in need of a Surau and maybe a little Chinese bite, look no further 😉

The drinks selections are sufficient but of course, tea would be the de facto drink in a Chinese restaurant, halal or non-halal. Here, the tea is, well, clearer than most we normally drink. Surprisingly I liked it very much!

First off we had was Dong Yi Shun’s Mutton Satay, which is a little different from the satay we usually get around here. There isn’t any kacang sauce served, but then again, with the way it’s thoroughly marinated in savoury spice that gave the meat its flavour, there really wasn’t any need for it! Unfortunately for RM2 per piece, I could do without too many of it.

Then came the shanghai beef fried dumpling, which also comes with Shanghai Seafood filling on a separate order. Every piece had the meaty juices well sealed inside and best eaten warm. Heck, even the crust below is delicious on it’s own, which CK and I found out to our surprise. With a price tag of RM8.80 per 8 pieces, it’s a sealed deal to go!

You may also try the steamed version of Shanghai Seafood filled dumplings, at RM9.80 per portion. Picture not taken cause I was too hungry 😛

Then the mother of all dumplings came, the xi an beef xiao long bao. I’ve always wanted to know how a halal xiao long bao tastes like, cause it’s something I want to share with my muslim friends since forever, and thank God it was as awesome, or at least equivalent! You still pick it up with your chopsticks at the knotted bit up, careful not to tear the pouch open, lest the juices leak out. Dipped into vinegar, soya and ginger sauce mix, you then take a bite and get ready to suck the savoury juices that will burst through the opening, and with all of the tasty morsel mixed in your mouth, all that’s left is for you to savour the moment. There’s no regrets to it. Now I know where to bring my weekly meetings to 😛

All this, including the seafood version, for only RM9.80 per portion!

The picture above, is a very apt example of Andrew sucking up the juices as he takes a bite at the xiao long bao. My friend Ziad once asked me, what on earth is a xiao long bao. I replied: it’s a fine mix of meat and spices sealed within a thin pieces of pastry to secure its juices as it get steamed in a steamer basket for a brief amount of time, thus cooking everything inside the pastry and creating a lovely mix of well-cooked dumpling in its own sauce. *drools*

Mr Fish made its way on to the table presented in such a tantalizing manner, it could even rival a stripper! The song zhi Garupa fish costing RM25, cooked sweet and sour style was one of my obvious favourite, and I need not say why as I’ve already described above. Better write about the next dish before I chomp my laptop away 😡

xin jiang chicken in big pot, also known as China’s curry chicken, was a little mediocre for me despite it’s popularity with restaurant regulars. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still as spicy, if not spicier, than normal curry dishes, but maybe I’m not so fond of the curry style as I am with Malaysian curry. However the potatoes were a gem to eat, and the chicken meat was quite consistently tender throughout so it’s still okay for me. Get this dish for RM16.80.

Butterfried prawns of course is a regular in most chinese restaurants, and it can’t really go wrong from there. I found the buttered sauce not too crunchy which doesn’t really go well with my taste, but at least the prawns were fresh and fried so much so that I can eat it whole 🙂

Kung Po Chicken again, is another regular. This was, if not equivalent, as flavourful as the ones you’d get in a non-halal chinese restaurant so do try it!

Ah. Now this one caught my tongue, and my nose. The aroma of the Cumin Mutton dish (Zi Ran mutton) can send you waves of heaven into your nostrils, and eating those tender pieces of meat just serves to make the experience a highly addictive one! We all knew we had to move quickly with this dish, lest it gets devoured by the people on the table. I can just see those greedy eyes again haha!

How can anyone resist a dish served in this all-too-familar cow-sizzling iron hot plate? The Sizzling sweet mutton dish definitely caught our attention, with the aromatic sizzling mix of bright green and red peppers, huge onion cuts with pieces of tender mutton. Needless to say it was all finished in a matter of minutes, and we could even go for more! Definitely a must-have, at only RM16 per portion!

Luckily the next dish was  the fried abalone mushroom, otherwise we would have all put on a few more pounds that night. Then again, compared to the previous dishes, I thought was just pretty mediocre. However if you’re into a light snack, this would do for you for about RM12.

The vegetable dishes had to come out last, a little potong stim haha. But then again, the Japanese Dofu with Broccoli was a delightfully light ending to our lunch for the day, with a splash of colours coming from the lightly fried japanese tau foo and steamed brocolli. The RM10 dish had the quality of those served in other chinese restaurants without the use of lard, so who says we need pig oil to create tasty dishes? My guess is that this experiment proved the theory wrong 🙂

At the end of the day we had your everyday corn and egg soup, which I think was served to make us all feel as though it really was a chinese restaurant, not any different then any others and YET serving halal food. I thought it was amazing, like understanding the cultural difference of Muslims living in China where pork is served everywhere. After knowing that they even have a surau built in, and through talking to the Malay ladies serving by the counter, I get the feeling of utmost hospitality unlike the hurried expressions by the waiters and the let’s-get-it-done-with attitude of the taukes situated at the counter in most of the typical chinese restaurants.

What an experience this has been, and true enough, with a good mix of food, ambience (the place caters for open air tables and small private areas for functions) and hospitality, a return visit is most guaranteed.

Restaurant Dong Yi Shun
No28-G & 30-G,
Jalan PJU 5/20B,
Pusat Dagangan Kota Damansara,
PJU 5, 47810 PJ.