The herb leaves are first “hand-plucked”, then “quickly blanched and soaked in iced water, before being blended with roasted and shelled peanuts and sesame seeds” to form the paste for the tea. It takes an average of six hours to prep just 50 portions. This is one thunder tea rice worth eating.Ĭhef Pang describes it as “a very labour intensive dish to make”. Nutty brown rice and herby soup (don’t add too much hot water for a more ‘gao’ flavour) add complexity to the antioxidant-rich dish.
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His version is full of textural contrast with the crunch of deeply roasted nuts, crispy, salty pops of fresh ikan bilis and preserved radish, all mellowed by juicy veg like crunchy wing beans. Perfect for those who don’t like their lei cha too bitter. Pang says he omitted the tea so people of all ages, including kids, can eat it.
Ironically, there’s no Chinese tea in this version. It sounds kinda weird on paper and can be polarising, but 8days.sg recently sampled Pang’s updated version and his thunder tea rice is super delicious. It comes with an herbaceous ‘pesto tea’ soup with ground coriander, mint, mugwort and basil which you’re supposed to pour over the rice (we do it in tiny increments). Why did it take so long to reintroduce what we call the original grain bowl? Well, Hakka thunder tea rice ( lei cha in Mandarin) is made with multiple wholesome ingredients like assorted and meticulously chopped veggies, tofu, kidney beans, chai poh, roasted peanuts, crispy ikan bilis and brown rice. Pang’s thunder tea rice takes six hours to prepare Back then, he sold the dish at $8 per set, but he has now lowered the price to $5.90 a bowl to make it hawker food-friendly. The chef briefly sold his thunder tea rice back in 2020 when he ran Pang’s Hakka Delicacies, a mostly online biz during the Covid period. At the upcoming Yishun branch, Chef Pang will reintroduce Pang’s Hakka Thunder Tea Rice ($5.90) - it was a cult favourite back when he used to sell it online before starting his hawker biz. He tells 8days.sg that business “has stabilised after a few months” and the stall “still has short queues during peak meal periods and on weekends”. Thankfully, he has had better luck with his newest Bukit Merah shop, which opened to long lines back in March. The first four outlets closed down due to poor footfall in quieter locales, coupled with rental issues. Technically, the Yishun outlet marks his sixth time opening a Pang's hawker stall.
No part of this story or photos can be reproduced without permission from 8days.sg. He tells 8days.sg that he decided to set up shop at Yishun as he “doesn’t think there are thunder tea rice there”. Now, pastry chef-turned-hawker towkay Pang Kok Keong, founder of defunct French patisserie Antoinette and consultant for cafe chain Surrey Hills, is opening the brand's second outlet in Yishun on 20 September. 8days.sg enjoyed the tasty grub at Pang’s Hakka Yong Tau Foo when we visited the Bukit Merah stall in March this year.
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