Liver Into Sausage

Last year a friend introduced me to Weng Kee. Dave and I will forever be grateful. We don't eat at this Petaling Jaya coffee shop as often as we'd like (moderation in all things), but when we do we always wonder why it's been so long since our last visit.

We like Weng Kee's char siew (barbecued pork) - sticky, not too sweet, fatty enough (lean char siew - why bother?), dotted with crispy black bits, and smoky from roasting over charcoal. The roast duck, too, is always a treat. The house vegetable (choy sum, if I'm not mistaken), served from a big pot kept warm by the meat display case, is bright green, perfectly seasoned, and never overcooked.

But the Weng Kee item that exerts the biggest pull on us is the duck liver sausage. Moist, plump, smoky (this weiner does time in the charcoal-fired roaster as well), dotted with nuggets of fat and tasting of liver but not overly offal-ish, it's truly a masterpiece of charcuterie. Weng Kee serves it sliced, with a bowl of sweetish fowl sauce on the side. We ignore the sauce. With a sausage this perfect, who needs it?

Weng Kee makes its own sausage, in a kitchen behind the coffee shop. It starts, as all sausage does, with casing. The sausage makers uses pig intestines that they prepare themselves. Co-owner Mrs. Woon (or Voon, depending on who's doing the spelling) says that purchased casings aren't always up to standard.

'Sometimes,' she says, wrinkling her nose, 'they're not so, you know, clean.'

After the intestines are thoroughly washed they're hung up outside on a clothesline next to the shop to dry. You might see them if you drive by, off-white balloon-animal coils rising and falling with the breeze.

Mrs. Voon recalls the day Weng Kee took possession of a particularly long intestine: 'Fifty feet. That was a big one.'

Sausage is made fresh everyday. Ingredients - in addition to duck liver - include duck meat, pork fat, ginger juice, sugar, and Chinese rice wine. Everything is mixed into a slurry, which is spooned into a long metal funnel.

The funnel is suspended over a work table, and the intestine (which has been moistened) is secured to its 'mouth'. Then the stuffing begins.

After the intestine is stuffed it's tied into links.

The lengths of sausage links are coiled over rods, which will be hung in the roaster. The sausage is roasted three times.

A simple, but awfully labor-intensive, process. Weng Kee's been stuffing, roasting, and serving its duck liver sausage for over thirty years. Not surprisingly, they do a darned good business.

                     Weng Kee: The family behind the sausage

Weng Kee Jalan 17/27 (St. 27 in Section 17). Morning to 3-ish. Closed last Sun/Mon of every month.

Comments

[BM]

Hmm. At the beginning of this post, I was consumed with hunger. Somewhere in the middle, I lost my appetite. But by the end, I'd bounced back. What's that they say about the sausage factory?

[renato]

Wow, duck liver (foie gras) in a sausage with SEAsian flavors -- and inexpensive ? I am literally drooling...

[corrine]

Pictures say a thousand words. Fantastic! Hope to try this someday! Duck liver sausage...wow.

[eastingfeasting]

this is great, you guys are eating stuff that will someday be high price gourmet in new york city. you should dedicated a whole section to southeastasian sausages, i know thais, laos, vietnam, chinese has their own.
i myself love vietnamese bloodsausage, it has the purple parilla, or mint flavoring..makes you forget you're eating blood sausage.

[Mila]

That is an amazing photo (the translucent whorls of the casing!). That would be interesting, a series on Asian sausages (have you ever tried those tongue/mouth numbing sichuan sausages? yow).

[Robyn]

BM - yah, maybe sometimes it's better not to know. But you would *love* these links.

Renato - inexpensive by American standards, for sure. I want to say about RM12 for two, with veggie ... that's less than U$4.

eastingfeasting - I wouldn't doubt it! That's a great idea, actually, about the series. We'll put our thinking caps on.

Mila I love those Sichuan sausages! Gosh it's been years since I've had the pleasure.... thanks for reminding me.

[Cupcake]

Great story! :-) Are you back in town?

Cupcake

[Life 2.0]

Your photos are so detailed that I was telling my husband about the liver sausage and in my mind, I thought the sausage making was a segment on Anthony Bourdain's, "No Reservations" episode of Malaysia. It took me a moment to realize the sausage making was a photo documentary and not on TV. WoW!! Awesome work.

[Life 2.0]

Your photos are so detailed that I was telling my husband about the liver sausage and in my mind, I thought the sausage making was a segment on Anthony Bourdain's, "No Reservations" episode of Malaysia. It took me a moment to realize the sausage making was a photo documentary and not on TV. WoW!! Awesome work.

[Dova]

i wrote a comment here and realised i didnt type in the code at the end and lost it, darn..here it is again:

i wanted to see what PJ has to offer since i was reading a copy of timeout abt KL vs PJ.

after a 40 MYR cab ride later, we got there. i mean both the hotel staff and cab driver found it odd i want to come here. we got here at abt 1pm, so we missed the market.

first stop, weng kee for sausage, it was beautiful. my boyfriend usually dun eat so much rice, but he polished off the whole plate with the helping of the yummy sausage.
the char siew we got was quite dry, not the cantonese kind i am accustomed to.

next stop we went to restoran hong seng for curry noodles. but it was a bit late curry stall has packed up and gone. that was when i relaised the ordering system there. so, the bigger restaurant with a name houses the smaller noodle cart?

last stop, we went to Kedai Kopi wah cheong, we ordered peppery fish head soup with rice noodles and a flat rice noodles dish laced with pork mince and thick soy sauce. it comes with a soup with fish balls, the soup was outstanding.

so after 80MYR spalshed on cabs and 20 MYR on food, we surprised ourselves why we did it. but as cliche as it sounds, guess thats what travelling is abt.

thanks for your blog
cheers

Dova