He Left Bukit Mertajam With One Recipe, 14 Years Later, Cheras Is Still Queuing
A Teochew cook from Bukit Mertajam and his wife have spent 14 years serving authentic yam rice and mixed pork soup in Cheras — using local pork at double the price of imported pork, with free soup refills, on a menu that tops out at RM20.
- LC Chan brought a single Teochew recipe from Bukit Mertajam to Cheras in 2011, and queues have followed ever since.
- Zheng Ji uses local pork costing twice as much as imported, yet keeps prices at RM20 with free soup refills.
- The full Chinese name proudly keeps Bukit Mertajam on the signboard, treating hometown origins as a declaration, not a marketing gimmick.
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LC Chan grew up Teochew in Bukit Mertajam, and he knows one cuisine the way a person knows their own dialect — not learned, just carried.
In 2011, he and his wife Teri Yum, now 54, left that hometown behind and opened Zheng Ji Famous Yam Rice (正记大山脚咸菜猪杂汤芋饭店) in Bandar Perdana, Cheras.
Four years ago, they moved to Bandar Damai Perdana, and the queue followed them.
Walk in, and you will find Yum at the front — taking orders, making recommendations, remembering faces.
Regulars call her the face of the shop; reviewers reach for words like welcoming and never quite stop there.
Her husband is in the kitchen.
He has been there since the first day, and he will be there tomorrow.
Every morning, before the shop opens, the two of them clean the innards together, slow-braise the pork, and cook the rice.
The work is quiet, and it is his — which is perhaps why the food tastes like it was made by someone with nothing to prove.
The restaurant carries the name of his hometown; that, in its own way, is the only credit he ever asked for.
The Pork Nobody Knows Costs Double
Zheng Ji uses local pork.
It costs twice as much as imported pork, and the menu ceiling is still RM20. Soup refills are free.
Speaking to TRP, the owners said they absorb the difference quietly — for freshness, not for the story — and there is no sign on the wall about it.
Most customers do not know, and that seems to be the point.
The menu’s anchor is yam rice: dark with soy sauce, dense with local taro, finished with crispy dried shrimp and shallots — fragrant, filling, and unmistakably Teochew.
It pairs with pickled vegetable mixed pork soup, a sour and punchy ham choy broth loaded with mixed cuts, meatballs, and optional innards — kidney, liver, intestines — with refills that keep coming.
Braised sides round out the spread: pork belly, small intestines, shredded pig’s ears, tofu, hard-boiled eggs — each slow-cooked to a depth that doesn’t happen by accident.
The meal comes with a condiment that regulars treat as non-negotiable: sambal paste stirred into thick dark soy sauce, delivering a dense, savoury heat that creeps up slowly and cuts clean through the richness of the pork — dip the meat, pair it with a spoonful of taro rice, and you have the full Bukit Mertajam experience in one bite.
The Name Is the Origin Story
The full Chinese name — 正记大山脚咸菜猪杂汤芋饭店 — translates directly as Zheng Ji, Bukit Mertajam Pickled Vegetable Mixed Pork Soup Yam Rice Shop.
In a city where hawkers routinely drop regional identifiers to appeal to a broader crowd, Zheng Ji kept Bukit Mertajam on the signboard.
The hometown is not a marketing line; it is a declaration.
Zheng Ji holds a 4.4 rating across 147 reviews on Google.
Regulars note the density of the yam chunks — not flavoured rice, but a genuinely filling dish.
The pork soup draws consistent praise for its balance: tangy, salty and comforting without being greasy.
The free refill policy is cited repeatedly.
Every review mentions the lady boss.
The husband does not need them — the food speaks clearly enough.
Arrive before 11:30 am for lunch or at opening for dinner. Popular braised items sell out toward the end of the lunch shift. All photos by the writer.
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