Today, I revisited the Food Place food court, located at Pavilion Mall. The food court is located beside the Oriental Kopi Restaurant. It is time to try another stall.
This time, I ordered thunder tea rice (lei Cha) from the Together Nasi Lemak stall, which cost RM17.80 per portion.
Hakka Thunder Tea Rice, also known as Lei Cha (擂茶) — one of the most unique traditional Hakka meals found in Malaysia and Singapore. At the food court, the version from the ZDY Express stall comes with a colorful mix of chopped long beans, leafy greens, peanuts, preserved vegetables, tofu cubes, and rice, served alongside a striking emerald-green tea broth.
What makes thunder tea rice special is the green “tea soup.” Despite the name, it is not sweet milk tea or regular Chinese tea. The soup is traditionally made by grinding tea leaves together with herbs such as basil, mint, mugwort, and sesame into a fragrant paste before mixing it with hot water. The result is earthy, herbal, nutty, and slightly bitter.
Once the green soup is poured over the rice, everything is mixed together into a comforting herbal rice bowl. The crunchy peanuts, crisp long beans, soft greens, tofu, and savory preserved vegetables create many layers of texture in a single spoonful.
Historically, Lei Cha comes from the Hakka Chinese community and is believed to date back over 1,000 years, with some legends tracing it to the Han Dynasty or Three Kingdoms era. One famous story says soldiers under General Zhang Fei were cured from illness after consuming a medicinal tea-and-rice mixture prepared from herbs and tea leaves.
The word “Lei” (擂) actually means “to grind or pound,” referring to the traditional method of preparing the herbal tea paste using a mortar and pestle. Over time, because the pronunciation sounds similar to the Chinese word for thunder (雷), the English nickname “Thunder Tea Rice” became popular.
Lei Cha is also closely associated with the Hakka migration across southern China into Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. Because the Hakka people often lived in mountainous regions and traveled frequently, the dish evolved into a nutritious, practical meal filled with vegetables, herbs, grains, and tea.
Today, thunder tea rice is often viewed as a healthy comfort food because it is rich in vegetables, fiber, herbs, and plant protein. Some versions are fully vegetarian, while others may include dried shrimp or minced meat. The bowl in your photos looks closer to the modern Malaysian food-court style — lighter, colorful, and easy to mix together with the tea broth.
