I always thought that Mini Apom is only found in but two stalls in Penang situated right outside Union Primary School at Jalan Burma, and every time I went back to the island of good eats, getting my stomach stuffed with these was always in the list of things to do.
Well, now I can do that right here at PJ’s Ming Tien food court.
Penang apom, comes in two flavors
The Penang Apom stall is situated on the far right of the food court, manned by an operator from Penang who moved down to KL some 7-8 years ago (and speaks perfect Penang Hokkien, of course).
The mini apom comes either with sweet corns or banana slice in them and you get 5 pieces for RM 3. The taste is as good as those found in Penang, and definitely worth the money paid for. The only downside is that if the apom’s been sitting on the shelves for a while they tend to get cold and wouldn’t taste quite as good. Then again, 15-20 seconds in a microwave would fix that, or you could perhaps insist on freshly made ones.
The stall operates from about 5 pm till late, they also offer regular apom.
chicken porridge – simple comfort food
The chicken porridge stall at Ming Tien food court now has a pair of new operators that is familiar to anyone who frequents SS 2 mamak square. The kids that used to help out at the chicken rice stall at SS 2 are now running the show.
I’ve always loved their silky smooth steamed chicken, so it was my dinner choice the other night as I was looking for some comfort food to fill my stomach.
chicken porridge at Ming Tien, originally from SS2 mamak
The chicken was identical to those offered at their parents’ stall, and the porridge too were quite flavorful in itself, with the dash of sesame oil, white pepper, and soya sauce. Bean sprouts is also offered as a separate dish, and on top of that, there’s chicken liver and gizzards as well.
It’s a shame that they don’t serve chicken rice here (most likely due to presence of other chicken rice stalls at the food court), but if you’re looking for some good chicken porridge, this is definitely one of them.
Address:
Ming Tien Hawker Center
Jalan SS24/8, Taman Megah,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.114334, 101.611658
Yes, this is yet another curry mee post. More specifically, a curry mee place with coagulated pork blood in the list of ingredients, the only way real curry mee should be.
It is the same back story from Penang One post is what led me to this place.
restaurant Millenium 86 at Seapark
A man’s gotta have his curry mee, and I’m actually glad that this stall is now much closer to home than when it was located at Restaurant Good Food. To me, this means that I don’t need to necessarily wake up before 8:30 for restaurant okay’s curry mee, or brave the traffic to Puchong for Penang One.
glorious Penang style curry mee, with coagulated blood
The curry mee is as good as I remember. Pork blood, prawns, cockles, tofupok, long beans, and of course that slightly charred chili paste with fragrant coconut milk based broth. This is Penang style curry mee as close as you can get, and would have been absolutely perfect if not for the lack of cuttle fish, but I’m not complaining.
If you love curry mee, this is definitely one of the very few places worth going. The operator also offers Kuih Teow Soup, I should try it next. 
map to Restaurant Millenium 86 at Sea Park
Address:
Restaurant Mellenium Eighty Six
Jalan 20/22,
Taman Paramount, Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.108099, 101.623983
I first came to Restaurant Good Food in search for curry mee, and so when I went back there again to find out that the curry mee has moved (back story in Penang-One food review post), I settled for another favorite of mine instead – the Penang kuih teow soup, or kuih teow th’ng (粿條汤).
restaurant good food at PJ Old Town
Kueh teow soup is a pretty common hawker dish in Penang that is akin to pork noodle in Klang Valley, their soup base is similar, but instead of everything pork, kuih teow soup usually comes with fish balls, shredded chicken (or sometimes duck, or pork), fish cake, and when you are lucky – coagulated blood (of pork or chicken/duck).
kuih teow soup with coagulated blood
The stall at Restaurant Good Food is operated by an old couple who spoke Penang Hokkien (always a good sign), and the kuih teow soup indeed tasted original and comes with all my favorite ingredients, most importantly lard and coagulated blood. It was subtle yet delicious, with the only downside being their somewhat average tasting fish ball.
For kuih teow soup outside the state of Penang, this one is definitely worth eating.
Address:
Restoran Good Food
Jalan Penchala
Seksyen 51,
46000 Petaling Jaya
GPS: 3.087026, 101.641479
morning till 3pm, close every 1st & 3rd Sundays
Pan mee is one of the few underrated hawker dishes originated right around here in Klang Valley that has seen some revival as of late, most notably due to chili pan mee places such as the famous Kin Kin pan mee, and restaurant Super Kitchen (which I prefer largely due to better service).
While I occasionally enjoys chili version of this dish, the true pan mee connoisseurs will always tell you that to taste the real pan mee, you need to get back to it’s origin and have the good old fashion hand peeled version.
Hock Thai restaurant, at the less glamourous area of SS 2omb
The quest for good old school pan mee brought me to this relatively obscure row of shop lots at SS 2 that is situated somewhere behind the Bomba building and Tropicana City Mall – a corner kopitiam by the name of Hock Thai Seafood Restaurant (they serve seafood tai chao at night)
dry and normal soup version of pan mee, with hand made noodle
I met Michael there and we ordered both the dry and soup version of pan mee (RM 4.50). The ingredients aren’t fancy, you get the usual pan mee leave, flavorful minced meat, crunchy fried anchovies, slices of mushroom, and those sweet potato leaves.
What is special here though, is the hand made noodle. The pan mee was very soft and smooth, almost bordering the texture of koay chap yet unmistakably pan mee. It was positively delicious, the soup that comes with weren’t overly salty either, just subtle and flavorful. Furthermore, the chili paste that is served as the condiment was not a disappointment either.
This was one pan mee that I actually enjoyed eating without overloading the dish with chili.
Michael ordered an extra bowl of kolo mee
A quick check on foursquare revealed that the Sarawak Kolo Mee (RM 5) too is recommended. We ordered a bowl to share, and sure enough it was another awesome choice. The thin noodle reminds me of angel hair spaghetti and I love the mixture of minced meat and deep fried garlic with the taste of char siu oil in it. Would definitely come again for this too.
If you are a fan of traditional pan mee or kolo mee, Hock Thai kopitiam is definitely a place worth checking out.
Address:
Hock Thai Seafood Restaurant
Jalan SS2/103, Petaling Jaya,
Selangor 47300
GPS: 3.12653, 101.62593
Penang One restaurant, oh how I am glad I found you. Even though you are located at this god forsaken place that is ruled by the trafic devil, I will still visit you whenever my cravings for Penang food arises.
The back story: last Saturday I had a sudden cravings for a bowl of good old Penang curry mee. I woke up early enough (they usually run out before 9:30 am) and headed to Restaurant Okay at SS2, they were closed for Wesak.
I recalled that masak-masak blogged about this place at Hartamas, so I drove 13 KM to the destination, well, they’ve been closed like 3 years ago.
Not to be deterred, I then drove another 12.5 KM to the curry mee at Restaurant Good Food in PJ Old Town…. to find out that they’ve moved. By then I was too hungry and settled on a bowl of kuih teow soup, which actually turned out to be very good, but that’s another post on another day.
This was when I shared my unfortunate adventure on twitter and facebook, with quite a few of you suggested that I should try Penang One, so here I was, a day later, with another fellow Penangite in Fresh, and the laksa expert in Haze as my partners in crime.
Penang One, delivered daily from Penang for original taste
According to their website, the food here is professionally cooked by the original masters of the selected famous street foods, and then transported to Puchong on a daily basis. By their account, this would be as good as the original.
So I ordered my long overdue curry mee, Haze had laksa, while Fresh asked for a plate of char kuih teow with duck egg.
curry mee, char kueh teow, and Penang laksa
Service wasn’t the fastest considering the relatively low volume of people when we dined, but it wasn’t terrible either. Some 15 minutes after ordering, our food came.
The curry mee (RM 8.50) is purportedly from Pulau Tiku’s Keong curry mee. Prawns, cuttle fish, coagulated blood (YES!), tofupok, long bean, cockles, and mint leaves. That’s about all the ingredients you’ll ever need in a bowl of good curry mee, and the sambal too was top notch, fragrant and spicy.
Char Kueh Teow (RM 9.90 with duck egg) is of Kampung Jawa Pee Chuan’s recipe. Fresh had it and she didn’t speak a word while eating, it was as good as original, and really comes with those huge prawns and all.
The asam laksa (RM 7.90) that Haze had was from Lorong Selamat’s Ji De Chi, and when asked about how it tastes, she replied “just like those in Penang lor”, and then continued slurping away. It passed her test.
chee cheong fun, kueh teow soup (with blood too!), ice kacang
Since we were already there and that their portion rather close to Penang serving size, we decided to go for seconds.
Fresh had the chee cheong fun (RM 3.30) from Lorong Macalister and I took bite too, no disappointment, the only other place in PJ to get this version of chee cheong fun would be at O&S restaurant in PJ.
Haze’s second order was the duck meat kuih teow soup originally from Lebih Cecil. There’s duck meat, shredded pork, fish cake, and even coagulated duck blood. Now if you like pork blood, you’re going to love duck blood, they are quite a lot smoother and has an even more exquisite taste to it. I love it. The fish balls though, were just very average in my opinion.
I had ais kacang (RM 6.50) Swatow Lane New World Park, and it tasted just as I remembered, except for the serving size being larger here. All the ingredients you’d expect is in, give me a bowl of ais kacang anytime over any Snow Flake shaved ice.
KY, Fresh, and Haze, we were well satisfied
Prices are a little on the high side, but not any more than other Penang themed restaurants such as Penang Village or Little Penang Cafe. The difference is, this place isn’t halal and really do serve you the original ingredients in all their dishes.
By the end of the afternoon, we were very well fed and very well satisfied with the food from Penang One. The 6 different dishes we tried did not disappoint, and I can’t wait to go back there again, we still need to try the Hokkien mee (Jalan Burma), Yam Cake, and Bak Chang (Cintra Lane).
more photos at KYspeaks.com facebook page
Address:
Penang One
No. G5, Jalan Puteri 2/1
Bandar Puteri, Puchong Jaya
47100 Puchong, Selangor
GPS: 3.024748, 101.615945
Tel: 03-8052 0181
Web: penang-one.com
Hours: 9:30 am – 9:30 pm
