I’ve heard and read about the famed Uncle Cheng’s Special Beef Noodle (at Seksyen 17 then) for quite some time, and always meant to give it a try. That mission somehow eluded me, then one day, I saw the bright and shiny UNCLE CHENG special beef noodle signage on the shop lot right next to the pet fish store I always frequent at Alisan.
Uncle Cheng moved to within walking distance from my house, marvelous!
Uncle Cheng’s special beef noodle, new location at Alisan
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the area, this area called Alisan (Alison) is actually at the tail end of SS 2, intersecting SS 3 and SS 4, within a stone’s throw away from Taman Bahagia Station and quite a distance away from the more familiar SS 2 square (with wai sek kai, McDonald’s, and the likes).
beef, tripe, and beef ball – RM 7.50
Uncle Cheng serves Johor style beef noodle, and this is quite a bit different from the usual Central version that we are familiar with (like ngau kei at Tengkat Tongshin, song kee at lot 10 Hutong).
The soup version of beef noodle comes with clear broth that’s slightly salty, a choice of laifun, horfun, or meehun, beef, tripes, and beef balls, a bit of salted vegetable, and served with home made chili sauce that carries a kick.
This is the basic version at RM 7.50, with the amount of beef stuff, it was certainly well worth the money.
beef noodle, dry and soup, with laifun & meehun options
The dry version is served with the same ingredients but with the addition of sesame seeds and peanuts, a slightly sweet, starchy sauce completes the dish, with a small bowl of soup at the side. I’ve tried both and personally favors the soup version, the dry one is not bad but slightly too starchy for me, but it does certainly have an interesting texture with the sesame seeds and peanuts.
There’s also beef noodle with dry meat (RM 8.50), beef, tripe, beef balls, dry meat (RM 9), tenderloin meat (RM 9), beef + tripe + beef balls + dry meat + tendon (RM 12), I tried the latter before, and boy it was a feast.
check out the special beef tendon, the size of it!
For those who loves beef tendon as much as yours truly, Uncle Cheng sometimes carry a special type of beef tendon not easily available anywhere else. The chef personally introduced this big slab of tendon to me. Served in a bowl of saltier broth, it was sticky, super flavorful, and absolutely heaven for anyone who loves tendon. I was lucky.
A separate bowl of tendon goes for RM 6 or RM 12. You can also order shank, brisket, and even bone marrow in bowl or clay pot.
Uncle Cheng is open for breakfast and lunch everyday, and dinner too on weekends. The good chef/owner is still tinkering a bit with the menu I think, but whatever that is described here are always available.
I’m gonna walk there more often. 
p/s: this place is pork free.
Address:
Uncle Cheng Special Beef Noodle
Jalan SS 2/4a
SS 2, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.111731,101.611218
Tel: 012-303 0626
I was battling flu symptoms since late last week, it got better, then it got worse, then it got better, then it got worse. Runny nose, itchy eyes, and that constant sneezing was getting very annoying. So yesterday, I decided that something had to be done
In the afternoon, I had some Japanese food with plenty of wasabi.
curry fish head stall at restaurant Arlison
That provided a good relief for some half an hour, but did not fix the case. So after work, I walked straight from Taman Bahagia LRT station to the nearby Restaurant Arlison while it was still drizzling and order up something more potent – curry fish head.
I think siakap fish is used here, and instead of pure fish head, there are some fish meat too. Other ingredients include brinjal, long bean, lady’s finger, tofupok, and cabbage. All came simmering in a clay pot coconut milk based curry that is both hot in temperature and spiciness level.
spicy curry fish head (lemak)
As if the curry isn’t enough, there’s a small plate of chili padi for the masochists too.
The curry actually turned out to be quite delicious, and definitely spicy. For RM 13 a pop it is definitely not very economical (the curry fish head stall at Ming Tien sells for about RM 10) but the portion is pretty big, and the quality of fish was commendable.
Not a bad choice if you want to have curry fish head but nobody else does. If it’s on weekends and you have a small group of people, my recommendation goes to Kampung Atap Curry Fish Head.
I had my nose cleared for about half an hour, but in the end, trying to cure flu by having spicy food was not meant to be. I ended up going to the doctors’ last night and hence writing this now at home, god bless medical certificate.
I shall go back to rest. Cheers!
Address:
Restaurant Arlison
Jalan SS 2/4A
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.111565,101.611197
The epitome of laziness in Malaysian citizens can be summed up by the availability of instant noodle at food outlets, usually mamak stores. Though I haven’t traveled to many countries in this world, in those I have been, I failed to spot a single restaurant offering instant noodle outside places such as 7-11 (where you have to boil it the noodle yourself anyway)
mamak stall at SS4 (near Taman Bahagia LRT)
This phenomena seems rather recent, for the life of me, I can’t remember anyone ordering any maggie or indomie goreng from mamak stalls before the turn of millennium.
But some 10 years ago, after a particular mamak stall owner not named Samy Vellu decided that there would be a market for prepare indomie goreng, maggie soup, and so forth. It’ll be a dish that is as simple as boiled instant noodle with an egg, or like in this case, maggie goreng with a little bit of other ingredients normally found in Indian/mamak mee goreng.
maggie goreng with extra chili padi, slurps
The rest, well, is history. Today you find instant noodle offered in virtually all mamak stalls and some restaurants all over the country. I’m sure pretty soon Singaporean might claim that they had started it all too.
One of my favorite places for a plate of maggie goreng is the mamak stall at Alisan (at SS4, the one on the road, closest to Chinese kopitiam). I sometimes have mine with extra chili padi for a more intense kick. There are also traces of tofu, cabbage, egg, bean sprouts, and maybe a little bit of shallots, all contributing to the unique taste of that spicy and wholesomeness.
This particular mamak stall opens from around 6pm till probably around 3am, they also serve roti canai, nasi goreng, mee goreng, and all your favorite diabetes inducing drinks. Kurang Manis is a must.
Address:
Jalan SS 2/4A,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.111388, 101.611133
Lala is of course, is most commonly associated with the description of female who dresses up in horrible fashion with matching technicolor hair from the wrong decade, the male version would be addressed as ahbeng. They also tend to speak in the most accurate manglish (0.5% English, 10% Malay, 50% Chinese dialects, the rest unknown). The whole subculture is so amusing I wonder why there isn’t any PhD thesis written on it.
However, the lala we’re talking about today doesn’t walk on two feet with 4″ platform shoes. We’re talking about the favorite Malaysian shell fish found at many food courts and seafood restaurant, so lest I digress..
fat lala in kam heong style = best
It just occurred to me that I haven’t blogged about the best lala place despite having been eating there since before the inception of this blog, until I went there again a couple of weeks ago with IQG for a yum cha session, and again 2 days ago with Tock for dinner.
At this place, lala is typically served in two methods of cooking, “kam heong” and “shiong thong”. “kam heong”, with curry leaves, plenty of garlic and spicy curry sauce, is by far my favorite. The latter is a slightly soupy version with a lot less kick but most suitable for those who can’t handle hot food.
this place is actually a mamak strip
The thing I love about this place is that the lala is always rather big. The “kam heong” sauce packs a punch and the shell fish not overly done so it retains most of the juice. Imagine the spicy sauce in your mouth, and that sweet lala juice exploding into the mix when you bite on it. Simply irresistible. I mean, just look at the dude’s expression in the photos below. The sauce was so good Tock actually “sapu” it clean with the “chai kueh” from the other stall.
tock can’t get enough of the sauce!
The medium plate of lala costs RM 15, probably slightly on the more expensive side. However, I rather have this once than the others twice due to the quality on both taste as well as the size of the shell fish served. Simply second to none. Give it a try!
alisan is just behind Perodua showroom at SS4
Address:
Jalan SS 2/4A,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.111388, 101.611133
How many times has it occured in your mind that you so want to go to Penang just so you get to devour the asam laksa there? Well, if you’re a laksa lover living not too far from PJ, you have salvation. According to kerol and suanie, this shit is teh good. (I’m not a huge laksa fan, and prefer real dinner like bak kut teh, heehee)
suan and kerol look so happy!
The stall is situated at this eating place called Alisan, basically a mamak + kopitiam type of setting, with numerous hawker stalls offering fried lala, yong tau foo, wan tan mee, and of course, the laksa. According to kerol, this laksa is of the Kedah style, which is slightly less soupy than the Penang type, but otherwise pretty much the same.
This plate shouldn’t be hard to clean..
The asam laksa is served in a plate rather than a bowl, and comes with generous portion of chillie padi on the side. In the plate there are your standard laksa noodle, shrimp sauce, fish based soup, chopped vege, cucumber, and some other stuff that I cannot name. It’s delicious, that is why these 2 girls finished it clean even after just having a heavy dinner less than 2 hours prior. I didn’t eat, I was still full. hehe
A thing to note though, this laksa stall is like the superstar of the hawker stalls at this area. It had been on some chinese newspapers twice since I moved there. As a result, it is always pretty busy and they ask that you self-serve. Other than laksa, they have pretty good Jawa Mee, Chai Kuih, and some Chinese dessert soup/drink. The laksa is RM 3.50 if I remember correctly.
Call me when you go there, I am only 5 mins away on foot.
P/S: Peter Tan is having a charity drive and he’s SHAVING HIS HEAD FOR HOSPICE, please do lend your support, thanks thanks thanks.
Address:
Jalan SS 2/4A,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.111388, 101.611133
