A couple Fridays ago my buddies Terence and Horng made a trip down to KL and bought me birthday lunch. Since it was a little too early for the best roast pork at Wong Meng Kee (they only start serving at 12:30pm sharp), Terence suggested that we head to Thim Kee Steamed Fish, a place with the best Tilapia, according to Mr. Goh.
Thim Kee Steamed Fish at Pudu
As with anywhere in Pudu, parking is always a challenge, Pudu plaza car park is an option since the stall is situated just directly opposite the old mall. The hawker shack itself isn’t exactly the most comfortable of all dining places, but it’s largely sheltered, and relatively clean.
The three of us were joined by Sean, so four of us ordered up a total of four dishes to share.
delicious deep fried tilapia
First to come was their famous deep fried tilapia that was so crispy on the outside but still has its meat fresh tasting and tender (must be fried with really high temperature, check out the gas canisters on top collage). The fish is served on top of a sauce that carries a hint of sweetness and fermented bean flavor, unique and in a very good way.
This is a definite must order, I’ve never tasted tilapia so good, it’s even better than Sister Lan’s tilapia at Rawang.
butter squid, herbal steamed tilapia, fried chicken
The butter squid here is served in a clay pot and comes with butter in liquid state, which results in soft and tender squid but one that doesn’t get as much flavor from the butter/spice/curry leave. Still a dish worth ordering though.
Herbal steamed tilapia is another fish we ordered, since this place is famous for tilapia, so why not? I couldn’t find any fault from this dish except for the fact that there’s only so much you can get out of tilapia, I think this would taste much better if only it was a siakap (barramundi) or pomphret.
Fried chicken is another must-order dish. This tastes like a cross between Vietnamese style lemen grass chicken and traditional Malay pandan chicken but deep fried. The sauce that came with the chicken was sweet+spicy and definitely flavorful. I wanna have the whole chicken drumstick by myself next time!
note: GPS should be 3.136585, 101.713824
As with most hawker stalls at Pudu, price is rather reasonable. The total bill for four of us came to some RM 60+, we left with really satisfied stomachs. Will definitely return, thank you guys for treating!
p/s: By the way, do call and make a reservation to make sure fish and more importantly, seats are available!
Address:
Thim Kee Steamed Fish
Jalan 1/77c, Off Jalan Pudu,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.136585, 101.713824
Tel: 03-3986 3097
Whenever a restaurant selling the same food with another more famous counterparts just a few doors a way and somehow still manage to survive all these years is always worth a visit.
Peng Yuan Hokkien Mee in Ah Fatt kopitiam is situated on the same row as the vastly more famous Ahwa Hokkien mee that I’ve blogged about, another example would be Satellite chicken rice located a few doors down from New Restaurant Ipoh Chicken Rice. If the two places can co-exist, one of them can’t be worse than the other.
Peng Yuan Hokkien Mee in Kedai Minuman dan Makanan Ah Fatt, off Jln 222
That said, we actually ended up at Peng Yuan because we had initially wanted to go to Ahwa, a place that is fast becoming one of our regulars. It was on a Tuesday, and Ahwa was closed. After a flurry of BBM messages, we decided to check out this joint to minimize logistic issues.
The place was packed, I suspect quite a lot of the extra customers ended up there due to the same reason. We made our orders, and waited, and waited, and waited….
wat tan hor (Cantonese flat noodle), hokkien mee, and fried chicken
Before our main dishes arrive (took some 20 minutes), we ordered some fried chicken wings and drumsticks as appetizer from the stall that claims to serve them “cheaper, bigger and better” (there’s a famous fried chicken wing stall at Ahwa to0).
Sure enough, the fried chicken turned out to be excellent. They were packed with flavor (asam?) and very succulent too, Jac ended up asking for an extra order, and that skinny bitch usually only eats as much as a small cat.
As far as Hokkien Mee (RM 15 for portion of 3) goes, I think Ahwa still has an edge, this dish at Peng Yuan was slightly too wet for my liking. The Cantonese flat noodle (wat tan hor, RM 15 for portion of 3) though, was fabulous. I especially like the very addictive sauce.
dessert soup, #porkgang, and nutmeg drinks
The kopitiam also serve “four fruits soup” (四果汤) that comes in a bowl with jelly and several types of nuts in a sweet soup. This is something that’s quite popular in Penang especially around those make shift theater that’s set up to worship the spirits/gods. The availability of nutmeg drinks, another Penang speciality, put me over the moon! If you haven’t tried it yet, you should.
Dinner turned out to cost less than RM 10 per person including the fried chicken and drinks. Though the hokkien mee was a bit of a let down, I’d come back here for the chicken wings and cantonese noodle, and oh, the drinks too!
Address:
Ah Fatt Kopitiam
42, Jalan 14/48,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.097563, 101.629334
