Undoubted many of you agree that Penang offers the best hawker food in this country, the best char kueh teow, curry mee, prawn mee, and of course, laksa, can be found on the island. However, there are more than just these few offerings when it comes to Chinese hawker food, and there are certainly dishes that tastes better outside the favorite hawker food destination that is Penang.

traditional set up with lots of combination of ingredients

When it comes to wantan noodle and various roasted/bbq meat items, some of the bests can be found right here in Klang Valley. One of my favorite places to have a cheap and good traditional wantan noodle would be Restaurant Choy Loy at PJS 10, situated just opposite Sunway Pyramid.

The first time I visited this place was actually in the previous decade when I used to stay at around the area. It was nice to see that the shop is still running and selling basically the same thing after I came back from the States.

roast pork & bbq pork, beef & innards, chicken feet & mushroom, roasted duck

The selling point at Chong Loy is the variety of traditional noodle and rice you can get. They have the classic wan tan mee with char siu (bbq pork), then there’s siu yoke (roasted pork), lap cheong (Chinese pork sausage), roasted duck, chicken, chicken feet with mushroom, and even beef including tripes. You can pick any combination to go with noodle in dry and soup version, or rice.

look at the dude enjoying!

I have tried pretty much everything from this place over the years. While it might not carry the wow factor like siu yoke at Pudu or char siu at Aman Suria, everything do tastes pretty good and proper, just like how they should be. I particularly like the chicken feet with mushroom and the wan tan noodle with beef.

This place is just behind Ah Foong bak kut teh

Address:
Jalan PJS 10/9
47800 Bandar Sunway
Selangor
GPS: 3.076731, 101.603934

Tags:  bbq-pork,  beef,  dining,  food,  hawker,  noodle,  rice,  roasted-duck,  roasted-pork,  traditional,  wantan

Posted by KY | 31 Comments »

My never ending quest for a bowl of good Penang Hokkien Me (瑕面, also known as Prawn Mee in this part of Malaysia) has brought me to Restaurant Yon Len at Taman Tun Dr. Ismail (TTDI). Although the old man at Kampung Chempaka does offer excellent prawn mee, the operating hours are only from around 2-4pm, and I want to have it as breakfast. It was one of those things that bothers me, until the hot chick suggested Yon Len at TTDI last weekend.

this is what I call a perfect no frill presentation

We arrived at the much talked about kopitiam at brunch hours, parking situation was actually not too bad, something that can’t be said for TTDI most of the time. I went to the prawn mee stall and ordered 3 standard bowls of this Penang’s pride.

If you are familiar with how prawn mee is served in Penang, you will find that this particular stall did everything correctly. Noodle (and mee hun), sliced pork, small sliced prawn, kang kung and bean sprout in a soup based that’s boiled with prawn and pork bones. All these is topped with some fried shallots, and of course, chili paste is given as well for the spicy touch.

we’re seriously enjoying the prawn mee

I like my prawn mee to be a tad more spicy, and hence asked for more chili paste. The overall taste of the prawn mee here made me feel like I was in Penang. Very excellent broth, with everything else cooked to the proper texture and taste. I actually finished everything short of licking the bowl. It was really satisfying, I think I’m going to go there over and over again.

Restaurant Yon Lee is right across the Perodua showroom

At RM 3.50 per bowl, the price is in line with other hawker centers that offer the same dish. You should really give it a try.

Address:
Restaurant Yon Lee
J. Tun Mohd Fuad 1
(opposite Perodua showroom)
Taman Tun Dr. Ismail
Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.141630, 101.629243

Tags:  ç‘•é¢,  hawker,  hokkien-mee,  KL,  noodle,  prawn-mee,  TTDI

Posted by KY | 7 Comments »

A pal of mine, shiang introduced me to this wan tan mee place in SS2 after reading my take on the Sungai Besi wan tan mee place. The dude claimed that he had ate at this place 3 days in a row upon discovering it. Since I usually trust the taste of this not-so-skinny guy, I just had to give this place a try.

no frill wan tan mee, the good stuff

I tried to order their sui kow but they always ran out of those on both occasions I was there, hence we ordered a normal char siu with wan tan noodle, and a char siu with mushroom noodle. Like many wan tan mee places, they also offer the popular chicken feet with mushroom as toppings for the noodle.

The noodle didn’t take long to arrive, and it didn’t look like they are worried about presentation. In fact, there was only the essentials of the dish, the wan tan, the char siu, the noodle, sauce, and pickled green chili. It didn’t even come with vegetable like most other places.

noodle so delicious the hot chick didn’t even have time to camwhore

However, putting the food in the mouth confirms why the dude liked this place so much. The noodle has a proper texture and firmness to it, while absorbing the sauce well. The wan tan too, were of good size and packed with enough fatty minced meat. It is always a disappointment when some stalls make their wan tan too small in order to increase profit.

The best ingredient of dish though, was their char siu, barbecued to perfection, maintaining the juiciness of the meat while achieving a very firm and consistent texture. It was definitely one of the better char siu I had.

Restaurant OK is located near KAYU and Chow Yang

The noodle starts from RM 3.50 per plate.

This wan tan mee stall is opened from around 11 in the morning to 6-7pm. Of course, the same restaurant also offers the Fatty Duck stew duck rice I reviewed earlier this week.

Address:
Jalan SS2/10, Petaling Jaya
(at the other end of the same row of shop houses comprising KAYU)
GPS: 3.115084, 101.616390

Tags:  char-siu,  hawker,  kopitiam,  noodle,  Petaling-Jaya,  SS2 SS3 SS4,  sui-kow,  wan-tan-mee

Posted by KY | 9 Comments »

Finally we went to the famous Sungai Besi Wan Tan Mee (全蛋面) last weekend. This was the place we attempted to go a couple months ago, but my house mate got lost on the way, ended up driving around KL for almost 2 hours before finally admitted defeat and ate at some road stalls at Bangsar instead. That incident gave her an excuse to upgrade to an expensive GPS phone, but anyhow, we got there this time (we didn’t use the GPS)

this place is usually packed with hungry customers

For the three of us, we ordered a wan tan with mushroom noodle, a mushroom chicken feet noodle, a curry chicken noodle, deep fried sui kow, a plate of deep fried prawn, and some oily vegetable. See, the good thing about this place is the variety of different “wan tan mee” you can order. The other toppings include the original wan tan and char siew (BBQ pork), curry wild boar, ginger duck, pork knuckle, sui kow, and Hakka stew pork.

some of the good stuff we ordered

The noodle served here was actually pretty good, though I feel that it is still 2nd to the stall in Pudu, but still pretty good nonetheless. The toppings and other items were pretty decent as well, and the RM 6 deep fried prawn really offered value for money. Other than the traditional chili, this place also offered two types of delicious sambal to go with the side dishes (sui kow and prawn).

prawn, sui kow, vegetable, noodles, best

The meal was pretty satisfying. However, they can be a little pricey. Including drinks, we had to part with RM 36 for the three of us. That was for the 3 plates of noodle and three side dishes ordered. Then again, you do get the variety and a different taste from the ordinary wan tan plus char siew.

turn right from loke yew to sg. besi and you’ll get there in a jiffy

This place opens from about 8pm till the wee hours.

Address:
190H Jalan 2 1/2 Miles Sg Besi,
55200 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.122819, 101.709087
Phone: 03-9222 8177

Tags:  hawker,  noodle,  sui-kow,  sungai-besi,  wan-tan-mee

Posted by KY | 18 Comments »

I was with an otaku at Sungei Wang plaza picking up his expensive Japanese action figures, and decided to head to Lot 10 for some La Mian (拉面) at Crystal Jade. According to the guy, this place serves one of the best La Mian in the region, and heaps better than the One Noodle at SS2, a place that I thought was pretty decent.

absolutely mouth-watering La Mian

The restaurant is located by the side of the Lot 10 main entrance, nicely decorated with wooden partition, pretty comfortable chairs, and a bar-style kitchen area so you can watch the chefs swinging dough into noodle. There is also an outdoor area, I imagine it’ll be pretty nice enjoying your bowl of noodle at night watching the carousel of people strolling down Bintang Walk.

very classy interior deco

We ordered 2 bowls of La Mian, one plain and one with beef, vegetable, xiao long bao (小龙包), shallow fried dumpling (Gyoza/鍋貼), a mango dessert, and some herbal tea.

We didn’t have to wait long before the dumpling is served. They were very delicious and juicy, still packing some soup together with the meat inside. The xiao long bao too were top notch, served steaming hot on top of some lettuce in the bamboo basket. You can even see the juice in the xiao long bao from the picture above, and it really tastes as good as it look. The vegetable too, wasn’t overcooked and the seasoning done just right, I found myself chewing down the stems as if it was some high quality asparagus.

the sifu making la mian.

The La Mian though, was something else. It was very smooth and rich in flavor to the point that the beef, though pretty delicious itself, proved to be a distraction to the savoring taste of the noodle. No wonder the dude ordered a plain La Mian instead. Comparing the La Mian here to the SS2 counterpart is like comparing Fiat to Ferrari, same country of origin, you might even say same soul, but totally different class. It really opened my taste to La Mian.

map to Lot 10

Of course, the location and the excellent quality of food does come at a price. We spent over RM 30 per person, but it was all worth it. I will definitely go there again when I head to town again.

Address:
R2 Annexe Block
Lot 10 Shopping Center
GPS: 3.146290, 101.711721
Tel: 03-2148-2338

Tags:  crystal-jade,  dining,  dumpling,  eats,  gyoza,  ky,  La-Mian,  lot-10,  noodle,  sungei-wang,  xiao-long-bao

Posted by KY | 20 Comments »