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A couple weeks ago I was invited to participate in a little promotional shooting for Oriental Daily with Ernest Chong (张顺源) on NTV7 Foodie Blogger (愛食客) TV program. The TV show was actually shot earlier and yours truly was featured in the Klang Valley segment which will be aired in a few weeks time on NTV7 Thursday night 10 pm.

Anyway, that explained why I ended up in Connaught Pasar Malam, a place I don’t often go, but glad that I did cos we got to try this pretty awesome smelly tofu (臭豆腐)!

smelly tofu truck at Taman Connaught Pasar Malam

The smelly tofu truck is usually parked at the end of the long stretch of pasar malam at Taman Connaught closest to McDonald’s, or more specifically, on Jalan Pantas. This is rather convenient since you don’t need to navigate through 5,000 people just to get to it.

we got our hands on preparing the smelly tofu too

The process of making smelly tofu starts with fermentation using tofu, fresh amaranth vegetable（苋菜）and brine (卤水) . The fermented tofu is then cut and deep fried with vegetable oil. If you prefer to have it with more pungent taste, you can request the tofu to be fried as a whole.

smelly tofu with chili sauce and “sauerkraut”

The smelly tofu is priced at RM 3.30 for four pieces and served with a sort of home made sauerkraut (but fresher) and chilli sauce on top. The flavor isn’t overly intense and I find myself really enjoying it!

The last I had stinky tofu was actually in Hong Kong, and I like this version more. If you happen to be at Taman Connaught Pasar Malam, check it out!

Chou Wei Xiang Tou stall is located at Connaught only on Wednesdays, their other location is as follow:

• Monday – Serdang pasar malam
• Wednesday – Connaught pasar malam
• Friday – Leisure Mall (Taman Segar), The USJ 19 City Mall
• Saturday – Setia Alam, The USJ 19 City Mall, Taman Midah near Shell
• Sunday – Taman Muda, The USJ 19 City Mall

Address:
Chou Wei Xiang Tou
Taman Connaught Pasar Malam
Connaught Highway & Jalan Pantas
Cheras, Selangor
GPS: 3.081564, 101.734068
Tel: 012-359 2895 (Mr. Koh Lian Ying)
Hours: Every Wednesday Evening

If you’ve been to any pasar malam, I’m sure you would have seen the Uncle Bob Fried Chicken stalls. They seem to be operating like a franchised business, like McDonald’s or KFC, but at pasar malam level, following the success of fatty guy’s lok lok, I guess.

the prominent uncle bob stall

Uncle bob fried chicken’s tag lines:
1. remove skin
2. remove fats
3. making breast tastes like drumstick

I’m not sure if it does taste like drumstick, but the end result was pretty good. I usually have a piece whenever I go to the SS2 pasar malam on Monday night. The chicken breast meat is flattened and boneless, with a crispy outer layer from the breading, stopped with a choice of spicey or non spicey seasoning that reminds me of Old Bay seasoning.

the 4 steps – fry, season, cut, pack

The chicken is cut into bite size and you are given a stick ala rojak style to get access to the chicken so you don’t even need to get your hands dirty and having to lick your fingers afterwards. There’s no basin at pasar malam, just so you haven’t figure that part out.

RM 4.50 for a pretty big piece of chicken, give me Uncle Bob anyday over the KFC chicken chop please. By the way, the stall also claimed that they are halal certified.

this is the usual location of the stall during pasar malam

Address:
Jalan SS 2/61
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.117344, 101.621754

Night market (Pasar Malam) at SS2 runs every monday night. There are several type of fancy food sold there that you don’t usually find at local food courts or restaurants. One of them would be the noodle in a box, more appropriately, a plastic container, or in Cantonese, “hap chai min“.

Looks good, no?

This dish is sold by 2 young chaps, and they usually set up their stall nearby the Magnum 4D shop. It’s usually quite busy and frankly it’s hard to miss the stall since the set up is quite unique.

The noodle is similar to those you have in wan tan mee, but of finer variety. You can choose from the 3 ingredients: BBQ pork, pork in sauce, and chicken leg + mushroom. Noodle with single ingredient is sold for RM3.80, combination of any two for Rm 4.00, and all three for RM 4.50. Obviously I ordered with all, it was a no brainer. hehe

Slurps.. the little plastic container is going to be empty in a few minutes

Other than the main ingredients described above. The standard stuff are green onion, fried shallot, mushroom, fungus, green chilli, and of course, the noodle. A thick soup/sauce that tastes pretty creamy is poured over to give you that rich taste.

The dish tastes pretty good, almost like a cross of ordinary chicken leg and mushroom wan tan mee and beef noodle (though this is pork.) I especially like the fact that it is served in the plastic container, makes it easier to eat it at the nearby misai mamak stall. They even give you chopsticks.

Try it, I think you’ll be delighted.

Address:
Jalan SS2/61,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.117419, 101.621593

So we finally decided to try out the Poh Piah (wet spring roll) stall at the monday night pasar malam at SS2. As the stall was usually way too crowded and our stomach way too hungry, we usually passed up the idea of waiting in starvation.

This time around, after buying our usual dinner packages to be enjoyed at Misai mamak stall, one of us decided to order 4 pieces of poh piah. The friendly hawker said “come back in half an hour”. So we enjoyed our Char Kuih Kak, Nyonya Kuih, Fried Chicken, and so forth at Misai, and finally went back to the poh piah stall.

Sure enough, the uncle still remembered that my friend had ordered half an hour ago. He was way busy in preparing for another batch of poh piah to be served to his crowded customers surrounding the stall.

And I do mean crowded!

While waiting, we started to chat up with the hawker. All of a sudden, the uncle said “I’m retiring.. been selling for 30 years and it took me 5 years just to get the skin right. It’s tiring and this will be my last day “

Everyone around the stall displayed a look of dissapointment on their face.. We tried to convince the uncle to teach one of us to take over the business, but he said it’ll take months to learn, full time, and basically probably telling us to just keep our day job and stop harrassing him preparing the lasts of the poh piah.

Feeling somewhat lucky and yet dissapointed at the same time, we collected the poh piah and head home.

Overly satisfied customer

And it was really good! Easily the best poh piah I’ve had in KL. Too bad this first one is also the last one.

I secretly hope that the whole retirement thing is just a trick for getting more customers. We’ll see if he comes back next week. hehe

Address:
Jalan SS2/61,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.117419, 101.621593