It’s near Chinese New Year again, and I’m sure a lot of you guys are heading up north to the congestion infested tourist spot that is also my hometown, Penang. While on our beloved PLUS highway, many of you will undoubtedly stop at one of the R&R areas for bathroom breaks and even a meal (especially if the congestion makes the journey lasts across meal times). However, everyone knows that you can’t really find anything worth filling up the stomach for at those R&Rs, so the last trip I took to Penang, I stopped by Bidor instead.
this place is in business since 1938
The Pun Chun (品珍) restaurant at the heart of the town is famous for it’s duck drumstick noodle as well as their chicken biscuit (鸡子饼). In fact, they’ve been doing this since some 60 years ago. However, other than roast duck drumstick, they also serve wanton, char siu (roasted pork), chicken, fish ball, ginger duck, curry chicken, and more.
Since many other posts like this, and this has already reviewed their duck drumstick noodle, I decided to order a plate of noodle with wanton and char siu instead.
shrimp + pork wantan, slurps
To be fair, the char siu was just mediocre. However, the 3 pretty good size wanton were rather good. Stuffed with good amount of minced pork and fresh shrimp meat, the texture was good, and the sweetness of shrimp with the smoothness of pork proved to be an excellent combination for my taste buds. The wanton soup too, was of a lot higher quality than the chicken (probably with cheap chicken stock) soup I’ve had in many other places.
you can buy some good petai too
The meal was certainly satisfying, and worlds better than anything I could get from the R&Rs. However, that plate of noodle was at a pricey RM 4.50, more expensive than most other places in KL, let alone a small town like Bidor. The duck noodle would be RM 5.60.
Though a little pricey, I think it’s still worth a stop for this place. You can get some chicken biscuits for your mom while you’re there too. There’s also a dedicated petai market just right next to the restaurant.
the restaurant is just a couple kilometers from the highway exit
Address:
38-40, Jalan Besar,
Bidor, 35500 Perak
GPS: 4.11190, 101.28870
Tel: 05-434 1554, 05-434 1562
Hours: 5am to 10pm daily
I first visited this stall some 3 years ago, that was way before this blog was born and way before I had any camera phone worth using (though the current one is due for a better replacement, but that’s another story). We recently visited this stall again when discovering that the nearby 王美记 Roasted Pork was closed on Sunday.
old school set up
This stall is located at a corner of either Jalan Brunei or Jalan Brunei Utara, it is quite prominent and wouldn’t be difficult to spot once you get to the area. The set up is very simple, with a row of plastic tables and not very ergonomic chairs by the walkway of shop houses. Though not the most comfortable of places, it does give a sort of old school, throw back feelings.
ahhh glorious noodle and dumplings
The stall offers quite a number of different dishes, like beef noodle, char siu, wantan mee, curry mee, and drinks. I have always loved their Sui Kow noodle, and asked for one. The girls ordered wantan mee with char siu, and wantan mee with beef balls. We also got some freshly squeezed sugar cane juice to go with the noodle.
the girls enjoying their food
It didn’t take too long for the food to arrive, and the smell steaming out from the soup and noodle just made me salivate. The food were nicely prepared, with ample ingredients, noodle, and sauce. Not only the sui kow, packed with plenty of meat, vege, and fugus were good, the noodle was smooth and juicy too. Very nice.
The other thing I like about this place is the choices of the “free flow” chili provided. You can have Thai chili, red chili, two types of sambal, and even the marinated green chili.
the place is just a stone’s throw away from Berjaya Times Square
The noodle and drinks cost less than RM 20 for the three of us, pretty good price for some really delicious old school servings.
GPS: 3.138652, 101.712885
The restaurant emperor noodle 皇帝麵 (HDK is the pinyin Hwang Di Mien) is fairly new in the competitive food district that is PJ’s SS2. It sits directly opposite of the famous wai sek kai food court. After checking the menu and determined that they offer good value, we went in despite its relative emptiness.
nice menu with photos of the dishes
Emperor noodle is basically a type of egg noodle, quite similar to the basic wanton noodle you can get at anywhere, but finer. I’ve had it at Dragon-i One Utama, as well as SS2 pasar malam boxed noodle. I like the texture, and being as fine as angel hair spaghetti, it tends to soak up the sauce very well and give a stronger flavour.
clockwise – dumpling, shrimp, wanton & roasted pork, chicken
The restaurant offers around a dozen types of dishes, priced at RM 3.80 (basic like char siew with wanton, fishball), RM 5.80 (roasted chicken, tiger prawn, dumpling), and RM 9.80 (seafood, king prawn). Pretty reasonable price for a clean restaurant with nice deco and properly air conditioned. I guess as most restaurants do, they make more on the drinks (fresh juices at RM 3.00).
which is pepper and which is soya sauce?
We ordered a few dishes. The basic char siew and wantan was pretty good, though the serving on the char siew was very small. The dumpling was very good, packed with pork, shrimp, and other stuff you typically find in a Chinese dumpling. The tiger prawn emporer noodle offers the best value, at less than RM 6, you get two pretty big size prawn, to go with the noodle and some other garnish.
The roasted chicken, however, was average and even a little too dry for my liking. Overall this place offers good value and pretty decent food, will go there again.
another excellent map by KY
SS2 branch:
No. 26, ss2/61, 47300 PJ, Selangor
GPS: 3.117730, 101.621164
Tel: 7877 9226
Manjalara branch:
No. 41, Jalan 1/62D, Jalan Medan Putra 1,
Medan Putra Business Center, Off Jln Damansara
Manjarala 52100 KL
tel: 6275 5181
Penang branch:
No. 9, Tingkat Mawar,
Taman Mawar, Jln Raja Uda
12300 Butterworth, Penang
Opens 11am to 10pm daily
