Back in Penang where I grew up as a kid, my family was pretty fond of fish heads. Our ingredient of choice is almost always a big garoupa head, and mom always prepare it with Nyonya style curry. This was actually the only way I knew how to enjoy fish head, that is until I came to KL and heard about steamed fish head.
Mun Kee Steamed Fish at Happy Garden
After trying the pretty awesome version at Chong Yen steamed fish head at Chan Sow Lin, we’re going to take a look at Mun Kee Steamed Fish Head at Happy Garden.
According to Kerol, this is one of her aunt’s favorite place for dinner. There’s something like one in three chance that they dine at this place whenever she pays the family a visit.
these are the dishes we ordered for the five of us
Mun Kee is located at the appropriately named Jalan Lazat 1 (that’ll be Tasty Street 1 in English). The shop is sort of a food court set up with high roof but no walls, you’re sheltered from the elements somewhat, but there isn’t air conditioning any decoration to speak off. People are here strictly to eat.
The eatery gets pretty busy on weekends, so expect to wait a bit for an empty table. However, food doesn’t take overly long to get ready, so overall wait time is pretty bearable.
steamed fish head in two different styles
As with most steamed fish head in KL, the main ingredient is Soong fish, or Asian Carp. Calling it fish head is a bit of a lie, cos you do get almost half front portion of the fish instead of just the fish head as the Penangites do with our fish head curry.
At Mun Kee, there are 5 different preparation methods -Â Nyonya Steam, Assam Steam, Minced Ginger Steam, Black Bean Steam and Original Steam.
We’ve heard good things about the Nyonya steam but unfortunately they ran out of that when we were there, so we chose minced ginger steam and original steam for this session (RM 26 per dish).
The fish head were delightful, never over cooked and there wasn’t any trace of those pesky slight muddy taste that river fish tends to carry. The original steam is great for those who likes it a bit spicy with plenty of chili padi sprinkled on top, while the minced ginger steam provides the warmth from ginger that I find myself enjoy as well.
tofu is quite awesome, ‘green dragon’ vegetable, salted egg chicken
At Mun Kee, they aren’t only good with steamed fish.
Salted egg chicken (RM 24) is one of the must-order items. Imagine salted egg squid (like the one at Sing Kee Sungai Way) and KFC rolled into one. It’s a combination that works surprisingly well and we really liked it.
Home made tofu (RM 12) that we ordered came with crab meat and egg based broth that made excellent comfort food, and the green dragon vegetable (RM 12) dish provided good source of vitamin C and fiber just in case your mom asked. All in all a great combination of dishes for dinner.
Kerol, Huey Fang, Johnny, Haze, and KY
With drinks, we spent about RM 23-24 per person for this wonderful, well-balanced dinner. Head over to Happy Garden to check Mun Kee out.
Address:
Mun Kee Steam Fish Head
New Happy Garden Food Court
43-A Gerai. Jalan Lazat 1
Taman Gembira
58200 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.077106, 101.680289
Tel: 016-491 2632
Operation Hours: 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 10pm
I actually like the that “pesky, slight muddy taste” of a river fish lol… Lan Je ftw!
Yvonne: that’s a good thing, much cheaper. haha.
yums, looks and sounds great … hmmm, though i’m suddenly wondering … with all these restaurants specializing in fish head, what happens to all the fish bottoms? 😀
Sean: fish and chips? haha.
KY, even the place have no fancy setting the food look so good. I been to fancy restaurants and food was pretty bad and you can’t nice setting . Your meal made me so hungry for fish head now.
Food look so well made. Great chef there.
Vickie: ya, sometimes ambiance doesn’t add much to the overall experience if the food is excellent.
Oh I love steamed fish! We hardly find some decent ones in Penang, the only one that i can possibly think of is Ong Cheng Huat at mainland :/
Ken: Ooo so you can actually find this in Penang, albeit on mainland.
LOVE steam fish. The Chinese are so good at making something healthy taste unhealthy.. but in a good way! As in not boring lah
ciki: best of both worlds isn’t it?
Yummy! We do makan here too when we are in the area. Though most times we head in to Wang Wang not too far away especially when we are dining with with the maid who is a Muslim since Wang Wang is pork free.
missyblurkit: that’s very considerate of u 😀
If I’m not wrong they have another branch in Jalan Manis, Taman Segar (Cheras)
Chai: oh, good to know!
Hi, is the place pork-free?
Hasnah: I don’t remember, but I think it’s not.
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