There aren’t many countries like Malaysia when it comes to the availability of food. Our appetite spans the whole 24 hours, you can find something delicious to eat around the clock. Simply put, we are obsessed with food, and we don’t strictly follow the usual 3 meal a day routine like most other places do.
My late dad actually used to eat about 5 meals a day (while staying pretty fit since he exercise pretty much daily as well), and if you are to follow something like this, this post would be a guide to packing up them pounds!
nasi lemak seller at SS2 wet market
Breakfast can start as early as 7 in the morning. An enterprising lady selling nasi lemak at SS2 wet market area. The make shift stall consists of two plastic chairs and a bucket. Who says starting a business cost loads of money? If there’s a will, there’s a way.
I like how this picture captures the very business like transaction in the morning.
wantan mee off Jalan Pudu
If you prefer a plate of wantan mee with a steamy bowl of dumpling in the morning, this stall off Jalan Pudu has been in operation for decades. Kopitiam like these typically operates from around 7:30 am to 2+ in the afternoon, catering for breakfast until late lunch.
Hakka pork ribs rice, Klang
The Hakka paikut rice place in Klang is typically most busy over lunch. The pork ribs here tender and juicy, but what I really love is their “xuen lat choi” (酸辣菜) that is absolutely delicious. It’s a bit like a Chinese kimchi soup, but better.
If you love pork ribs rice, Peng Heong is the place to go, definitely.
pork and fish porridge, alisan kopitiam
The mamak area outside Alisan at SS4 (behind the Perodua dealership nearest to Taman Bahagia LRT station) operates from around 6 in the afternoon till about midnight. The pork and fish porridge stalls (two stalls operated by the same people) serve up really good comfort food for just a few bucks per bowl. You can also find one of the best lala at the same place.
Kayu nasi kandar, SS 2 chow yang area
This is one of the many Kayu Nasi Kandar restaurants all over the country, and an essential representation of our 24 hour appetite. It’s open 24/7 and closed only during certain Islamic holidays. Roti? Naan? Rice? Mee Goreng? They have it all. You should check out their mean roti tissue too.
I’ve heard and read about the famed Uncle Cheng’s Special Beef Noodle (at Seksyen 17 then) for quite some time, and always meant to give it a try. That mission somehow eluded me, then one day, I saw the bright and shiny UNCLE CHENG special beef noodle signage on the shop lot right next to the pet fish store I always frequent at Alisan.
Uncle Cheng moved to within walking distance from my house, marvelous!
Uncle Cheng’s special beef noodle, new location at Alisan
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the area, this area called Alisan (Alison) is actually at the tail end of SS 2, intersecting SS 3 and SS 4, within a stone’s throw away from Taman Bahagia Station and quite a distance away from the more familiar SS 2 square (with wai sek kai, McDonald’s, and the likes).
The soup version of beef noodle comes with clear broth that’s slightly salty, a choice of laifun, horfun, or meehun, beef, tripes, and beef balls, a bit of salted vegetable, and served with home made chili sauce that carries a kick.
This is the basic version at RM 7.50, with the amount of beef stuff, it was certainly well worth the money.
beef noodle, dry and soup, with laifun & meehun options
The dry version is served with the same ingredients but with the addition of sesame seeds and peanuts, a slightly sweet, starchy sauce completes the dish, with a small bowl of soup at the side. I’ve tried both and personally favors the soup version, the dry one is not bad but slightly too starchy for me, but it does certainly have an interesting texture with the sesame seeds and peanuts.
There’s also beef noodle with dry meat (RM 8.50), beef, tripe, beef balls, dry meat (RM 9), tenderloin meat (RM 9), beef + tripe + beef balls + dry meat + tendon (RM 12), I tried the latter before, and boy it was a feast.
check out the special beef tendon, the size of it!
For those who loves beef tendon as much as yours truly, Uncle Cheng sometimes carry a special type of beef tendon not easily available anywhere else. The chef personally introduced this big slab of tendon to me. Served in a bowl of saltier broth, it was sticky, super flavorful, and absolutely heaven for anyone who loves tendon. I was lucky.
A separate bowl of tendon goes for RM 6 or RM 12. You can also order shank, brisket, and even bone marrow in bowl or clay pot.
Uncle Cheng is open for breakfast and lunch everyday, and dinner too on weekends. The good chef/owner is still tinkering a bit with the menu I think, but whatever that is described here are always available.
I’m gonna walk there more often. 😀
p/s: this place is pork free.
Address: Uncle Cheng Special Beef Noodle Jalan SS 2/4a SS 2, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor GPS: 3.111731,101.611218 Tel: 012-303 0626
I was battling flu symptoms since late last week, it got better, then it got worse, then it got better, then it got worse. Runny nose, itchy eyes, and that constant sneezing was getting very annoying. So yesterday, I decided that something had to be done
In the afternoon, I had some Japanese food with plenty of wasabi.
curry fish head stall at restaurant Arlison
That provided a good relief for some half an hour, but did not fix the case. So after work, I walked straight from Taman Bahagia LRT station to the nearby Restaurant Arlison while it was still drizzling and order up something more potent – curry fish head.
I think siakap fish is used here, and instead of pure fish head, there are some fish meat too. Other ingredients include brinjal, long bean, lady’s finger, tofupok, and cabbage. All came simmering in a clay pot coconut milk based curry that is both hot in temperature and spiciness level.
spicy curry fish head (lemak)
As if the curry isn’t enough, there’s a small plate of chili padi for the masochists too.
The curry actually turned out to be quite delicious, and definitely spicy. For RM 13 a pop it is definitely not very economical (the curry fish head stall at Ming Tien sells for about RM 10) but the portion is pretty big, and the quality of fish was commendable.
Not a bad choice if you want to have curry fish head but nobody else does. If it’s on weekends and you have a small group of people, my recommendation goes to Kampung Atap Curry Fish Head.
I had my nose cleared for about half an hour, but in the end, trying to cure flu by having spicy food was not meant to be. I ended up going to the doctors’ last night and hence writing this now at home, god bless medical certificate.
I shall go back to rest. Cheers!
Address: Restaurant Arlison
Jalan SS 2/4A
Petaling Jaya, Selangor GPS: 3.111565,101.611197
The epitome of laziness in Malaysian citizens can be summed up by the availability of instant noodle at food outlets, usually mamak stores. Though I haven’t traveled to many countries in this world, in those I have been, I failed to spot a single restaurant offering instant noodle outside places such as 7-11 (where you have to boil it the noodle yourself anyway)
mamak stall at SS4 (near Taman Bahagia LRT)
This phenomena seems rather recent, for the life of me, I can’t remember anyone ordering any maggie or indomie goreng from mamak stalls before the turn of millennium.
But some 10 years ago, after a particular mamak stall owner not named Samy Vellu decided that there would be a market for prepare indomie goreng, maggie soup, and so forth. It’ll be a dish that is as simple as boiled instant noodle with an egg, or like in this case, maggie goreng with a little bit of other ingredients normally found in Indian/mamak mee goreng.
maggie goreng with extra chili padi, slurps
The rest, well, is history. Today you find instant noodle offered in virtually all mamak stalls and some restaurants all over the country. I’m sure pretty soon Singaporean might claim that they had started it all too.
One of my favorite places for a plate of maggie goreng is the mamak stall at Alisan (at SS4, the one on the road, closest to Chinese kopitiam). I sometimes have mine with extra chili padi for a more intense kick. There are also traces of tofu, cabbage, egg, bean sprouts, and maybe a little bit of shallots, all contributing to the unique taste of that spicy and wholesomeness.
This particular mamak stall opens from around 6pm till probably around 3am, they also serve roti canai, nasi goreng, mee goreng, and all your favorite diabetes inducing drinks. Kurang Manis is a must.
Address: Jalan SS 2/4A,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor GPS: 3.111388, 101.611133
Lala is of course, is most commonly associated with the description of female who dresses up in horrible fashion with matching technicolor hair from the wrong decade, the male version would be addressed as ahbeng. They also tend to speak in the most accurate manglish (0.5% English, 10% Malay, 50% Chinese dialects, the rest unknown). The whole subculture is so amusing I wonder why there isn’t any PhD thesis written on it.
However, the lala we’re talking about today doesn’t walk on two feet with 4″ platform shoes. We’re talking about the favorite Malaysian shell fish found at many food courts and seafood restaurant, so lest I digress..
fat lala in kam heong style = best
It just occurred to me that I haven’t blogged about the best lala place despite having been eating there since before the inception of this blog, until I went there again a couple of weeks ago with IQG for a yum cha session, and again 2 days ago with Tock for dinner.
At this place, lala is typically served in two methods of cooking, “kam heong” and “shiong thong”. “kam heong”, with curry leaves, plenty of garlic and spicy curry sauce, is by far my favorite. The latter is a slightly soupy version with a lot less kick but most suitable for those who can’t handle hot food.
this place is actually a mamak strip
The thing I love about this place is that the lala is always rather big. The “kam heong” sauce packs a punch and the shell fish not overly done so it retains most of the juice. Imagine the spicy sauce in your mouth, and that sweet lala juice exploding into the mix when you bite on it. Simply irresistible. I mean, just look at the dude’s expression in the photos below. The sauce was so good Tock actually “sapu” it clean with the “chai kueh” from the other stall.
tock can’t get enough of the sauce!
The medium plate of lala costs RM 15, probably slightly on the more expensive side. However, I rather have this once than the others twice due to the quality on both taste as well as the size of the shell fish served. Simply second to none. Give it a try!
Video taken on 26th July, 2013 on a separate visit
alisan is just behind Perodua showroom at SS4
Address:
Jalan SS 2/4A,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor
GPS: 3.111388, 101.611133
