Penang style curry mee is one of my favorite hawker food of all time, while there are a few places that offers this dish here in Klang Valley, they often lack the proper ingredients you would expect in the classic recipe.
Green Lane Noodle at Sri Petaling, sharing venue with The Roti Man Bakery
Enter Green Lane Noodle – a fairly new outlet sharing the same shop lot with The Roti Man Bakery at Sri Petaling offering several types of Penang dishes, including curry mee, kuih teow soup, prawn mee, loh bak, and even the elusive Hokkien char.
The restaurant itself is located at the rear half of the shop lot, fairly basic set up, clean, and with air conditioning.
Penang style curry mee, with pork blood
As a fan of curry mee, that was the dish I had to try, so I went for the small bowl (RM 9.50), which comes with cuttle fish, prawn, tofu pork, cockles, bean sprouts, yellow noodle/meehun, and the all important pork blood.
The santan base soup was on point, as was their sambal that carries a strong aroma with charred bits and shallots. I love it, this would be perfect with some mint leaves (maybe I should bring my own next time)
happy customer
So if you can’t wake up for Okay kopitiam at SS2, or don’t want to deal with the classic kopitiam situation at OUG’s Sun Sea, this would make a very compelling place for Penang curry mee in Klang Valley.
I plan to go again, this time maybe to try their Hokkien Char.
Address: Green Lane Noodle Ground Floor, 117, Jalan Radin Bagus, Sri Petaling, 57000 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.071147, 101.693364
Those of you who have followed this blog or my Instagram/FB channels for a while know that I’m quite a big fan of Penang Curry Mee, whenever I see any place that claims to offer them, I’ll give it a try.
Curry Mee at Tong Fong restaurant, PJ Seapark
So when Haze pointed out to me that there’s this stall offering Penang Curry Mee at Tong Fong kopitiam at Seapark while we were buying battery for the car, it became the de facto lunch choice for that day.
Tong Fong kopitiam is situated right behind KFC at Seapark, other than the rather popular beef noodle, there weren’t many hawker stalls worth mentioning, until this one.
coagulated pork blood and raw cockles, the most important ingredients
To be perfectly honest, this stall does not offer 100% pure Penang Curry Mee. While having coagulated pork blood, cockles (two of the most important ingredients), cuttlefish, tofupok, and mint leaves, it lacks prawns, and comes with a few pieces of shredded chicken as well as some green beans. So in terms of ingredients, it was about 80% Penang, 20% KL, a bit of a mixed marriage.
there’s no prawns in this curry mee, but I’m not complaining
The good thing though is that it works, the broth was rather fragrant, and the sambal, while a tad on the oilier side, provided a pretty good kick. I can excuse the lack of prawn in this case.
If you can wake up before 9 am, Restaurant Okay’s version may still be a bit better, but this place serves till lunch, and I sure hope the stall stays.
Address: Tong Fong restaurant
Jalan 21/17,
Seapark,
46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor GPS: 3.110142, 101.621673 Hours: breakfast and lunch
It is very common for a dish famous in one area to be offered in another part of the country with slightly altered ingredients. This is usually done due to availability, or sometimes just to better suit the local taste.
For Penang hawker dishes in Klang Valley, curry mee is perhaps the one dish that is affected the most. The ingredients used is sometimes so different from the version up North you wonder why they still share the same name.
Anyway, for the true Penang curry mee lovers, here are four places where Penang curry mee is offered with one crucial ingredient (to me, the most important ingredient) to unite them all – coagulated pork blood.
Penang curry mee at Restaurant Okay, PJ SS2
The father and son stall at Restaurant Okay, SS2 operates from about 7:30am and usually sells out in a little over two hours. There’s prawn, blood, cockles, cuttle fish, and very fragrant sambal paste. There’s always a couple tables filled with Penangites seated right next to the stall on weekday mornings, I join them from time to time.
Address: Restaurant Okay 2, Jalan SS2/10, Petaling Jaya, Selangor (at the other end of the same row of shop houses comprising KAYU) GPS: 3.115084, 101.616390 Hours: 7:30 am to 9:30 am, off Mondays
Curry mee at Sun Sea kopitiam, OUG
Closer to KL, the version of Penang curry mee at Sun Sea kopitiam in OUG is also legit. It comes with all the essential ingredients with those slightly charred chilli paste. I also love the way they leave the cockles just ever slightly cooked.
Address: Restaurant Sun Sea
Jalan Hujan Rahmat,
Overseas Union Garden,
58200 Kuala Lumpur GPS: 3.073945, 101.673234 Hours: daily till around noon+
curry mee from Penang One, Puchong
For those who are willing to pay a bit more for air conditioned dining environment, Penang One offers curry mee all the way from Pulau Tikus Keong’s curry mee stall in Penang. The cuttle fish used here is the darker version closer to one you find in mee goreng mamak, and there’s long bean, mint leaves, and even bunga kantan thrown in. Definitely worth the extra RM 2-3 they charge over kopitiam versions.
Address: Penang One at Puchong
G2, Jalan Puteri 2/6,
Bandar Puteri,
47100 Puchong, Selangor GPS: 3.023883, 101.617950 Tel: 03-8052 0181 Hours: 9.30am – 9.30pm daily
Address: Penang One at Kota Damansara
16-1, Jalan PJU5/7,
Dataran Sunway,
47810 Kota Damansara, PJ GPS: 3.152335, 101.594404 Tel: 03-6151 1083 Hours: 10.30am – 10.30pm daily
Penang white curry mee at Mayiang Jaya cafe, PJ
The Penang white curry mee stall at Mayiang Jaya Cafe is one of my latest discovery in this category. All the essential ingredients is presence except prawns. Mint leaves and long beans sort of make up for it I guess, I always ask for more pork blood here. It is perhaps the weaker version among the four, but still one that manage to satisfy my cravings.
Address: Mayiang Jaya cafe
28, Jalan SS26/4,
Taman Mayang Jaya,
Petaling Jaya 47301 Selangor GPS:3.116374, 101.604224 Hours: breakfast and lunch
As someone from Penang staying in Klang Valley, we always look out for a good bowl of curry mee. Unlike char kuih teow which is now pretty popular pretty much everywhere, curry mee is a bit of a different case.
See, the problem is, there’s already a version of curry mee (often called curry laksa) in KL that are quite similar yet different from the Penang version in terms of ingredients and sometimes, the soup base itself.
Update 5/5/2015: unfortunately this stall has ceased operation
Mayiang Jaya cafe at Taman Mayang, behind Lincoln College (old Lim KoK Wing)
While both versions usually have santan (coconut milk) as the base of the curry mee soup, the Klang Valley version is usually closer to curry chicken in taste, while the Penang version is more bare, relying only on santan and the usually more superior and fragrant chilly paste. As for ingredients, KL version usually has curry chicken, while the Northern counterpart completes the bowl with seafood.
this bowl of Penang white Curry Mee is legit
So far I’ve only had less than a handful of good Penang curry mee in KL, so I was more than happy to discover a relatively new stall at Mayiang Jaya cafe here at Taman Mayang in PJ claiming to offer Penang “White” curry mee.
The curry mee turned out to be legit. It came with coagulated pork blood (my favorite!), cuttle fish, cockles, long bean, tofupok, mint leaves, bean sprout, and pretty decent fragrant chilli paste as well. You can choose between mee hun, mee, or a mixture of both as your choice of carbo.
yeap, there’s cuttle fish, and even coagulated pork blood
For RM 5.50, this was a pretty decent bowl of Penang curry mee, even though one crucial ingredient, prawns, is lacking. I would not hesitate to have this curry mee again.
Hours are from breakfast to lunch, so this is definitely the place to go if you can’t wake up early enough for the SS2 Restaurant Okay’s version (which is slightly superior). If you’re a fan of Penang curry mee, this version at PJ is definitely worth checking out.
Address: 28, Jalan SS26/4,
Taman Mayang Jaya,
Petaling Jaya 47301 Selangor GPS: 3.116374, 101.604224 Hours: breakfast and lunch
After the wild success of MyKuali’s Penang instant Curry Mee, and perhaps not surprisingly, every other player in the market was quick to come up with their own version of this Penang’s favorite hawker dish in instant format.
I was contacted by the representative from Kim Curry to sample their interpretation of Penang Traditional White Curry Noodle.
the end result – Kim Curry Penang White Curry Mee
So a few weeks ago I received a few samples of this instant noodle via mail from Kim Curry marketing all the way from Butterworth, Penang.
The instant noodle seems to be following the ideas from MyKuali, packaging 110 gram of noodle instead of the usual 85 grams like other instant noodle products. Additionally, there’s also separate packets of craemer and chili paste. Total energy from this product is rated at 466 kcal with 219 kcal from fat. So far so good.
the packaging, with sambal paste and white santan flavored powder
To test the Kim Curry Penang White Curry Mee, I went to market to obtain some prawns, long beans, and tofu skin at the cost of about RM 12 to prepare for dinner for two.
Cooking instruction is simple, bring 350 ml of water per packet to boil, add instant noodle, then add creamer and paste. I also threw in the prawns and other ingredients for the last 2 minutes.
a few prawns go a long way for this curry mee
The result is a version of instant noodle that is unmistakenly Penang Curry Mee. The aroma of curry is pretty decent, but not nearly as strong as the version from MyKuali. This would suit those who can’t stomach that sort of spiciness level MyKuali offers.
Additionally, the noodle itself is a little thinner. So if you prefer Penang instant curry mee with a little less kick but still retains the essential aroma, this version may be for you.
