To be honest, I found out about the beef noodle at Lai Foong kopitam relatively recently via instagram posts of some friends I follow. Perhaps a bit of an embarrassment for someone who love street food, but better late than never, right?
Lai Foong kopitiam, Jalan Tun H S Lee
Located at Jalan Tun H. S. Lee (just across the entrance of Petaling Street), Lai Foong is wedged in some of the busiest areas in downtown KL. Parking is non existence, but luckily for those on motorcycle on a weekday morning, situation isn’t nearly as bleak. Another proof that motorcycle is the best invention of all time!
a selection of beefy goodness
The beef noodle stalls does open for business bright and early (by 8 am or so) and all throughout lunch time. A bowl with everything will cost RM 10 but does include pretty much every part that you can expect, including beef slices, tripe, intestine, beef ball, and my favorite – tendon. Every part was tender, with the tendon having the perfect consistency that isn’t chewy nor it is overly hard.
flank, beef, intestine, tendon, take your pick of have them all
The soup base is light yet flavorful, with a hint of soya sauce base yet having enough depth to satisfy. The chili sauce provided too does its job well and did not disappoint.
The beef noodle at Lai Foong certainly live up to its reputation, and has definitely earned yours truly as a customer who’d come back again.
When it comes to curry mee, I usually prefer the Penang variety with prawns, cockles, cuttlefish, and coagulated pork blood. However, that does not mean that I don’t enjoy the occasional Central Malaysia type of curry mee with a different set of ingredients, I just usually don’t purposely look for them.
curry mee stall at Madras Lane, Petaling Street
Actually, the only reason I discovered this curry mee stall at Madras Lane was from a failed attempt to try the famous yong tau foo located at the same place since I went there way too early (before their usual 10 am opening hour.)
Anyway, this curry mee came with cockles that were just perfect, they were big, juicy, and almost raw. Then there’s those yummy deep fried pork skin, a few slices of eggplants, long beans, and tofupok in those thick curry gravy, which comes together making perfect compliments to the noodles with addition of those fragrant sambal.
I’m not a huge fan of KL curry mee, but this one is good. Try it.
Address: Madras Curry Mee Lorong Bandar 20 Off Jalan Petaling Kuala Lumpur GPS:3.143600, 101.697142 Hours: breakfast and lunch, from about 8 am (Off Mondays)
It’s time to takl about yong tau foo again, and this time around it is the famous stall that is smacked right in the middle of the city at the lorong of Petaling Street (commonly called Chinatown now, though there isn’t that many Chinese manning the stalls.)
Madras Lane Yong Tau Foo, always a with a crowd
The stall is called Madras Lane Yong Tau Foo, and to be honest I’m not entirely sure how the name came about, since the location is actually closest to Petaling Street and Lorong Bandar 20. I’m guessing it was most likely historical.
Anyway, Madras Lane Yong Tau Foo is always the busiest stall in that small stretch of street hawkers, but since serving yong tau foo is a relatively fast process, you don’t usually have to wait more than a few minutes.
I like my yong tau foo with a mix of red and green
A piece of yong tau foo is priced at RM 1.20, be it lady’s finger, fried dumpling, foo-chok, red chili, brinjal, or others. They have a pretty decent selection of both boiled and deep fried yong tou foo choices.
I usually like to have mine a healthy mix of different items, but my must-haves involves tofu, red chili, and lady’s fingers. The version here definitely did not disappoint, I particularly love their soft and flavourful fish paste stuffing.
If you’re in town and especially around Petaling Street area, this is definitely a place worth checking out.
Address: Madras Lane Yong Tau Foo Lorong Bandar 20 Off Jalan Petaling Kuala Lumpur GPS:3.143600, 101.697142 Hours: breakfast and lunch, from about 10 am (Off Mondays)
Kim Lian Kee is one of the oldest restaurants in Petaling Streets, claimed to be one of the firsts Hokkien-style fried mee in in KL, it’s been run by the Lee family since 1927. We found ourselves at Petaling Street not too long ago and decided to have this as lunch.
Kim Lian Kee Hokkien Mee at Petaling Street
Kim Lian Kee still retains the small shop lot on ground floor with a few tables by the roadside in a semi alfresco style old school dining area, but walking upstairs revealed a comfortable dining hall with clean marbled table and air conditioning.
It’s good to see old school eateries upgrade to keep up with modern time.
old school hokkien mee and fried hor fun
We tried their Hokkien mee and Fried Hor Fun.
They were served relatively quickly, the Hokkien mee was really as good as advertised. Plenty of “wok hei” and made better by the generous amount of lard. Other ingredients are pork slices, prawns, and cabbage. The aroma of the noodle is said to be partly attributed to the usage of thick prawn shell soup. The sambal served along side with the noodle was top notch as well.
The fried hor fun was decent as well but I didn’t find it close to the standard of their Hokkien mee.
some squid with soya sauce as snack, with horng, yuki, and kerol
Other than fried noodles, Kim Lian Kee has quite a lot of other dishes on their menu. We only tried the squid with soya sauce as an accompanying dish. The seafood tasted pretty good, but it was a tad too salty.
If you find yourself at Petaling Street, do check out this restaurant for some good Hokkien Mee. Order other dishes at your own risk. Prices are in line with most air-conditioned places, expect to spend around RM10+ per person.
Address: Kim Lian Kee 49, Jalan Petaling Kuala Lumpur GPS:3.144496, 101.697532 Tel: 03-2032 4984
Portuguese grilled fish is a bit like chicken Maryland. If you head to wikipedia and search for Portuguese cuisine, there won’t be any dish described in there that is remotely close to what we are familiar with as Portuguese grilled fish. Similarly, I’ve been to Maryland a few times without ever encountering our version of this Western food chicken dish.
Nevertheless, along with such terms like Balinese cats that aren’t from Bali, we know what we’re getting into when we order Portuguese grilled fish, and we don’t expect it to be Cristiano Ronaldo’s favorite dish.
this stall has been around for decades
My very first experience with this version of grilled fish was actually at this famous stall at Petaling Street probably some 15 years ago when I was studying at Subang Jaya, and it wasn’t just a few weeks ago that I finally pay a return visit after all these while.
15 years ago, Petaling Street had no roof, the stall operators were mostly locals selling counterfeit products, and the Portuguese grill fish operation was a stall next to Hong Leong bank.
Today, the street has a shiny roof, stalls are manned by Banglas & Nepalis selling the same counterfeit products, and nothing has changed to the Portuguese grill fish stall.
medium portion with squid, lala, and sting ray
A portion of grilled fish starts at RM 5 (kembung) & RM 7 (stingray, tilapia, chicken fish) and comes with one serving of rice. The version we ordered had string ray, lala, and squid in medium portion and cost an affordable RM 15.
Other than fish, you can order prawns, squid, bamboo shoots, and chicken wings, and the combination of them.
The preparation method seems fairly straight forward – the ingredients are chucked into aluminum foil, and then cooked over charcoal fire. Waiting time is usually at least 25-35 minutes because everything is cooked from its raw form.
still as good as when I had it for the first time more than 10 yrs ago
While the rice we had that day was a little too wet, the grilled seafood was a blast. Their super spicy sambal is still as addictive as I remember, and there was just no way one could realistically finish the paste without suffering permanent damage to the stomach lining, but we couldn’t stopped ourselves from having just one. more. spoon.
It was another good meal, the old fashion way, and next time, I’m gonna order them with petai. 😀
Address: Ikan Panggang Portugis Istimewa by Hong Leong Bank, Petaling Street 50000 Kuala Lumpur GPS: 3.144501, 101.697725 Tel: 019 315 9448
