KL Gastro Adventure: Day 3 – Carnivorous Eat-out

Mom bought a pack of Vico and I was ecstatic to find this come with it! Transformers free gift n.n

There’s a puzzle, 2 stickers and 2 colouring pages nicely packed in a DVD-like box. The robots in the stickers and colouring page are so damn cool, I’m gonna stick it everywhere :> So happy ler!

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To gastro adventure day 3…Unable to savour a bowl black sesame tong sui which sold out early, we walked from Hang Tuah station, passed Berjaya Times Square through to the backlane of Jalan Imbi and arrived at Weng Hing coffeeshop for some porky-liciousness. A bit of story on this stall in Jian’s post. The pork noodle comes in two choices, dry or soup. The nice gentleman we shared the table with suggested that we order the dry version for maximum pleasure. Hehe. Observing the surrounding, 99% of the patrons had dry version.

So, 2 bowls of dry pork noodle. Loh shue fun for me, koey teow for Jian. Mmm.. looks very lardy but in fact, it is not very oily. The combination of dark soy sauce, chopped scallions and fresh minced pork is the epitome of hearty Chinese-Malaysian Sunday breakfast. RM5 per bowl.

On the side, is a bowl (almost the same size as the noodle) of soup containing pieces of pork balls and slices of Chinese sausage. The pork balls is incredibly fresh tasting and has the right amount of bounce :)

This is the slice of Chinese sausage to die for! I could just munch on this all day until I die from siew cheong overload and I’d still be happy. Inside is perfectly infused with Chinese wine while the outside skin is slightly chewy. Each morsel is a heavenly interlace of flavours that sent me and Jian go
O_O “Whuuuuaaaa!“. I just had my first gastro-orgasm.

Fergie will go singing Porkylicious if she had a taste of this.

Some window shopping at Low Yat, Sg Wang, Times Square and it was time to hit the shack under the tree behind Berjaya Times Square. A couple of times I passed there, the sight of towering steamers placed on top a wok constantly stirs my curiousty. What possible dish that’s so good and secretive, could be hidden in there? Also, there always seems to be a crowd that fills up the no-frill place.

I persuaded and dragged Jian along. Without much problem reading a few Chinese characters here and there, Jian revealed the mystery to me.

“Exotic animals braised in herbal soup. Want to try? Got turtle, squirrel, bats, monkey brain…”

Hah? What!? *(&%#*@

I felt duped into believing this unpretentious shack serves some unbelievingly tasty tai-chow by the stream of customers they have. Ah well, we were already there and not to try it felt like a waste. As Jian put the orders, our gastro adventure has reached a road-block. It’s Fear Factor time! *rubs hands* >_<; Waaaa…

1st, turtle meat braised in tong sum and kei chi (Chinese wolfberry). The skin is jelly-like but the meat is tender which I find quite similar to bak-kut (pork ribs).

2nd, squirrel meat. Jian was suggesting that we should’ve reassemble the pieces and take a photo of it. But I’m so grateful we didn’t! Hee ;o
That would be like, looking at the corpse before digging in. The texture of the meat is like chicken but as the dish gets colder, it starts to taste funny.
At the bottom of the bowl, we found 2 tail bones :)

After the meal, the effect of the herbal soup crept in. Our body began to feel heaty. We quickly made our way to Times Square for 5 bowls of leong cha, 2 bowls went into container for take-away. By night, it was just horrible. The body felt trapped in a sauna we can’t escape. It was just terribly hot! Fortunately, next day we were heading 2000m above sea level to Genting.

I don’t remember how much it cost us but it’s reasonably priced. My first experience of eating exotic animals. Not very good, so to speak. Hehe. Lo lei sui ke lor (find our own trouble). Most customers chose the safer option of herbal chicken, wherelse we wanted to sembelih those cute little scurrying squirrels and endangered turtles ^_^;

On their signboard, mom said that the Chinese characters in red reads Cheong Kee herbal soup (or Chinese health soup).

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Day 2 Part 2
Day 2 Part 1
Day 1 Part 2
Day 1 Part 1

KL Stroll: Day 2

25 March, Sunday – All the walking the day before exhaust me! After 10 hours of recharging, I was ready to explore other hidden food gems in KL. In the morning, I was dragged by ku por (grandpa’s sister, mom’s side) to a nearby morning market for breakfast. She ordered her usual for me to try, curry chee cheong fan and a bowl of black sesame tong sui. I was very fortunate to have the very last ladle of that savoury soup! It usually finishes before 10am. I didn’t take any pictures because I didn’t want to draw too many questions from her and her neighbour aunties sitted at the same table :P The chee cheong fun was pretty good, but falls short of the one at Sri Serdang (will blog about that one, promise!). It was the first time I ever tasted black sesame tong sui and the first mouthful was blissfully delicious :D Subsequently, I find that it starts to get slightly sourish to taste, which is probably why it comes in small bowl.

After waving goodbye to ku por, I walked to Weng Hing coffeeshop at Jln Imbi again. I was too stubborn to give up on the the mini egg tart ;) As I approach the place, there was a crowd surrounding a tiny stall with almost empty trays. I peeked through the gap between two aunties and I saw with my own eyes how small they were! I contemplated whether to buy the egg tarts because I like to bite on soft creamy egg custard. This just isn’t right! Since I was already there and keeping in mind that it was a long walk from Hang Tuah to Imbi, I waited while the lady packs 50 mini egg tarts for a customer. Just as her supply runs low, her husband brought out a tray of freshly baked egg tarts. Then she deftly handled the tin holder to remove the tart into a styrofoam with triangular cuts cover (opening for steam to be released so that the crust doesn’t turn soft I presume). The tart’s crust is very flaky, like those western pastry puffs. The whole thing broke into pieces when I took a bite. So, for the second piece, I pop the whole thing into my mouth. Haha. The egg custard filling was too little! I can’t say that I like it. The best is still Tong Kee’s IMHO.

Inside the coffeeshop, her husband works at a slower pace, popping in one tray at a time into the oven. I stared longingly at the siew pao but they weren’t ready yet!

Location: At the corner of Weng Hing coffeeshop, Jln Imbi
Price: RM0.50 per egg tart

Just across the road, one stall caught my wondering eyes. See Kee’s currypuff which is featured in Flavours magazine food guide booklet. I bought the mutton currypuff and kaya puff to be eaten when I return to uni.

The currypuff is absolutely good value for money. The crust is crispy thin, which means the potato and mutton fillings are generous in portion. Each bite is a slight crunch followed by the sinking of your teeth into the thick soft fillings. Aah, yummy! The friendly uncle also sells egg tart and assorted buns and bread. I would definitely buy from him again.

Location: Across Weng Hing coffeeshop, Jln Jati
Price: RM1.30 for mutton currypuff, RM1.10 for kaya puff

My exploration continues to the Imbi morning market. There were stalls selling chee cheong fun, pork porridge, prawn mee and many more. But the reason I went there was for the Hainan coffee and roti kahwin. It was already almost noon when I reach there yet the place was packed with young and old people having brunch or late breakfast. I was so glad the shop was still open. I ordered iced Hainan coffee, and a set of toast bun with soft boiled eggs. I asked for min bao instead of roti, which I only realize the difference when my order came! Haha. Most of the people have toast bun on their tables though. My order took long enough to come, as their business was insanely brisk. The workers walk in and out from the shop so frequent that I almost go dizzy. I had to share the table with a sulky elderly couple. The wife kept complaining about the slow service while the husband just grunts in agreement as he reads the newspaper. Entertains me while waiting ;D The soft bun with a slightly crunchy layer and a spread of kaya and a slab of cold butter in between is wonderfully delicious, I wanted to eat 10! But I’ve already eaten half a day’s meal that time… hehe. The eggs must be timed and removed from the water bath after 4 minutes. I have to come with an empty stomach next time! The coffee was too bitter to my liking. I wonder if they serve something like the Xi Mut coffee from Old Town Cafe, sweet and milky to taste.

Location: Imbi market
Price: RM4.00 for Hainan coffee, two toasts and two soft-boiled eggs

The next destination was Jln Pudu after some calories burning at Times Square. I was ecstatic when I found this shop in Pudu Plaza. A shop devoted entirely to selling non-genuine football merchandise. The whole shelf here is the Man Utd row. I wanted to buy the jersey shaped cushion emblazoned with C. Ronaldo but I was already broke from my eating spree :(

Just outside Pudu Plaza are a ban chang kueh van, mamak makeshift stalls, lok lok cart and this motorbike-attached rojak cart. Customers were lining up to buy from him. Curious, I joined in the queue. Order can be made for small RM3, right up to big RM5. To kar liu, add RM1. After he mixes all the ingredients, he wraps them in a conical banana leaf packet. When it came to my turn and the lady in front of me, he shoved a plastic bag to each of us to put in the packet ourselves. WTF? O_o But it is to be expected of street vendors, since we don’t pay tips :/

The rojak wasn’t nice at all except for the one miserable piece of crisps with dried shrimp. Having had Penang rojak where all the fruit cuts and vege slices are all muddled up in slightly hot and stinky prawn paste then sprinkled with grounded peanuts, the black sauce used in this is mild and sweet. There is definitely an absence of belacan in this version.

Location: In front of Pudu Plaza
Price: RM3.00

I had a good time locating eating spots around KL with the guide of local foodies’ blogs. This is bound to be my new past time! Keke :3