Recipe: Char Kway Teow 炒粿條

Char kway teow (CKT) 炒粿條 is one of my all-time favourite noodle dishes. It literally translates to fried flat rice noodles. This is one of my favourite places to get a delicious plate of CKT in Cheras but since the pandemic started, we have only been a couple of times in the past two years. Instead, I have been honing my CKT skills at home. Obviously, not as great as Aunty CKT's (cos no flame cooking at home to get the wok hei) but not too shabby for a homecooked version.

Our homecooked char kway teow comes with copious amounts of fishcake, beansprouts, chives and large prawns as well as egg, crispy pork lard and cili giling for spice. Here is my recipe if you'd like to try cooking it at home too!

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Char Kway Teow 

Recipe by Baby Sumo

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 17-20 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients
450g koay teow noodles
1T pork lard
2T cooking oil
8 large peeled prawns
2T kicap manis
Light soy sauce
2 eggs
250g beansprouts
3 fish cake, sliced
2T cili giling
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
A handful of chives (kuchai), cut into 1” lengths

1. Fry pork lard in oil until golden brown. Remove and set aside.

2. Add 1T of pork lard oil to wok and fry prawns until cooked. Set aside.

3. Lightly beat eggs and season with some soy sauce and white pepper.

4. Add 5T pork lard oil to wok. Sauté garlic for 2 mins, then add egg and lightly scramble. Then add the kicap manis, cili giling, fish cake and Koay Teow. Fry until noodles are well coated with sauce and soft. Season with light soy sauce. Add beansprouts and chives, and cook for further minute. Stir prawns in. Top with some crispy pork lard and serve.

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Recipe: Roti John

Roti John is an omelette-minced beef sandwich that we can often find at Ramadan Bazaars. Since we didn't get to visit any bazaars this year, I decided to try making this at home. The minced beef is first cooked with the spices, onion and garlic. Then, the cooked beef is added to beaten eggs. This mixture is ladled onto a frying pan and toasted buns are laid on top until the egg has set. Finally, garnish with lettuce, mayo and ketchup and enjoy! Absolutely delicious ;)

Roti John
Recipe by Baby Sumo

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes
Makes 12

Ingredients

2 tbsp cooking oil
220g minced beef
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp cumin powder
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 stalk spring onion, finely chopped

5 eggs

6 Cheddar cheese slice

Lettuce, finely shredded

Ketchup

Mayo
6 Hotdog buns

1. In a saucepan, heat oil over medium high heat. Then, add the onion and garlic and saute for 3-4 minutes, until softened. Then, add beef, curry powder and cumin powder and cook for about 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently.  Season with 1/2 tsp salt.

2. In a large bowl, break eggs and add black pepper, 1/2 tsp salt and spring onions. Lightly beat with a fork.

3. Add cooked beef to the egg and mix well. 

4. Spread buns with butter or margarine and toast in oven under grill for 1-2 minutes. You can also use your toaster, then spread with margarine after.

5. Ladle a spoonful of beef-egg mixture onto frying pan, in an oblong shape, then lay your buns on top. Cook until the egg has set, about 1 1/2 - 2 minutes.

6. Remove from heat, place buns on a plate. Garnish with lettuce, cheese slice, some Mayo and ketchup. Fold and cut the bun into half. Enjoy!

Roti John recipe Roti John recipe Roti John recipe Roti John recipe Roti John recipe Roti John recipe Roti John recipe Roti John recipe Roti John recipe Roti John recipe Roti John recipe Roti John recipe

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Soo Kee's Son (Meng Chuan) Prawn & Beef Noodles, KL

I can never say no to a good plate of sang har meen. Soo Kee's Son (Meng Chuan) is one of the many sang har meen places on my radar (for the longest time) and we finally got to try it earlier last month when we were staycationing here as the hotel is only 500m away by foot.

The restaurant has fans but no air-conditioning so be prepared to sweat it out if you're here for lunch. Upon arrival, we were presented with a menu (in English.. yay!) along with photos, so ordering was a breeze.

Hubby went to watch the sifu / owner cook and when he showed me a photo of our sang har (freshwater prawn), I was suitably impressed. It was HUGEEEEEEE! Well, it better be, as it's not cheap... a plate of sang har mee here cost us RM90 for 1 prawn ... do check the price when ordering, as it is based on current market price.

Watch the sifu in action in this video:

The sang har mee is here was very good; the freshwater prawn was not only huge, it was very fresh and the meat was taut and sweet. The prawn was topped on crispy egg noodles and lots of delicious gravy. Definitely worth indulging in once in a while ;)

Tourists for the day... on a food adventure! ;)

The restaurant is also famous for its beef noodles (RM14 for small) so we ordered one to share. It was pretty tasty; flat noodles with generous amount of tender beef - though my favorite beef hor fun is still from this dai chow.

The restaurant also does some dai chow dishes such as fish, chicken, prawn and vegetable. Overall, a great meal and service is friendly, so I would definitely return when I'm craving for sang har mee again :)

Opening times: Lunch 12pm - 3pm; Dinner 5pm - 12am. Closed on Wednesdays.

Service: Good.

Price: Total bill rm121, inclusive coconut (RM6.50) and an iced coffee.

Location: Soo Kee's Son (Meng Chuan) Prawn & Beef Noodles, 29B, Medan Imbi, Pudu, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 012-325 5218

GPS Coordinates: 3.144397, 101.714158


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Restoran Sweetland, Cheras - For Excellent Char Siew & Noodles

Note: The chicken rice shop has moved to Batu 11 Cheras and the fried noodle shop has closed down. Come here for the curry laksa and char koay teow instead.


Happiness is... when you discover new eateries serving great food!

Earlier this week, we were in the vicinity since I wanted to get santan (coconut milk) for our mango sticky rice dessert.  There was a Thai restaurant I wanted to try, but it has closed down so we walked over to Restoran Sweetland to see what stalls were opened. Right at the entrance was a noodle stall - there were pictures of the noodles dishes they offer here along with their English names below it. We placed our order for two noodles dishes and went inside to look for a table.

While waiting for noodle dishes to arrive, we spotted strips of char siew hanging at the chicken rice stall. I remembered someone commenting on my previous post about it being good as it is grilled with charcoal so we decided to try. We ordered a small portion (RM6) and indeed, it was good! As I was photographing it, I knew I would like it already as I could see the tender meat and melting layers of fat. The outer layer was also nicely caramelised and sticky, so yummy! So happy to discover this! ;)

Our first noodle dish arrived - the fried kungfu sang mee noodles. It looked great and we couldn't wait to dig in! Fresh egg noodles have been deep fried so it was nice and crispy, then you eat it together with the rich eggy sauce along with prawns, pork slices and vegetable. Both Hubby and I agreed that the noodles tasted fantastic and that we would definitely return for this.

We also had a Fried Koay Teow which uses thicker type of koay teow noodles. It was decent and tasty enough, though we would probably not reorder this again as we prefer the version using thinner noodles. There was ample amount of beansprouts, fish cake, chicken slices, prawn and egg.

Best of all, both noodles only came up to RM12, very reasonably priced indeed.

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Since then, we have returned several times to have their char siew. Do remember to specify for "pun fei sau"(half lean half fat) for maximum pleasure! We usually have the small portion for RM6.

Hubby also tried their char siew siew yuk fan (BBQ pork and roasted pork rice) (RM8.50). We liked the roast pork here too, as it is flavorful and has a lovely crispy, crackling. A nice balanced meal as it comes with fragrant rice and a bowl of soup too.

Kungfu sang mee again cos we love it! (RM6 per plate)

Also tried the loh mee (braised noodles with black vinegar).. very appetizing! (RM6)

You can also get a good bowl of curry laksa here. Read our review here.

Opening times: 8am to 2pm daily.

Location: Restoran Sweetland, No.65, Jalan 34/154, Taman Delima, 56000 Cheras, KL. (Waze: Restoran SweetLand)

GPS Coordinates: 3.057619, 101.747664


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Peter's Pork Noodles + Brickfields Pisang Goreng, KL

I was never big on pork noodles until I discovered Machi, and now we have it at least once every week. Whenever we ask our friends where their favorite pork noodles place is, the answer we often hear is "Peter's Pork Noodles".

There are two Peter's Pork Noodles stall in Brickfields. The original stall is located in Money's Corner Food Court (across the road from Nu Sentral). There is also another Peter’s Pork Noodles stall at the nearby Restoran One Sentral (oppositeWisma YMCA), run by the founder’s son.

We visited the original stall recently with a friend. It can get super busy during lunch hours, so best avoid the peak hour if you can... come either before 11.30am or after 2pm. Grab a table, take note of the table note and head over to the stall to place your order.

You can choose to have dry noodles or noodles in soup, as well as specify whether you want extra egg as well as the spare parts (intestines, liver etc). We went for the small portion (RM6), which is a good ladies portion - so if you're a big eater, do opt for the large portion for an extra RM0.50.

I chose meehoon as my noodle option, while Hubby had the dry lou shi fun (rat's tail noodles). We read in an article that the broth is made by boiling pork bones for one hour, and then left to simmer. The broth here is clearer than Machi, with an additional ingredient - tung choy 冬菜(a type of preserved vegetable), giving the soup a unique, appetizing flavour. As we opted for no spare parts, our bowl of noodles came with minced pork, and sliced pork only, as well as some choy sum and chee yau char (lard fritters).

We had no complaints about the pork noodle here - we enjoyed it, though I have to say I prefer Machi's more robust soup and the location is more convenient for us as well.

Opening times: 7am to 4pm daily. Closed on alternate Mondays.

Location: Peter's Pork Noodles, Money’s Corner Food Court, 7, Jalan Vivekananda, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur. (You can park in Nu Sentral mall and walk over or alternatively in the open-air car park (RM4 per hour) directly outside the food court)

GPS Coordinates: 3.131179, 101.686839

*****

After pork noodles, we walked down the street to the famous Brickfields Pisang Goreng (located opposite Wisma YMCA on Jalan Thambipillay and outside the other Peter's Pork Noodles place) to get some banana fritters.

They had just ran out of pisang goreng, so we had to wait for 15 minutes for a new batch. They use pisang raja here, instead of pisang mas, hence they're larger than usual. We noticed that they use overripe bananas, which attributes to the sweetness of the bananas. Definitely worth the wait, the batter was light and crispy, and stayed crispy even when we tapau-ed it all the way home.

Price list

We couldn't resist getting the bola bijan (sesame balls with red bean paste filling) (RM1.40 per piece) and we loved the sticky chewy texture and generous filling. You must also try the kuih bakul (RM1.40 per piece), aka nian gao (glutinous rice cake that you usually get during CNY) that is sandwiched with sweet potato and deep fried. This was my favorite item from this stall.

And since we're already here, we might as well try the curry puff as well (RM1.60). Glad we did - so flaky and yummy! I'm only glad this is not a convenient location for us, otherwise our waistline will never stop expanding :P

Opening times: 12pm to 5pm.

Location: 19, Jalan Thambipillay, Brickfields, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 012-617 2511

GPS Coordinates: 3.133096, 101.689236



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Sarawak Noodles @ Hou Wong Kopitiam, KL

We love Sarawak laksa, so a couple of weeks ago, we visited Hou Wong Kopitiam in Jalan Ipoh to to satisfy our cravings.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we only spotted a pan mee stall. But they still had the banner outside the shop showing "Sarawak Noodles". We panicked, thinking "oh no, is the stall shut today?" Turns out their stall / kitchen is at the back and someone will come take your order at the table.

The menu, stuck on the wall inside the restaurant.

We decided to order 1 Sarawak laksa (RM6.50 for small) and 1 Kolo Mee  (RM5.50 for small) to share. Other Sarawak delicacies you can find here include kuey teow goreng, mee goreng, zhou cai fen gan, tom yum big head prawn, mee Dawai and kueh chap (available on weekend only). 

First impressions when the food arrived was that the Sarawak laksa looked authentic. And it certainly did not disappoint in the taste department either. The soup was really tasty (we drank it all!), and the bowl consisted of thick beehoon, sliced omelette, beansprouts, and two prawns. 

For the Sarawak kolo mee, we were asked if we wanted the "red" or "white" version. We went for the red version. Again, this was a delicious bowl of noodles - thin egg noodles topped with minced pork, char siew and pork lard. This was served with some pickled red chillies and a bowl of clear soup.

Since we came all the way here for breakfast (and we had some tummy space left), we thought, why not order another bowl of Sarawak laksa to share. Do remember to squeeze in the lime as it really enhances the taste of the soup.

We will be back!

Opening times: 7.30am to 2pm daily. Check their Facebook page for off days.


Price: Total bill RM22.60 (including drinks).

Location: Sarawak Noodles, Hou Wong Kopitiam, No. K-5, Batu 4 1/4, Jalan Ipoh, 51200 Kuala Lumpur. (Waze: Hou Wong Kopitiam). Street parking available.

Tel: 012-558 8817

GPS Coordinates: 3.197979, 101.678983



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Tian Tian Chicken Rice, Maxwell Food Centre, Singapore

Back in November last year, I finally got the chance to try the famous Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice from Singapore. The stall is located in Maxwell Food Centre and is pretty easy to locate once you're inside the hawker centre. Look for the stall with the longest queue!

Fortunately for us, when we arrived, the queue was not too bad and they have an efficient system - choose from the menu on the wall, place your order and pay, get a receipt and wait in the queue for your chicken rice. I think we got ours in about 10 minutes. Just before we left, we looked again and the queue was out the door and all the way outside! Talk about good timing.

For us, it is definitely worth the queue as it is the best Hainanese chicken rice we've eaten in Singapore. A medium-sized chicken rice will cost you S$5. The steamed chicken (we got breast) was super smooth and tender. The piece de resistance is the rice itself - it was amazingly fragrant and delicious that we just want to keep eating it. Even the chilli dipping sauce was lovely and fragrant, slightly tangy and with a spicy kick to it. An extremely good plate of chicken rice!

Even Anthony Bourdain agrees!

We also decided to try Ah Tai Hainanese Chicken Rice, a few stalls down from Tian Tian. We read that Ah Tai's chef used to work for Tian Tian. No queue here. We got the chicken rice set, which comes with rice, chicken, pak choi with oyster sauce and soup. I can't remember the price exactly but it was cheaper than Tian Tian's.

As you can see, the portion size is also much bigger. However, we do find Tian Tian's chicken rice to be far superior in taste (both rice and chicken). Nevertheless, it's pretty decent. If I'm not mistaken, there are at least 2-3 other stalls in Maxwell Food Centre selling Hainanese chicken rice too. 

We were seated near this stall (Marina South Delicious Food - Stall 35) and noticed that they had Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle. I've always wanted to try this, so we ordered a small portion at $4. Unlike the KL version, the Singapore-style Hokkien prawn noodle is cooked using two types of noodles (yellow noodles and thick bee hoon), usually steeped in aromatic stock made of pork bones and prawn heads, along with egg, prawns and squid. It is served with sambal chilli and lime on the side for extra zing. We enjoyed this and found it to be very flavorful. Definitely worth trying!

On the way to Maxwell Good Centre, we snapped some photos of the Red Dot Deign Museum.

Tian Tian Chicken Rice is open from Tuesday to Sundays (10am to 8pm, or when chicken is sold out). Closed on Mondays.

Location: Maxwell Food Centre,1 Kadayanallur St, Singapore 069184.

Nearest MRT: Tanjong Pagar.

GPS Coordinates: 1.280156, 103.844987



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