He came from so far away…

I don’t know what he’s doing here, the very nice, good-looking man, not all that young, and speaks Hokkien in that very pleasant way that I hear when my Penang friends speak the dialect.

Well, this is at another side of town, one that I do not venture to all that frequently. For one thing, they tell me that it comes alive only at night when all the shops and stalls there will be will be open and I don’t usually go out at night unless I really have to. Anyway, it so happened that I was there that morning and in the morning, the coffee shops would be open but the stalls would be closed except for a few here and there.  We were walking past this one (2.32825,111.855484)…

…(opposite Wonderful Supermarket & Departmental Store, Ulu Sg Merah) when I saw a stall selling Hokkien mee (RM5.00)…

…and it was open!

Of course I just HAD to stop by and try. I don’t know of any other place in town selling this other than one restaurant where I had it twice – it tasted very good, just like the real thing – more or less like what I had here but they used our regular not-so-yellow noodles. How could it be the same if they did not use that special, bigger type of noodles? That is why I never went back again so I do not know whether it is still available there or not.

Needless to say, I was delighted to see that this guy here used the right kind of noodles…and he fried them in freshly-rendered lard, leaving the pork fat crusts behind. I am ok with lard but I am not fond of those crusts so I picked them out one by one and left them by the side. As for the taste, I would say it was nice but no, it somehow was not quite there. Ah well!!! As they say, beggars can’t be choosers – as far as I know, it is the only one there is in town and I must give due credit to the guy for the effort he put into his cooking – with all the banging of the wok and all and it did take him quite a while. Besides, he did not state KL Hokkien mee on his menu…

…so I guess he could always reserve the right to be a little different and most importantly, it was nice enough for me – I did like it, I would say this much.

When I shared the photograph of the noodles on Facebook, somebody commented that his sambal fried kway teow (RM5.00)…

…was very good and that was what my missus had. Yes, she said, it was indeed very good, just that she would love it a bit spicier. Perhaps we could put in a special request for that the next time we drop by here.

I noticed on the banner…

…hanging above the stall that he also had fried kuih lobak or fried (white) carrot cake, also known as koay khak. I ordered that…

…to take home and try but I thought it was a little bit sweet, not really to my liking. My girl loves that so maybe one day, we would go there and let her sample and see whether she likes it or not. I guess I would be heading in that direction sometime and should we be around there again, I sure would not mind stopping by here to have the same or maybe try something else.

I did manage to exchange a few words with the guy and asked if he was local but he said no, he’s from Penang. Wow!!! He had come from so far away to set up his business here – I wonder why!