Not one of us…

No, this…

…isn’t one of the outlets in this chain of restaurants in KL and the kawasan-kawasan yang sewaktu dengannya despite the name.

It seems mighty popular, always very crowded at night, and I heard from a friend that they do have some nice reasonably-priced stuff here but one would need to know what to order. My sister-in-law said that she went and bought their Foochow fried noodles once and it was very good.

Well, that (RM4.00)…

…was exactly what my missus had that morning and yes, it was very nice but I would not say it was my favourite in town as I felt that a few had an edge over the one here especially as far as the wok hei fragrance was concerned.

I ordered the fried kway teow, wet (RM4.00)…

…with sauce/gravy, that is – they will fry the kway teow first…

…and then cook the sauce/gravy and pour it all over the noodles. Obviously, the fried stuff here is a little bit more expensive than elsewhere, RM3.50 or RM3.80 usually, and even though they were quite generous with the green vegetables and black fungus, there were only a few bits of meat in the dish. Besides, I did not think it was anything that would get me rushing back for more, if you get what I mean.

I am not sure what arrangement they have here. My missus went to place our orders at the chu char (cook and fry) section at the back but she was directed to one lady who did all the frying outside by the side…and I did notice the people at the kampua noodles/Sarawak laksa stall in front dishing out some fried stuff as well.

After I was done, I walked over to the bakery a few doors away…

…the fourth shop in that block, as other than their own bread and buns and so on, they would always have some homemade Chinese kuehs in a tray on their counter and I quite liked the ones that I had bought before. My guess is that those are made by somebody in the neighbourhood and he or she would leave them there for sale.

The fried or koi (yam cake)…

…is quite nice, not wobbly or jelly-like as a result of too much flour used in the making and I like their fried tapioca cake…

…which is different from the regular bingka ubi at the Malay stalls but tastes just as nice, if not nicer.

They may have gone a little smaller than before, I’m not so sure, but I am positive the yam cake is very much thinner now…plus the prices have gone up! I think it was RM1.00 for 3 or to the most, RM1.20 before but now it is 45 sen each and you get 3 for RM1.30. Sighhhhh!!!! What has not increased in price, you tell me?

There was one place where the kampua noodles was RM2.00 a plate where other places were selling for even up to RM2.50 or more and it was packed every day. I did not even think it was very nice – there are other nicer ones even in that same vicinity – but for a family with three kids, one would be able to save enough for another plate of the noodles and not everybody is all that concerned with the taste, as long as it is nice enough. The thing is when they jack up the prices like that, people will buy less often – not that they are things people will die from not eating and at the end of the day, they will not make the same amount of profit or maybe even less, owing to the lower daily turnover…or do people just keep on buying like there’s no tomorrow, never mind that the prices are going up and up?