My girl wanted to have lunch here last Friday as she was thinking of having their kiam sor hu phee (salty crispy/crusty fish fillet) since she couldn’t have their sweet and sour – the one here is her favourite in town but tomato sauce is not gluten free.
Unfortunately, we were told that they had marinated all the fish fillet, ready for deep frying and for use to cook whatever dish the customers would order so we could not have it coated with tapioca flour. Well, it would be those frozen fish fillet sold at the supermarkets here anyway, Dory and I would not say it’s our favourite.
They suggested one type of fish called phak tee poh in Hokkien instead. They said they could coat a slice in tapioca flour and deep fry and serve. My missus is familiar with the fish and said it would be very nice so that was what we had (RM16.00)…
Oooppsss!!! They drizzled some soy sauce on top so in my panic, I quickly turned it over for my girl to eat the soy sauce-free side of the fish and I forgot to take a photograph of it before I did that!
It was really very very nice and my girl loved it! She said that it reminded her of what she used to enjoy at her favourite fish and chips shop in Wellington, New Zealand and upon hearing that, I quickly ordered another slice, coated with tapioca flour and deep fried too but with no soy sauce added to take away and she could take it back with her to her school in the jungle come Sunday to eat and enjoy there.
I went and asked on Facebook what its name in English or Malay was and I got a whole lot of suggestions starting with grouper/garoupa or karupa in Malay…and all the rest. Well, I still don’t know the answer – my girl said it tasted something like what we call snowfish…
*Archive photo*
…or Alaskan fish here, something like cod, but this one is not so oily/fat. We’ve stopped eating snowfish ever since my girl discovered all the fish fat being discharged out of her body system after eating it. In the end, the closest I got was tee poh, dried flat sole fish.
Anyway, back to what we had for lunch that day, my girl stuck loyally to the salted vegetable and tofu soup…
…that she enjoys a lot here and yes, it was good as always that day.
We also ordered the fried cangkuk manis with egg…
…and we liked its wok hei fragrance and how it was dry and not swimming/drowning in the sauce/gravy like the one we had here and the midin (wild jungle fern), fried ching chao (clear fried)…
…was good as well.
The total for the food came up to RM46.00 and about a third of it was for the fish so I thought that was pretty reasonable.
I asked the lady boss how business was and she said it has not been good especially in the morning when they hardly have anybody dropping by. I did hear people saying that things here are more expensive but this is air-conditioned and a lot more comfortable (and less crowded) than your regular coffee shop…and looking at my more recent posts, I have had some not-necessarily-as-nice stuff in coffee shops here and there around town that are just as expensive or even more so.
Well, one thing’s for sure, we certainly would be coming back for more.
Y2K CAFE (2.294220, 111.825753) is located in the Tunku Osman area, round the corner from that block of shops where the branches of AmBank & RHB Bank are located. with its back entrance facing the side (right, not the main one) entrance/exit of Methodist Secondary School.
STOP PRESS: I just got a comment from a friend on my link on Facebook and I QUOTE, “The English name is tripletail fish. The Chinese name is 打铁婆，松鲷. The Malay name is patipok or kuku laut. Funny that the Chinese name means blacksmith woman.” UNQUOTE
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 