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! 
Nice meal. Really a problem for Melissa to eat out.
I dont know about fish names. I only know how to eat them. Hehe.
Same here.
Not really a problem when there are nice people willing to tweak their recipes to suit our needs unlike one lady boss who just retorted, “In that case, you can’t eat anything here!” We never went back there again…even when we’re out eating without my girl around!
Yes, the price has gone up quite a bit but we still tapaoed from them every now & then. We love his sweet sour pork & tofu kiam chai soup. His midin belacan was a disappointment due to the notsofresh belacan that he’s using.
Or maybe he uses the cheap West Malaysian or local belacan, not our expensive Bintulu ones – I’ve encountered the same at a number of places here, better don’t order with belacan, best to cook and eat our own at home. We had it “ching chao” so it was fine.
My girl’s favourite – the tofu kiam chao soup and she loves their sweet and sour fish – best in town but she can’t eat that anymore, cannot take tomato sauce, there’s wheat in it.
They used to be more expensive than elsewhere but everybody is jacking up their prices so now, some have caught up with them. Not cheap anymore, most places these days and since what they cook here is nice and the people are very nice too, I would rather come and eat here.
Most type of fishes, I do not know their name…
I may know by their local Chinese or Malay names but not in English, if they have any English names, that is.
Caring father who loves his daughter! May I ask why is Melissa on a gluten free diet? I must have missed a few posts
She was often unwell last year and she had all these symptoms and maybe. more:
https://www.dietvsdisease.org/gluten-intolerance-symptoms/
The tests for celiac disease came back negative so she’s probably just gluten-sensitive, probably triggered by an overdose of oats – they say it is good bla…bla…bla… Not really and especially when it seems to have become the staple of young people these days – breakfast, lunch and dinner – no square meals, no balanced diet and it may be because of overwork , too tired…or they’re stuck to their ipads or smartphones all the time – no time, too lazy to cook.
She had rashes on her back going up to the head, her scalp and her hair was falling off in clumps! Glad that it isn’t so anymore and so far, since she’s been on a gluten-free diet, she may get a bit of rashes on the back only sometimes probably there may be a bit of soy sauce or whatever in what she eats, none of all the other dreaded symptoms, thank God!
Good choice of dishes especially the ching chao midin & fish. The Hockkien name of that fish does not sound familiar. I am zero at names of fish. Only few common one I knew.
I may know the names in Hokkien or Malay and some, even in English but those would be the few that I would usually buy and eat. So many others that I am not familiar with, dunno how to cook so I will never buy.
i have trouble identifying fish sometimes too … there are just too many fish in the sea, heh! 😀
I guess so. Many that I don’t know…or don’t know how to cook so I will not buy and…some even look kind of strange or the colour puts me off.
Looks like a great meal!
It was…and whatever makes my girl happy makes me happy too. 😉
It must be difficult to avoid soy sauce, especially remembering to tell the chefs not to add that. It’s such a commonly used ingredient.
It’s ok really as we do know what is cooked in soy sauce and what isn’t. Just that this time, I did not expect them to drizzle the soy sauce all over. Usually they give you that in a little saucer with or without sliced fresh chili for you to dip if you so wish.
One place that I do know where they will drizzle sauce over the meat would be at the chicken rice stalls – the steamed or roast chicken, the roast meat and everything. I will always tell them not to do that MANY times even though I don’t know what sauce it actually is, maybe light soy sauce as it is not dark.
I do like a good fried fish, especially those with pockets of fats
Do they all get discharged? We’ve been avoiding snowfish all this time now but it is actually very nice and we did enjoy eating it.
Good to see that your girl comes before the camera , hee, hee. 🙂
Paternal instinct, I guess. 😉
Nice.. nice.. I would certainly go back for more too.. the fish and the wild ferns.. they are very tempting!
Yes, can’t get midin over at your side, it seems. Strange – same country, same weather. Maybe extinct already as a result of all that development. The fish should be available, I think – it’s a sea fish, not one of our freshwater ones.