This coffee shop had a different name before but probably there was a switch of ownership sometime back and they changed it to…
Don’t ask me what that means – I really do not know. I went there once, that time in 2011, and yes, I thought what I had was good but for no particular reason, I never went back again – I did go to the other coffee shop in that same row a number of times though.
Well, lately, I have seen a lot of people sharing photographs of the beef noodles they had there and praising it to the skies but no, it did not get me all excited and I did not bother to rush there to give it a try. Theirs is the Taiwanese version, not really my favourite and I do know of some really good ones here and there, that is why.
The other day, however, a foodie friend shared a photograph of the Penang har mee he had at this coffee shop and it did look a bit like the one that I loved so much a long long time ago, going all the way back to 2012! I wasted no time at all and the next day, I was there!
I placed my order at the stall that is further in at that coffee shop, the fourth one, right before the chu char (cook & fry) stall at the back. Having done that, I took my seat at a table at that extension to the right of the coffee shop…
– they did not have any tables inside which is a good thing as it is not a very big shop and a whole lot more spacious outside. There were quite a number of customers that morning, occupying a number of the tables but they were all spread out so physical distancing was not a problem at all.
The moment my bowl of Penang har mee…
…was served, I thought it looked familiar, especially those fried wantons. I always asked for those to be served separately…
…so that they would not turn soft and soggy after being soaked in the broth.
However, when I tried the broth, I was taken aback for a while – it was spicy! The lady must have tweaked the recipe a bit and added a bit of chili oil, a current craze, it seems. Other than that, it tasted great, not quite the same as what I loved so much in the past but it was good enough. It did not come cheap though, RM9.00 compared to only RM6.50 way back in 2012 but of course, that was A DECADE ago!!! LOL!!!
There were a lot of ingredients inside – four fairly big prawns, one whole egg, halved, three deep fried wantons, a few strands of kangkong (water spinach) and noodles…
I went and asked the lady and yes, she was the one and the same but unfortunately, she said that the broth would be prepared before hand, with the chili oil added so there would be no way it could be served non-spicy. Yes, she did think that I looked familiar, she added. Of course it has been so many years and I was surprised that she could remember – frankly, I couldn’t remember what she looked like then. *face palm*
Yes, I sure would want to go back there again for this or for something else from her stall or one of the other stalls at that shop. Incidentally, I saw this reply from my foodie friend to one of his followers, when asked about the beef noodles at this shop. He said that the people at the stall would be moving “…next to Mark shop coffee&tea middle of next month…” Who knows? I may just drop by one fine day when they have shifted there.
PETTY HARBOUR CAFE (2.323915, 111.838194) is located to the left of Choon Seng Coffee Shop in the blocks of shops along Lorong Wong Ting Hock 1, Off Jalan Tun Abg Hj Openg (Sungai Merah).
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
RM9 for that many prawns? This is definitely a steal. 😀
I guess the price is not too bad. I was kind of disappointed that it was spicy – not like how it used to be, those days when I used to enjoy it so much! Still nice but I did not like it spicy.
The har mee looks pretty good but unfortunately I am not very fond of that type of yellow noodles. It has got a type of very strong smell. There are 2 types of this yellow noodles. I prefer the ones lighter yellow in colour. Mee jawa is also using this type of noodles, right?
Aha!!! You do not know our Sibu yellow noodles, no alkaline (kee) so NO SMELL…not like the Kuching ones. My uncle in Kuching would buy from here, come Chinese New Year, to cook his own at home.
The Malays here use their own – I think theirs has alkaline as theirs look more yellow, thinner and more yellowish – a lot more yellowish than these Chinese ones…firmer and has that kee smell.
Of course, without the kee, if in soup or soaked in gravy, you must eat quickly or it will swell up and turn soggy, not so nice, anymore.
I haven’t had har mee in a long time. Let me check the one at the food court and see if it is any good. So far the ones I have had are not served with fried wantons.
Yes, I’ve never seen any har mee anywhere with fried wantons except this one here – their trade mark, sort of. Very nice add-on, I love them!
Har mee is also very popular in Singapore too.
Not so in my little kampung, don’t know why either.
This is the Penang-style one. The Singapore one is different – if I am not wrong, they also call it their Hokkien mee, different from the KL one too.
I haven’t eaten Penang har mee with fried wantons. Looks delicious and I don’t mind if the soup is slightly spicy. Sometimes, I will ask for extra sambal. I think the price is reasonable because I have been charged RM7.50 for a bowl of har mee with much less ingredients in it. I was having some problem accessing some blogs on and off, so I will have to delay my blog hopping.
I was a little shocked to see the price but I just had to try it – in the end, I did think it was worth it, value for money.
Yes, it sure looks like you have a whole lot of blogs to visit. I’m not so active anymore, just a few.
There are so many people I haven’t seen since before the pandemic started and now – when and if I see them – it’s a surprise because I still try and avoid many places if possible. People sure have been changing the last couple of years.
Yes, a lot of silver foxes now – their hair all gone white and grey! I guess they do not bother to dye it anymore. The hair salons here were closed for a very long time. Well, I guess things will never be the same again – what people call the new normal isn’t all that normal, really.