There were others here before but more recently, I liked the kampua mee with dong quai soup from this guy there and his version of the Sarawak laksa was pretty good too. One fine day, some new owners took over the coffee shop and the poor guy was asked to move elsewhere. I did drop by to try their kampua mee and at best, I would say it was pretty decent, just not anything to get me rushing back for more.
Recently, I noticed that the coffee shop has been taken over AGAIN and now comes under a different name so that day, I made it a point to stop by and look around.
There wasn’t much that I could eat so I settled for plate of the kampua mee (RM3.50)…
…from this stall…
…there.
I would not say it got me all excited as I found it rather bland and the noodles…
…were overcooked, way too soft and soggy for my liking. I asked for a bit of chili sauce to go with it and yes, that did help a bit.
The complimentary soup…
…was not too bad but unfortunately, it failed to save the day.
For one thing, everyone at the coffee shop spoke only Mandarin and Foochow so I had a problem communicating with them. I saw a photograph of their pek ting eyok (Eight Herbal Treasures) on display at the stall and it looked very good. Unfortunately, it was not available that morning and later, I found out that it was pork leg – I had the impression from the snapshot that it was chicken. The mee sua in traditional red wine and ginger chicken soup looked very good too in the photograph but I don’t think I’d be dropping by to give it a try in the near future.
They have chap fan (mixed rice) at the coffee shop and even though it was still early, around 10.30 a.m., the dishes had started coming out and I saw some people going for it already. I must say that some of the dishes looked very good and it made me wonder if one can order any fried noodle dishes from the kitchen at the back or not. I guess I’ll never know because I am not planning to go back there again…or at least, not this soon.
JIN JIN CAFE, formerly Soon Kien Wang Cafe and Wan Long Cafe (2.312977, 111.847257) is located past Delta Mall, if you are coming from town, at the corner among the shops at the junction of Jalan Gambir and Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai, formerly Jalan Pedada.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
What is the difficulty in communicating with them in Foochow and Mandarin? I think you are quite fluent in Mandarin too. No?? Are you not a Foochow? Just curious to know…😊😊
My mother tongue is Hokkien, grew up speaking the dialect (even though we are Foochows) and went to the primary school near my house, lots of Melanaus and a few Malays (and we spoke Sarawak Malay) and mostly children of government officers from all over the state, all Hokkien speaking. My sister went to St Rita and she picked up Foochow from there – now can phing phiang phing phiang in the dialect.
The old couple at this stall are probably from the outskirts (sua pa), can speak Foochow only and VERY traditional Foochow – the pronunciation and intonation are very difficult to make out and understand. Usually people this old in the town area would be able to speak Hokkien and their Mandarin isn’t so good either – the guy would mix Foochow in trying to say something to me. Took me quite a while to find out that they have pork leg in their pek ting eyok, not chicken…and took me a while to tell them I want chicken, not pork leg (in Mandarin). In the end, I just gave up – didn’t want to talk more with them…like a duck and a hen!!!
The do look bland as well as the soup
Ignorance is bliss! My friend from Auckland, New Zealand (since relocated to Dubai) insisted something looking so bland and colourless cannot possibly be nice…until she tried – it was love at first bite and she asked for a second bowl!!! That was in 2011 – here, you can read all about it in my post about that:
https://suituapui.wordpress.com/2011/10/08/lovely-day/
As for the soup, there is a special skill involved. I love clear soup that looks like plain water but is bursting with flavours. If they do not do it well, it will turn out cloudy…like this one in the photo!
I wonder why they keep getting taken over. Someone upping the rent?
I’ve no idea. Maybe they think it is easy to run a coffee shop business? Not going to last long if they do not have a good anchor tenant who will draw in the crowds.
I can’t speak Hokkien but I can understand some.
My mum is Teochew, I can’t speak Teochew either, which is a shame really.
But I can speak Mandarin, that’s what we speak mainly in Johore, not like other states, eg Selangor, Perak (predominantly Cantonese) and Penang (Hokkien). I can speak Hakka though, and of course Cantonese, which is rather useful in the UK.
>who is Operation X? Spamming my notifications by liking ALL my comments in YOUR blog!
No idea. Did you say your comments in my blog? I can’t find those comments in my blog. I did check my spam folder.
My old comments on your old posts. Here is one example of the many:
“Operation X liked your comment on Newington / 纽英顿 / Newington / ニューイントン”
My missus is Cantonese Khek (Hakka) but she can’t speak both dialects. She speaks Hokkien at home too and is very conversant in Foochow by virtue of her place of stay and her place of work. Lots of Foochows.
Kampua mee seems to be a pretty safe and reliable order in these parts.
No, this one that I tried, for instance, isn’t worth coming back for. You cannot expect all of them to taste the same. One will need to know where the good ones are – some are good, others are best forgotten.