No clue…

I went here…

…in August last year in search of what many claimed to be the best Foochow fried noodles in town and it turned out that I went to the wrong stall, No. 14, that time around. Well, I went again the other morning and it now has a very nice sign with neon/LED lights at night.

Yes, the highly-acclaimed stall, No. 10, was indeed a drinks stall and the kopi-o-peng (iced black coffee)…

…that I had from there was only RM1.50 a glass and I would say it would rank among the better ones in town.

No. 11 was a Malay/Muslim stall and that morning, I decided to order from Stall No. 12 as it looked like everyone was ordering from there. There was a macho-looking guy there before, one who did not look quite like a Chinese but that morning, there was an old lady who did all the cooking, assisted by an Iban lady who took the orders and did all the serving and everything.

Pretty soon, my plate of noodles…

…arrived and I paid for it – RM4.00 like most everywhere else these days but I was delighted that there was so much meat and green vegetables and there were slices of liver in it too! Elsewhere, the ingredients would hardly be visible to the naked eye and if there is liver or other innards in it, that would set you back by around RM6-8.00, at least.

Most importantly, though I had no clue whatsoever whether that was the stall everyone was talking about, it certainly was very nice and I enjoyed it very much…

I guess that was all that mattered and incidentally, just as I was leaving, I spotted the proprietor of this restaurant in town that we frequent quite a lot and his wife and son dropping by the hawker centre and yes, they ordered from that same stall too. Perhaps after the renovation and everything, the numbers of the stalls are no longer the same as the ones before.

THE SUNGAI ANTU MARKET & HAWKER CENTRE/FOOD COURT (2.320030, 111.830741) is located along Jalan Sg Antu 2, on your right off Jalan Industri as you drive in from Jalan Kpg Nangka.

I hear them say…

They said that the satay here…

…was the best in town so of course, I wanted to give it  a try. However, we were too early the last time we dropped by here…

…so we had the satay from another stall which turned out to be pretty good as well. We did not have our dinner after the heavy burger meal we had that day so after the 7.30 p.m. service in conjunction with All Saints’ Day, we stopped by there for supper.

The ladies ordered the teh tarik from the drinks stall beside the satay stall and I went to this one…

…next to it to order the gula apong ice cream, large (RM5.00)…

…and yes, it was very nice…

…as nice as the one that I liked a lot here.

It was getting late, almost 9.00 p.m. and they had run out of lamb so we just settled for the beef (RM1.00 each) and the chicken (60 sen each)…

Of course, they were cheaper than the very nice ones here but the sticks were very much smaller.

They…

…tasted great – different from the rest, probably due to the way they marinated the meat though to me, the beef was a little bit tough, not as tender as I would like it and what I liked was they were very generous with the peanut sauce – other than what came in the food tray, they gave us some more in a bowl and the nice lady said that we could ask for more should we so desire.

Well, it was a nice enough supper and having had our fill, we made our way home. It sure had been a long day from the time we left home in the morning to go all the way to get my girl from her school in the jungle.

The DEWAN MUC HAWKER STALLS (2.313658, 111.825056) are located along Jalan Jasmin, off Jalan Bandong, more or less opposite the primary school there, on your left if you turn left into that road from Bandong Walk.

Return to you…

I was driving past this Malay food stall at Bandong Walk here…

…and I decided to stop by and buy some things for Peter and the ever lovely Payung staff to enjoy. He gave me the pork ribs cooked Hakka/Cantonese sour duck style that day and we have this traditional practice whereby if somebody gives you something, you have to give something in return…and it is regarded as bad manners if you return the container empty.

When my mum was still around, my missus and I would go over to the house to keep her company all morning and come lunchtime, we would make our way home. This stall was on the way so it was very convenient for us to stop by and buy a few dishes for our lunch and dinner. We do not do that anymore these days so we had not been here ourselves for a very long time now.

I bought them the masak merah chicken and the ayam berlada…

…but somehow or other, I did not see any of those thinly-sliced strips of daun kunyit (turmeric leaves)…

…that they would usually use as garnishing. Nonetheless, everyone said it was very nice so it did not really matter. I don’t know how nice the masak merah was as they were saving that for dinner that evening.

It so happened that Peter’s mum celebrated her birthday at the café on Saturday and the mee sua (longevity noodles) and the traditional Foochow red wine chicken soup…

…was a hit among all the family members that evening, around 80 of them altogether. Good grief!!! I wonder if I can get half the number if I were to throw a birthday party, family AND friends.

Well, they finished all the mee sua and the absolutely out-of-this-world soup, leaving behind all the meat so Peter took it and fried it with sesame oil, soy sauce and ginger…

…and when I was there, he gave me two drumsticks to enjoy – it was very nice, of course!

He also let me try his pickled jellyfish…

…and since I loved it a lot, he let me take a tub home. Isn’t he nice, this Peter?

This time around, he just used one of those takeaway plastic containers – I guess I will not need to return that so I wouldn’t have to crack my head trying to think of what I can give to reciprocate.

Make it fast…

I had not been to see this handsome boy…

…at the pasar malam (night market) here for a while now for the simple reason that it would be so hard to find a place to park the car and I, for one, wouldn’t be all that keen on parking some distance away and walking all the way and all around the place in search of the stall – they cast lots once a week, I hear, so each time you go, the stall that you are looking for will be at a different location.

Well, last Sunday night, my girl was out with a friend and I dropped her off at the place they had agreed upon and I thought I would make my way to the pasar malam to buy some of the tee piang that my girl enjoys a lot so we would be able to heat them up for breakfast the next morning.

It is not difficult to find the stall – if you see one with a whole lot of people…

…standing all around it, that would be it! The problem is the tee piang may be sold out by around 7.30 p.m. so all your effort in making your way there would all be in vain.

I was lucky – when I got there after 7, they were just about to make their last batch for the night so I quickly placed my orders and stood around waiting…and in the meantime, I decided to take snapshots of everything that was going on at the stall.

This lady was making the batter…

…and it was obvious that she did not need any electrical appliance, no blender, no mixer, nothing – she just had to do it by hand and see how smooth…

…the batter was! Later, I saw her cutting some chives and adding those to the batter as well.

She had some banana fritters frying in the wok so she had to remove them…

…first after which, she added some more oil and once it was hot enough, she was ready to roll.

She added some of the aforementioned batter to the ladle…

…and lowered it into the hot oil…

Once it was cooked enough, it would detach itself from the ladle and float on the oil…

…while the lady went on with the next one in line.

She would be able to do quite a few…

…at one time and once they were nicely done, golden brown in colour, she would take them out of the wok.

To do the ones with meat filling, she would line the ladle with the batter and add the meat…

…after which, she would cover the filling with more batter before lowering it into the hot oil…

I bought four of those with meat filling (RM1.50 each)…

…and don’t ask me why they were only three in the photograph. Of course I could not resist indulging in one right away the instant I got home, nice and hot. LOL!!!

The filling…

…is something like those in steamed paos (buns) and these would be a lot bigger than the regular or kosong ones (those without any filling) and one would be enough to fill you up – in fact, if you are not a very big eater, you probably should find someone to share or go for those without any filling (3 for RM2.00).

It did take quite a while even though it was very obvious that everyone was working as fast as they could and it was way past 7.30 before I got my orders. I did not feel the time passing by as I was busy taking the photographs…and I did hear somebody asking while I was leaving only to be told there wasn’t any left – somebody else had already ordered the last few still frying in the wok. Do go early to avoid disappointment – they usually open at around 5.30 p.m.

Everybody says…

…that the noodles here…

…is nice so I just had to go and give it a try.

Actually, a long time ago, some friends of mine were telling me that a friend of theirs was praising the noodles there to the skies and the next day, she took them there to try but they were not impressed so I never bothered to go and check it out…or perhaps I did go once and one look at the place…

*From Google Maps, street view*

…I changed my mind about having anything there.

More recently, I shared on Facebook a series of photographs of the Foochow fried noodles that I had before and asked my friends where they had the one they liked the most – nobody bothered to respond except one and she mentioned this place and told me the stall number. I quickly went there but unfortunately, the place was closed for renovations.

The municipal council people sure have done a great job in upgrading the place…

…and when I dropped by early one morning, I sure was pleasantly surprised seeing the crowd there at the time – they certainly were enjoying brisk business in their nice new environment. They had a whole lot of fans lined up on the ceiling…

…and being new, it was very clean, definitely a world of difference from how it used to be. I certainly hope that the tenants will cooperate and keep it that way.

An ex-colleague of mine shared this photograph of the fried kway teow…

*Ex-colleague’s photo on Facebook*

…that he had there and he was saying something about “Lau Peng Yau” (old friend) and a certain Stall No. 10.

It turned out to be a drinks stall so I was at a loss as to which stall the one with the nicest fried noodles was. While I was sitting there waiting for my orders, it looked like this guy at Stall No. 12…

…was the one as he seemed to get a lot of orders from the crowd.

I ordered this very nice kopi-o-peng (RM1.50)…

…from Stall No. 15 and eventually, I decided to try the noodles from Stall No. 14…

…because there was this very nice and friendly lady who probably noticed me in my predicament and she asked me what I wanted to eat. She said that they also served Foochow fried noodles (RM4.00)…

…and it turned out the be the so-called moon version that I like very much and yes, it was very very nice. I sure would not mind coming by this way for this again and I liked how they used those glass plates instead of the plastic one in that photo my ex-colleague took of his kway teow. Hot food served on plastic plates always get me worried.

Stall No. 14 also sells kampua mee and pian sip and I ordered a small bowl of the latter (RM2.00)…

…to try and yes, I must say it was very good but somehow, the light clear soup tasted a little different from the usual, nicer! I wonder if this is one of those that they say they throw in one whole Chinese cabbage into the meat bone stock for the added sweetness.

I sure enjoyed my breakfast that morning and I most certainly would be back again sometime for the fried noodles that I enjoyed a lot…

…or maybe I shall try something else the next time around.

THE SUNGAI ANTU MARKET & HAWKER CENTRE/FOOD COURT (2.320030, 111.830741) is located along Jalan Sg Antu 2, on your right off Jalan Industri as you drive in from Jalan Kpg Nangka.

Style…

I dropped by here that morning to get these Saudi Arabian cheese wedges…

…for my girl – she enjoys eating them so I would go and buy for her time and time again.

While I was there, I decided that I might as well drop by the stalls by the side of the road (Bandong Walk) and have a bite to eat. The nasi lemak guy, my favourite in town, was nowhere to be seen.

The guy at the drinks stall beside his…

…said that he had taken a few days off after the Hari Raya Haji holiday – probably he had gone home to Sarikei or Daro or wherever and had not come back yet.

I noticed that the lady at the noodles stall had some helpers…

…that morning, probably her children who would be on their one-week school break at that point in time.

I felt like having the roti canai (RM1.20)…

…so I went and placed my order at the stall next to the noodles stall…

Business must be really good as the older guy had just come and he brought with him a whole lot of the pre-prepared soaked-in-oil dough.

These days, when I see people doing really well, I feel somewhat glad and also relieved as the economy is not all that great and the prices of anything and everything have been going up and up and many have called it a day, it seems. Hopefully, things will get better soonest.

I also had their roti telur (RM2.30)…

…which is basically roti canai as well but with egg added.

My friend, Merryn, shared some photos on Facebook of the roti canai she had that day and she asked how everyone would usually eat it – as roti celup (dip) or roti banjir (flooded). I saw a guy sitting at the next table having the latter and it sure looked rather messy. Besides, the roti would soak in the dip and end up less crispy and nice, I think.

Talking about the dhal dip, they sure have improved on it since the last time I tapao-ed some home (and that was a long time ago). It is now thick and creamy…

…and I sure enjoyed it very much.

So how did I eat it? Well, I used the fork and spoon to tear the roti canai into smaller pieces and taking a bit of the dip, I would apply it to the roti and then roll it up nicely like what one does with a wrap, poke through the roll with the fork and place it my my mouth to eat, so elegant, so classy. I sure do it in style, don’t I, Merryn? LOL!!!

This roti canai stall is located at Bandong Walk, Jalan Bandong, beside the fried noodles stall to the immediate right of the drinks stall and The NASI LEMAK BANDONG WALK stall (2.313869, 111.825808) somewhere in front of the block of shops where Mastura Delite and the 1Malaysia clinic are.

I prefer…

If you go and order a plate of fried noodles at the Chinese shops and stalls here, you will most likely get the wet one, the one with gravy…

…or the dry one…

Of course, you will need to know where to go for the nice ones – some may not be all that great and the dry version may turn out to be just noodles fried with garlic and soy sauce with a few strands of taugeh (bean sprouts) and a bit of egg.

Generally, when it comes to noodles, fried dry, I do prefer the mee goreng (fried noodles) at the Malay shops and stalls like this one (RM4.00)…

…from the lady at the stall beside the drink stall which is to the immediate right of the Bandong Walk Nasi Lemak stall.

I noticed that morning that the roti canai boys are back, a couple of stalls to the right of this noodle stall and were enjoying brisk business as well.

She also sells kampua mee and I saw a lot of people eating that but no, I did not feel like having that. Her mee goreng was very good…

…with bits of chicken and everything else, not too oily like some and bursting with flavours. I sure would not mind going back for it again and perhaps the next time around, I will ask her if she has a “special” – they usually have that, a fried egg or a fried chicken wing perhaps.

I had the kopi-o-peng/iced black coffee (RM1.50)…

…and good grief! It came in such a huge glass and the best part was that it was so cheap. I prefer the kopi-o, no ice (RM1.00) that I had the previous time though.  This one was too sweet initially but it was ok after the ice melted a bit by which time, the coffee was kind of diluted.

Business certainly looked very good these days – there were so many people eating there or buying to take away and of course, that is a good thing.

This noodle stall is located at Bandong Walk, Jalan Bandong, beside the drinks stall to the immediate right of The NASI LEMAK BANDONG WALK stall (2.313869, 111.825808) somewhere in front of the block of shops where Mastura Delite and the 1Malaysia clinic are.