Flavourful wantan mee with chicken feet Acquired taste needed to en, joy this dish

Flavourful wantan mee with chicken feet Acquired taste needed to en, joy this dish

By SAM CHEONG

THE Tung Koo Kai Keok meen or chicken feet with braised mushroom noodles is a dish for those with an acquired taste.
You either love or hate it and for the health concious weight watcher, this is a bowl full of evil. And not every stall that sells wantan noodles can whip up a gooddish.

Growing up the Klang Valley provided me with an insight on where to locate some of the best Tung Koo Kai Keok meen.

But before I get into the details, let me start by saying this: if you are fearless, have no regards for uric acid and cholesterol and have an appetite the size of Godzilla, this particular noodle dish is definitely for you.

Okay, what makes the Kai Keok great is the way it is prepared. Chicken feet, with its claws removed, is marinated in the Em Heong Fun (five spices powder) and deep flied until crispy.

Then, a process of braising it slowly under low heat begins. This softens the chicken feet until you can suck the skin, fat and tendons in whole and spit out the bones.

There are several variations in preparing the braised chicken feet and if red chillies and soya bean paste are added, it becomes a dim-sum dish that goes by the exotic name of Fung Chaw (Pheonix Claw).

Okay, back to the chicken feet noodles. The braised feet and Tung Koo (Dried Chinese mushrooms) are actually add-on items that go with a plate of wantan mee.

So, if you look around, some noodle stalls do serve their charsiew wantan dishes with the Tung Koo Kai Keok.


Having said that, 1 am going to talkabout my quest for the perfect plate of chicken feet noodle at a stall in Section 17, Petaling Jaya.

This place was recommended to me by my buddy Eddie Chua who is a regular there.

And when I am working on weekends, this is one of the few coffee shops that I frequent because the food here is pretty decent.

Okay, having covered the location, the stall in question is Hong Kee wantan noodles. Now, some makan kakis (I can't call them foodies because they are unrefined guys who eat everything) of mine told me that Lucky coffee shop, where the wantan mee stall is a tenant, has been around for quite a while.

To verify this, I referred to my old buddy Andrew Chong, The Star's deputy chief photographer and Section 17 resident.


Chong told me that the wantan mee stall is a food outlet that he frequents for breakfast. "Eh, you must try it out lah, the wantan mee there is quite good," he said.

With Chong's assurance and a need to get my chicken feet craving satisfied, I made a trip to Jalan 17/42 where the coffee shop is located.

And since this is a densely populated area, finding a parking lot can be a challenge. So, to resolve such an issue, I parked far away.

I ordered a plate of kwon lou Tung Koo Kai Keok meen from one of the guys at the wantan noodle stall. Service was prompt as my meal was delivered in less than 10 minutes.

As expected, the meal was sumptuous in flavour. It didn't take much effort to eat the chicken feet and the mushrooms.

Since I asked fora large helping including charsiew and wantan, the bill came up to RM6.50. For Petaling Jaya's standard, I can't complain because the good taste made up for its price.

Now, if you scour the entire Section 17 area, there are at least four wantan mee stalls. What I found after eating there for a year was Hong Kee stall that really stood out.

This particular stall opens as early as 7am in the morning and closes at about 3pm. To get to section 17, the nearest transit point via LRT is from the Asia Jaya station near Menara Axis.

From here, you can jump onto the T628 or T629 shuttle bus. Just remember to get off at Jalan 17/38. If you drive, park at road 38 where there is ample public car parks.

To you gearheads out there, the GPS coordinates are: 03 07 744 N 101 38 120 E. So, good luck and happy hunting!

This is the writer's personal observation and does not reflect Star Metro's endorsement.



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Prawn Noddles mee at The Unlimited coffee shop in SS14/2 Subang Jaya

Prawn noodles worth a try
It is served laden with ingredients

CARTOONIST Reggie Lee conveyed a message to me via a colleague recently. He said the best prawn mee can be found in Subang Jaya's ss14/2. It is located at a coffe shop called "Unlimited". What a strange sounding place!

After somesearching, I found out that it was located opposite the Wong Soon Kee coffee shop. This is also one of the oldest food outlets
in the township famous for wantan noodles.

That aside, I set out on a quest to try out Lee's recommendation. And it wasn't hard to locate the eating outlet because of its proximity to the New Pantai Expressway.

On a late Saturday morning, I decided to head there with my wife Michelle. By the time we got there, the coffee shop was packed with customers and lucky for us, we found a table in front of the prawn noodle stall.

Without any hesitation, I ordered a bowl from an Indonesian woman Who was helping out at the place.

"Ah boss, want to add pai kuat? cheong? far yuk?", she asked. I asked her to dump everything into the bowl of noodles.

Michelle ordered a bowl of pan mee while I patiently waited for the prawn noodles to arrive.

I was wondering if the noodles would measure up to what I usually eat at New Apollos coffee shop in USJ 4?

Service was prompt and I was charged RM6.50 for the bowl of noodles and just as I was about to sink my teeth ito the noodles, a guy came up to me.

He gave me this strange look and said:"You are from The Star right? I read your column a lot!".

For a brief moment, I was dumbfounded. When I came out of it, I extended my hand for ahandshake.

Michelle was laughing and saying, "Wah, I never knew you got fans eating here lah."
After the brief interruption, it was back to eating and I found that the prawn mee at "Unlimited" coffee shop is of a decent standard.

There is a generous portion of noodles and ingredients. For RM6.50, I would say that what I would expect from Lee's recommendation was fulfilled.

I was told that on weekdays, the stall closes by 11.30am. And since this stall is open during lunch hour, the best thing to do is to head there early. There is ample parking space here if you drive.

For you gearheads out there, the la-long coordinates for this makan place are 03 04368 N, 101 35 371 E, So, good luck and happy hunting!

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The Big Red Food Review is Red Fm deejay Alison J Victor's (Aly)

Good food in a relaxing setting
The Big Red Food Review is Red Fm deejay Alison J Victor's (Aly) experiences with fellow deejays as the foodies dine at various eateries in the Klang Valley

AMID the hustle and bustle of the food court on the first floor of Pavilion Kuala Lumpur sits a stylishly decorated restaurant, tucked away in a corner.

With sleek lines and mirrored walls, touches of Asian decor and splashes of colour, Rain Nudle House is a great place to sit and enjoy a contemporary Thai meal. I can see it being a convenient stop for a quick, fuss-free lunch, or a destination for shoppers to have a leisurely
dinner.

To put it simply, the food was good; the service, friendly; and the decor, modern and relaxing.

This time, it was just Dilly (Red Breakfast) and I, and our photographet Kah Wai sitting down for a cosy meal.

We tasted all kinds of dishes, starting off with the otak-otak. Fragrant banana-leaf parcels of spicy fish mousse gently steam-cooked to a melt-in-your-mouth consistency.

For a hot and spicy soup, try the clear Hot and Spicy Seafood Tom Yam, overflowing with generous portions of prawn, squid and fish.

And, for a cold starter, try the March Mango Salad with Crispy Catfish, drenched in sugar and lime. Dilly almost licked the plate clean!

One of my favourites was the Sizzling Japanese Beancurd with minced prawn andchicken. There is something about sizzling dishes that makes my mouth water even before I have seen what is coming. The subtle "hiss" as the food cooks on its journey from kitchen to table, followed by the heady scent of garlic and oyster sauce, and the visual of the dish actually sizzling before your very eyes ... it makes the taste explode when it reaches your tongue, hot off the plate!

Another dish that was very tasty was the Deep Fried Garoupa with Thai Chilli Sauce - a whole fish doused in a nice blend of chilli, garlic and ginger. ~

Staying true to its name, Rain Nudle House offers an assortment of noodle-based dishes that reflect the various flavours inherent in Thai fare. The noodle dishes were packed with flavour and impeccably cooked. I liked the Stir Fried Koay Teow with Chicken and Light Soya Sauce, served with Thai Chilli Prawns, and was informed that people came from near and far to savour the Thai Beef Balls Noodle Soup, a house speciality.

But, it was the Thai Laksa served with Green Curry Chicken we ended up tasting instead. I was pleasantly surprised when, instead of a bowl of soup, a plate arrived at our table. On the plate were three portions of laksa noodles, French beans, pickled cabbage, bean sprouts, basil and a bowl of green curry. This is a great way to eat, because you can make your own laksa, and adjust the amount of ingredients to get it just the way you like it.

Kah Wai adored the Stir Fried Pasta with Sweet and Sour Prawn. Cooked in a thick red sauce with a generous helping of prawns, it is an Asian twist to the Italian Fusili. Good to enjoy on its own or as a sharing dish.

What I enjoyed most of the experience was the ease in which we enjoyed our food. Simple, quick yet relaxing. A haven of calm amid the hustle and bustle. Sipping on a tall cool drink of Lemongrass Juice, I felt rejuvenated and ready to continue my shopping. Modern Thai for the modern woman; that I liked very much.

Try Rain Nudle House for yourself! Starting Monday May 4, listeners will have a chance to win RM100 vouchers in The Big Red Food Review, Eleven2Three with Aly. Only on Red FM, Today's Best Music.

Klang Valley 104.9, Georgetown & Seberang Prai 107.6, Taiping 98.2, Tapah 104.9, Ipoh 106.4, Johor Baru 92.8, Batu Pahat & Malacca 98.9, Negri Sembilan 106, Kuantan & Pahang 91.6, Kedah & Perlis 98.1