When in the past, you've only heard your mom reminiscing about this 茨厂街 (pronounced as 'chew cheong gai' in Cantonese), there's only one option...time to pay this place a visit! A few years back, my bro, sis and myself (siblings team) made a day trip to this place so this time round, we made sure we are able to stay a few nights there to explore more of that area.
Sis booked us rooms at Geo Hotel, which is just round the corner after exiting from the Pasar Seni LRT. Location was convenient as Petaling Street is just about 5 minutes walk away.
landmark of Petaling Street
For breakfast, you could opt for Hon Kee Porridge 汉记靓粥. This establishment has been around since our parents' time. Lots of tourists could be seen enjoying the smooth cantonese porridge from this stall. If the stall has no seats, just cross the road to the opposite side (near the bank) as those seats there are provisioned for this shop as well.
Hon Kee Porridge @ Petaling Street
Our usual orders would be mixed pork parts porridge (猪什粥) and fish porridge (生鱼粥). Place your orders and be seated. The staff will bring over when it is ready. The fried dough fritters or 'you zhar kwai' (油条) was nicely fried and crispy.
猪什粥 (chu chap juk)
生鱼粥 (sang yu juk)
If you don't fancy porridge, would you like to have some wanton noodles from Koon Kee? This is one of the famous and established stalls in Petaling Street, though lately many had commented about declining standards. Personally, I haven't tried Koon Kee.
Koon Kee
Take a stroll to nearby areas to check out other breakfast options. Perhaps some bak kut teh? If not, then there's also the Tang City Foodcourt to check out as well.
bak kut teh stall
There's also a stall selling dim sum if you like those. Be awed by the size of big pau. When we say big pau, we meant it. I found the siew mai a tad too tough for my liking but perhaps that also meant that it had packed more meat into it?
assorted dim sums
charcoal skin big bao, shang yuk bao, char siew bao
For decent local kopi, I prefer the one at Tang City Foodcourt over the one at 'Cha Wong' (茶王). The kopi at Cha Wong has a higher acidic sharper taste that's more tea-like than kopi-like.
Oooh, because it was Lunar New Year, we chanced upon a lion dance performance at the Guan Di Temple (关帝庙). So lucky of us!
lively lion dance
As you walk along, you will also encounter old hawkers who has been setting up stall at Petaling Street since their younger days. For example, the pancake uncle and the muah chee aunty.
pancake uncle
muah chee aunty
The coconut pancake retails for RM1 per piece and the muah chee is RM5 per box. Prefer the original muah chee as opposed to the multi-flavoured muah chee.
deft hands
years had gone by
Of course, when in Petaling Street, you will be looking for Sei Ngan Zai (四眼仔) or 'four eyed boy' roast duck stall. Hmm, but it is operated by two ladies wor and none of them wear spectacles. Why is it called Sei Ngan Zai? Half a duck for RM28 and one for RM56. Bought half to bring home and it was rather yummy.
Sei Ngan Zai Roast Duck
ate the roast duck with maggi mee
For the young and hip, there's also cafes around this area. The nearest would be Toast & Co. which exists inside the Grocer's Inn, a backpackers' hostel, or Coffee Amo and also Merchants Lane.
If you like old school bakes, there's the well established Fung Wong Biscuit (Confectionary). It was closed for a while and now it has reopened its doors. I do like their bakes especially the salted egg yolk pastry.
Fung Wong Biscuit
If you're thirsty from all the walking, there's Air Mata Kucing (Cat's Tears or Cat Eye Water?) or Kim's Soya Bean shop.
air mata kucing or ling chee kang
Read about previous visit to Petaling Street here.
Located at Jalan Hang Lekir, within Chinatown or 茨厂街. An old establishment that has been around since 1949. Various signages are hung near the stall front, and that serve as menu as well as advertisement of who's who that had tried its porridge.There's a picture of Mr Chua Lam (蔡澜), a renowned food critic. This porridge brand has even made it to Lot 10 Hutong in Guangzhou!
Hon Kee Porridge stall front
order here
So, my sis did the ordering while we relax and sat at the table outside of Hong Leong bank, behind the Mata Kuching stall. This was our second breakfast stop for our Petaling Street walkabout, with the first one being Lai Foong Beef Noodles at Jalan Tun H.S Lee.
table for three
mixed parts pork porridge 猪什粥 with a plate of raw fish (grass carp, we think)
The stall helper will bring the porridge to your table. The practice here is cash on delivery.
smooth, pipimg hot porridge with crispy intestine (@RM6)
fresh raw fish slices (@RM10)
There were only two sizes of raw fish that day, large or extra large. But I'd gladly put down RM10 for this plate of beauty.
Since clean comfortable washroom is of top concern (well, at least to me!), I opted to enjoy the fish by dipping it into the hot porridge. Fresh and mildly sweet.
Porridge was smooth and has very clean flavour. Tasted like it was simply salted. Hence, a dash or two of soy sauce is essential. The crispy intestine was enjoyable as well as the other thinly slices parts such as tongue and meat. Maybe because porridge flavour itself was non-heavy nor was it full-bodied, then that allowed the flavour of the raw fish slices to shine through.
Located at Jalan Tun H.S Lee, near Petaling Street 茨厂街 or KL's Chinatown.
cross the street to the coffeeshop
Lots of old eats around this area and Lai Foong Beef Noodles is one of them. Rained in the morning so weather was gloomy and the train ride to the KL station was so cold. Brr...
Lai Foong coffeeshop has been around for about 59 years now. Can't say if the things in it was/is the original but it looked pretty retro. A quaint old school coffeeshop.
as though time had stood still
older coffee shops usually have large mirrors with wordings on them and Lai Foong is no exception
breakfast time, before 10am
Main purpose here, was to try the beef noodles as it has attained a reputation as one of the must-eats in Petaling Street.
busy preparing the orders
beefy goodies, kept fresh in iced water
Not sure what's the recommended, so ordered a 'lai fun' noodles beef soup with everything inside.
Lai Foong Beef Noodles soup (@RM8)
'lai fun' (in Cantonese) looked like thick bee hoon and chewy like laksa noodles
Beef broth was light, tinged with sweetness but with a slight gamey beefy smell. Liked the preserved vegetables inside the soup for its salty sourish tang. Double slices of everything, such as meat, tendon, tripe, omasum (牛百頁) and beef balls.
Outstanding item, were the beef balls. Very dense, and as the Chinese likes to say, "bouncing off the teeth". The lean meat was thankfully, not too lean nor was it stringy. It was meaty, with a tiny bit of tendon. However, the tendon was not as soft as would've preferred. The tripe and omasum were winners with its super soft texture that had absorbed the light flavour of the broth. Quite yummy.
a bowl of comfort, on a cold day
As the flavours of the meat was pretty mild, most of the time it needed that dip in the chili sauce. Shared the rather big bowl with my bro, and we left satisfied.
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