Hand Knead Noodle

Fried Pan Mee

In recent years, the hand knead noodle has become popular among many Malaysians across the different ages. There are at least seven different coffee shops that serve primarily the hand knead noodle in the new Puchong township. And that, is not counting the hand knead noodle stalls in various coffee shops that sells these type of noodle cuisine. And seen as a new business opportunity, these hand knead noodle shops has quickly flourished to other townships like Subang and beyond.

Pan Mee with Thick Vinegar Gravy

These coffee shops that only serve the hand knead noodles has reinvented the entire hand knead noodle cuisine by introducing new recipes to increase the range of offerings. On their menu there are easily twenty different types of hand knead noodle cuisines. In the morning market place where the hand knead noodle originated only have either the dry or soup type but today there are over twenty tasty flavours of the hand knead noodle.

The best in Mee Rebus, Mee Goreng, and Rojak

Mee Rebus

Among my wife's favorite casual Malaysian cuisines are the Mee Rebus and the Rojak or Persembur as it is called in Penang. These two cuisines can be found in Indian coffee shops where they often also serve roti chennai, mee goreng, dosa, curry puffs, briyani chicken rice, and many other Southern Indian cuisines. This kind of coffee shops are meeting place for all the different ethnic groups in Malaysia because it serves only halal food which is appropriate for mostly all dietary needs.

Rojak Persembur

So, these Indian coffee shops has become a place of congregations for Malaysians. Today, Indians coffee shops are so common that they considered a neighbourhood coffee shops. To every community in Malaysia, these Indian coffee shops has developed into a significant part of the growth and integration between the different ethnic groups in Malaysia. Therefore, these Indian coffee shops indirectly played an integral part to the peace and harmony in Malaysia bring the people together.

Mee Rebus Mamak

Although they serve only casual and simple cuisines, these coffee shops are often full with people. And the best cuisines these coffee shops can offer are the fried noodles (Mee Goreng) and the blanched noodles (Mee Rebus). And besides the noodles, they have special days where they offer all kinds of curry dishes and rice dishes. Among which are briyani rice, tomato rice, coconut fragrant rice, curry fish head, beef rendang, and honey fried chicken.

Breakfast in Royal Subang Golf Club

Roti Chennai Dipped in Curry

I was in the Royal Subang Golf Club for breakfast with some friends who had just completed their regular weekend morning golf session. I only joined them for the breakfast and did not participate in the golf session. The breakfast cuisines was not really out of ordinary cuisines but just the normal casual kind of cuisines we normally find in any Malaysian, that serve Muslim food, kind of coffee shop. Of cause the cafeteria in the club house also serves Western breakfast.

Curry Puffs with Eggs

Since back in Malaysia, I have not even thought of any meal that is Western yet. I still prefer to eat as much Malaysian as possible before heading home to Vancouver. My simple breakfast meal that day in The Royal Subang Golf Club was Roti Chennai with curry. That was good enough to satisfy my taste buds. The simplest meals are always the best. They are cheap, satisfying, and flavourful. Not always the healthiest but control is important.

Plain Dosa

Other than roti Chennai, there were also dosa, curry puff, and nasi lemak among the morning choices of food served in the cafeteria. These are all popular Malaysian breakfast choices and have been the traditional breakfast among the different ethnic groups in Malaysia. In fact since the first day of my visit to Malaysia, I have had the roti Chennai at least five times and still haven't had enough of it. I really missed this simple South Indian bread that was introduced into Malaysia by the Indian immigrants.

Typical Malaysian Breakfast Meals

Curry Noodle

In the dozen of days or so that was in Kuala Lumpur, I practically spend the mornings eating typical Malaysian breakfast like curry noodle, prawn noodle and even Hakka yong tau foo. They are very heavy meals in comparison to the much lighter breakfast meals I normally have for breakfast in Vancouver. In the morning markets, is where you find all kinds of vendors, including food carts vendors selling all kinds of popular Malaysian rice and noodle cuisines.

Penang Prawn Noodle

In Vancouver we consider these rice and noodle meals to be meals worthy for dinner or lunch but people in Malaysia eat these for breakfast. So, to avoid over consuming, I always order a smaller portion. And that too seems a lot for me. It is not that I don't enjoy curry noodle, wuntun noodle, or prawn noodle for breakfast. I just want to avoid putting on the extra pounds which I will eventually have to work on taking off later.

Hakka Yong Tau Foo

Of the twelve days in Kuala Lumpur, I ate roti canai and nasi lemak breakfast at least twice each. Therefore I had eight days of breakfast to try the more Chinese kind of breakfast. So, I picked curry noodles, prawn noodles, wuntun noodles, and yong tau foo for breakfast on at least one of the days. I could not exactly remember which day it was but that I ate what but I have eaten these noodle cuisines at least during one of the breakfast.

Awesome and Authentic Thai Cuisines

Squid Curry

One of the places I got to dine in Malaysia was a neighbourhood restaurant that specializes in authentic Thai cuisines when a long-time family friend invited us to dine with the family. This restaurant was not easy to find if one is not familiar with the surrounding road system in Kepong as it was hidden in between two adjacent neighbourhood of Kepong and Maluri atop an elevated parcel of land at the edge of the industrial park in Kepong.

Large Prawns with Petai Curry

And to make directions even more complicated, the restaurant does not have a name nor a sign outside its business location. I guess the people that come to dine here must have been referred by someone that had enjoyed the cuisines here. When we finally located the restaurant, I realized that we have been here many years before. And next to this restaurant, is another Chinese restaurant that also does not have a restaurant name displayed outside its' business premise.

Stir Fried Water Spinach

While waiting to be served, I noticed that the ambiance in the diner was not pleasant at all with smell of incense and joss stick burning creating excessive smoke in the diner. But most of the diners did not really care, they just went on with enjoying their dinner. As for me, my eyes were burning up with the excessive smoke. When our orders were finally served, we forgot about the smoke and the smell. We just ate as fast as we could so that we can get out of the restaurant.

Otak-Otak in Coconut

The diner might be a torment for some people but the cuisines were really good, tasty, flavourful and unique. I am not sure if the cuisines were authentic as I am not familiar with all of Thai cuisines. But I am sure everyone that have eaten here will agree that, they serve some pretty good Thai cuisines. I wish, I could have said that I truly enjoyed the meal there. The ambiance in the diner needs to be improved and comfort for diners should be a consideration.

Two of the most popular Cantonese Fried Noodle Cuisines

Cantonese Fry Thick Rice Noodle

Among the many different types of noodle cuisines that I have eaten, there are two types of Cantonese style noodle cuisine that are among my favorite noodle cuisines. I really love a good plater of the thick rice noodle fry with thick egg and chicken broth gravy. This is a popular noodle cuisine in Malaysia among Chinese diners. This popular Cantonese noodle cuisine is served in nearly all Chinese type eateries in Malaysia.

It is also a noodle cuisine that is

Cantonese Dark Soy Fried Egg Noodle

easily copied as the ingredients and style of cooking are common among restaurants, food carts, and food stall throughout the country. The second most favorite in my list of Cantonese noodle cuisine is the fried egg noodle with seafood and thick dark soy sauce gravy. These two noodle cuisine although commonly found in Malaysia but in Vancouver there are no similar noodle cuisines. I have come across somewhat similar noodle cuisines but yet to find really similar in taste and flavour yet.

Yaw Lee the popular neighbourhood Chinese Malaysian Restaurant

Honey Garlic Pork

There is this neighbourhood Chinese restaurant, Yaw Lee Chinese Restaurant, in Kuala Lumpur that we frequently dine in when we visit Malaysia. In fact, there are many of such neighbourhood restaurants in the Kuala Lumpur area where they have become family diners. Most of these popular restaurants are usually pack with family diners on the weekends and holidays. And no matter which of these Chinese restaurant we chooses, they serve the same range of popular cuisines.

Garlic Ginger Steam Fish

Due to popularity demand and diners' need for choices, there are many of these Chinese restaurants in each neighbourhood. But in the neighbourhood where my mom lives, Yaw Lee Chinese Restaurant is our favorite. On the popular cuisine list, Yaw Lee serves many of the Cantonese type cuisines that can also be found served in many other such restaurants but the menu listed prices at Yaw Lee Chinese Restaurant is the most appropriate.

Soy Sauce Clams 

Some of these neighbourhood restaurants can be very expensive to dine in if given the opportunity for them to make a quick profit. Other than cooking up some real awesome authentic Cantonese cuisines, these neighbourhood restaurants are also very good in taking advantage of their patrons by charging exuberant prices for specialty cuisines, like unique seafood cuisines. So, this is the reason we seldom order specialty cuisines when dining at these neighbourhood restaurants.

Fried Crawfish with Salted Eggs

If we wanted specialty seafood cuisines, we will go to a restaurant that serve specialty seafood cuisines. In neighbourhood restaurants such as Yaw Lee Chinese Restaurant the common Cantonese cuisines such as Honey Garlic Pork, Garlic Ginger Stream Fish, Soy Sauce Clams, Fried Crawfish with Salted Eggs, and Clay Pot Tofu Pork in Soy Sauce are some of the most popular and awesome cantonese cuisines that the entire family love.