In the case of duck, the first thing would be, the right marinade. Depending on the Chef/Si-fu’s expertise, this could be rice wine, five-spice powder, dong quai (Angelica sinensis) herb and some other secret ingredient even, to be added to the mix.

this old timer has been working at Soon Fatt duck for yonks 

The meat would then, have to be soaked in this concoction for at least 24 hours. Next the correct amount of heat is employed to roast the duck, in just the right manner. Add patience and perseverance to the mix, and just at the right moment, the bird is lifted from the fire drum, to reveal, the perfectly roasted duck.

Well for those who know, let them roast duck. And for those who don’t, let them eat duck instead. I don’t know how, but I do know a great duck when I see one. And the roasted duck at Soon Fatt is bloody marvelous. With a fat and plump body and just a thin layer of fat, below the crispy skin, this duck is to die for. Cumi has been eating here since his teens. He says the stall was not only famous for its roast duck but for its ‘glassy’ barbeque pork as well. Glassy because of its glazed look. You would pay a slight premium over the regular barbeque pork which is also available. In recent years, sesame roasted chicken became another addition to the menu.

In this area in Pudu, you can really get some terrific hawker eats, check out our posts on The Little Eat Stall, Pudu Wet Market in the evenings  - Indonesian cuisine, Chinese cuisine, and Pudu Thirst Quenchers on a Sunny afternoon.

Soon Fatt does a brisk business starting at 9am and ending at around 4pm everyday. You can call in to reserve a table.

so sophisticated! 

The duck gets the chop

they are even on that popular social networking site;)

The rice here has an aromatic garlic flavour on top of meat stock used to cook it

Decent portions for 2 persons. Our roasted duck came in sections of breast and leg. It wasn’t not too fatty. The meat was tender and the skin slightly crispy. Sweet BBQ pork slices in the background.

And if that’s not enough, (and it normally never is, with Cumi) you can dip into the next door’s food offerings.. incidentally it’s an Indian Muslim stall. He ordered a plate of fried egg noodles (Mee goreng mamak) and as you can see, the portion is pretty generous. Ah.. sedap – Tasty!

Beijing Roasted Duck 

We’ve recently been frequenting a well established and very popular food stall in Pudu aptly called Little Eats Stall. The stall shares a dining space with an Indian muslim food stall and another Chinese food stall under the shade of a large canopy tree and a mix of corrugated zinc and ceramic roofs. Just how popular is this place? On a good day, they are sold out as soon as, a little after noon time!

While most food stalls would focus or specialize in one dish, the Little Eats Stall has 5 different specialties offered on different days of the week. As we continue on with our post, we thought this song might be the ideal accompaniment.

The ‘white knight’ Chef and wifey

Here’s what you can expect at the Little Eat Stall in Pudu. On Mondays and Thursdays they serve, Ipoh Kway Teow and Lam Mee. On Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays they serve Meehoon Fish Head and Fish Paste Noodles, and finally on Wednesday, they serve Pork Mee and Porridge/Congee.

The wife takes orders, is the public relations officer, provides kitchen help, and takes phone reservations. She carries a mobile phone (number at the end of this post) and she can actually reserve the noodles for you if you are going to be late, getting to the stall. However, she can only hold it for an hour or so.. so you still have to get there by the agreed serving time. The ideal time to arrive for your meal here, would be at around 11am or earlier. Be sure to keep your schedule open as the wait can be long. There is no other person cooking except the chef, brightly clad in white.

Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays they serve Meehoon Fish Head and Fish Paste Noodles

The fish head noodles are fab. The soup is murky, rich and sweet – sufficient to envelop any noodle you choose to go with the dish. They do not add any evaporated milk in the soup – a common ingredient of this dish – so you can imagine how natural this tastes, as the murkiness is caused by all the pure fish stock alone (or whatever secret ingredients added). The broth has a terrific hint of chinese wine flavouring to it. Afficiandoes of this dish require the kick of the chinese wine.

The chopped fish meat and bones of an unknown variety were fresh, and not overcooked. We left the table with empty bowls and many bones beside them. If you don’t enjoy fish bones then you might not enjoy this dish.

Looking around the place, Cumi spotted this larder, where regular patrons of the little eat stall, keep their different brands or mixes of Chinese wine. When they arrive for their *bespoke dish with choice of meats, they take their own respective bottle (all numbered or signed for easy recognition) and add the wine to the soup. Wow, talk about “kao”(concentrated). For me and Cumi, just the regular wine in the broth will suffice. There’s really no need to add more, as the wine flavour is already pretty apparent in the soup. I guess these regular patrons to the Little Eat Stall are what you might refer to as hardcore.

This friendly lady likes to chat with us. She noticed that we came several times too late, and all the food was sold out. She kept saying to us- oh, you really need to wake up earlier, if you want to try all the noodles here at this stall!

Pak Cham Kai (white boiled chicken) for the Lam Mee. Only free range variety sold here for the natural great taste.

What’s the matter.. chicken?

Mondays and Thursdays they serve, Ipoh Kway Teow and Lam Mee.

The chef’s ‘lots of feeling’ expression when cooking each bowl and yes.. there is ajinomoto (MSG) used.

The Lam Mee might be the most popular of all Little Eat Stall’s dishes. There are times we would arrive to find it is completely sold out before noon. If you do get there early, it can be a long wait but it is worth it.

Lam Mee isn’t at the top of our favourite street food list but the one cooked up here might be one of the best we have eaten.

The Lam Mee here, employs the thick yellow egg noodles (Tai lok mee) that people used to use to stir up Fried Hokkien Mee. It’s actually starchier and heavier than your regular thin yellow egg noodles. These noodles are doused in a gravy made of prawns and pork ribs and chicken stock with eggs stirred in at the end. The translucent gravy resembles a thick, brown, viscous sauce. It is then served with toppings of bean sprouts, shallots crisps, chives, deep fried pork lard and massive chunks of sweet chicken breast or thigh meat. You can also have an order of chopped chicken on a separate plate – which was the preferred order of the regulars.

Tai Lok Mee

The Little Eat Stall where an old tree provides additional shading on top of the zinc, tarpaulin and ceramic roof.

A hardwood plank supporting a massive trunk. The support has already been fused with the trunk with passing time

An antique concrete street lamp provides a new home to a plant

Old trees line many streets in Pudu. Before the large development to build connecting roads to ease traffic and an underground tunnel to clear storm water, there were many old colonial houses and government quarters in Pudu. Today, the traffic jams still remain even with the new roads but few ancient canopy trees remain to shade and keep road users or pedestrians cooler from the heat.

Pudu history intertwined

and finally on Wednesday, they serve Pork Mee and Porridge/Congee

The pork noodles are delicious as well. A meaty, sweet and clear broth of pork with deep fried pork lard and a trace of Chinese wine to flavour it. The intestines are scarce, and I may have to ask for more offal the next time. Be sure also to ask for the egg, if you like a yolk in your noodles. We did not realise that we had to request for this. No worries. We will be back again, soon enough I think, and there is plenty of time to get it right.

All the dishes here start at RM5 each. Super affordable, quality stuff.

Earlier we stated *bespoke dish because, apart from selecting the ingredients available at the stall counter, The Little Eat Stall welcomes its regular clientèle to bring their own meats and seafood to be added to their favourite dish. On one occasion, on fish head noodle day, we noticed a mini buffet of fresh crab, razor clams and crayfish laid out on a side table. You could imagine our glee seeing the ‘seafood spread’, only to be extinguished when the lady boss mentioned that it was meant for a private party seated at selected tables around the stall.

It’s getting harder to find such good ‘little eats’ in city these days. This place is indeed a gem in the heart of bustling Kuala Lumpur.

If you had played the tune and read it this far, never come here on a Sunday.

the sexy, slurpy and super tasty Sarawak Tomato Kwey Teow

The best Sarawak tomato noodles in Petaling Jaya can be found, right here, at this very stall. The wok-hei (smoky aroma from the wok) permeates the kwey teow noodles and the tomato base is just flavourful enough, without over-doing the “tomato-ness” of it. I hate it when the entire dish ends up tasting like tomato ketchup! Not so here. It’s a heavenly, sloppy mixture of orange colored sauce and juicy stir fried meat such as chunks of chicken breast meat, prawns, charsiew (BBQ pork), fish cakes, vegetables and bouncy flat rice noodles, that goes down only too easily, in one satisfying slurp.

If you ever head to Kuching,  you will understand why the locals are so proud of this dish. The tomato mee,  is the other version of tomato kwey teow that you should try. It is  served with thin, deep-fried yellow noodles rather wide noodles. Once the tomato covers the crunchy noodles, it softens and imbibes all the delicious flavours of the tomato sauce. Terrific stuff!

the better Sarawak Kolo Mee – tastier than restoran Gembira, it has to be said

a fabulous char kwey teow as well – this place can do no wrong!

Cumi is having trouble getting anything to eat – I’ve just finished his kolo mee and am moving on the his tomato noodles. No wonder he had to grab the CKT before I devoured that too!

Restoran Megah Good Luck… for the best tomato noodles in PJ!

Here is the famous lady of Restoran Gembira Kolo Mee

One popular place with the locals, for ‘Kolo Mee’ or ‘koh-loh mien’ is located in Taman Megah, Petaling Jaya, one of the suburbs of KL. There’s just something about the curly egg noodles they use here, which is addictively bouncy in texture and has a great way of soaking up the sauces and catching the flavour in the kolo mee. You will notice sliced up prawns and seafood at the stall indicating that they serve Sawarak Laksa here as well. Sarawak Laksa is actually very different from the regular curry laksa as the soup contains no curry at all. It has a base of Sambal belacan, sour tamarind, garlic, galangal, lemon grass and coconut milk, topped with omelette strips, chicken strips, prawns, fresh coriander and optionally lime. Ingredients such as bean sprouts, (sliced) fried tofu or other seafood are not traditional but are sometimes added for taste.

With regards to the Kolo Mee, the noodles may look unexciting, pale and bland even.. but when you taste it.. Oo-la-la, you will marvel at how tasty it is.

The varied condiments from minced pork to prawns, fish balls, pork balls and shreaded chicken even

sarawak kolo mee

I have to say, that though this shop used to be my favourite kolo mee stall, the standard of the kolo mee here has dropped somewhat. The flavour that once intoxicated me, was just OK this time. The Charsiew was unpalatable and hard.  There is another coffee shop across from Gembira that does a better Kolo Mee. Well, tomorrow’s post will talk about this shop and my favourite Tomato Noodles.. Stay tuned!

This part of town never ceases to amaze me. Pudu houses the city’s biggest wet and dry market to date - Pudu Market is a crowded market place especially in the early morning where there are plenty of stalls and makeshift carts containing merchandise from live chickens to different kinds of fruits. The sellers of Pudu Market are super-friendly and bargaining is allowed. You can actually bargain and lower the price of all your purchases before giving in to the merchants. You need to have a strong stomach, as the surroundings are not always clean and the smell can be awful in the wet market but you will find almost any food that you desire. Just south of the Golden Triangle shopping district, Pudu Market is highly accessible via LRT and is only a 5 minute of walk from the station.

we work hard for the money..

pudu market during the day

In the evenings, this same area converts into a night-time hawker area and you will spot butchers starting to prep the pig carcasses for the next early morning’s activities in the Pudu Wet Market. Chinese Bakuteh, Wantan Mee, Indonesian Cuisine, you name it.. they have it.

is that a tong sampah (rubbish bin)?

no.. guess again!

It’s a roasting contraption for for BBQ-ing the charsiew !

Final product looks delicious !

The calm before the storm..

Just next door, butchers are preparing to receive the pig carcass for butchering, to be sold at the next day’s wet market. Some take this window of opportunity to catch up on sleep before the chaos starts once more..

Ever wanted to know the secret behind the super smooth texture of the Hainanese-style Chicken or “pak cham kai” (white boiled chicken) skin?

After boiling the chicken, extract with a long chopstick. then, time to go for a bath..

ready? dunk it in…

From boiling water, straight into a super ICY COLD bath!

Does wonders for the skin. And that, is the secret to the super smooth white chicken skin!

The wantan mee Sifu, from the new generation, preps the wantan noodles, and our dinner is on the way.

The family has been operating the stall here for over 30 years. Everything is made fresh each evening.

Check out the green chilli at this stall – it’s unbelievably fresh and green and crunchy! The red chilli made fresh each night, and ours is still hot from the cooking pot.

Cumi’s wantan mee – topped with a generous dose of curry sauce and sprinkled with chopped chives and coriander. You can see the thick, semi-coagulated santan (coconut cream) in the curry sauce. At the base, a layer of pork oil adds even more taste overload. Its a cholesterol redlining dish!

My plate of kai-si (shreaded white chicken), wantan mee

The texture of the noodles is al dente. The charsiew is fatty and succulent. The chicken is sweet and smooth – a delightful texture! The ice cold bath really worked! There are generous chunks of fried pork lard in the noodles which I try to avoid. Cumi just mops up the entire lot. The flavour of the wantan mee is far out! Best I’ve had in ages. Probably best in Pudu too.

Wantan – small but tasty and bursting with minced pork

the starting materials

We keep coming back here for dinner because we can never get enough. They start late – at around 930pm, so if you get there early, you’ll just have to wait patiently till they get their food organized. You cannot rush them.. you just have to sit patiently and wait .. but the Wantan Mee will be worth it!