vkeong loves good food, travel and photography!
Prawn Mee
‘Keh Liao’ Penang Hokkien Mee (Prawn Mee) @ Old Green House, Burma Road
Aug 29th
Old Green House restaurant (老青屋) is a popular place among Penangites to have Hokkien Mee (or Prawn Noodle in other Malaysian states) either as dinner or supper. Although the noodle is also available in the morning at another ‘day shift’ stall, most of the working people only have the opportunity to savor it after working hours in the evenings. There is also a saying that they are actually catering to the group of late night goers, who crave for a bowl of hot noodle after partying into the night.
Besides being tasty, another reason it is popular is because you can ‘keh liao’ (request extra toppings) like roast pork, meat balls, braised egg, Chinese sausage, chicken feet, shrimps and etc. For those who are game enough to try, even pork intestines and pork skin are available too.
Hokkien Mee @ Cheok Sah Food Court, Bukit Mertajam
May 6th
I was about to give up hope on looking for a good Hokkien Mee (or known as Prawn Noodle to non Penangites) at Bukit Mertajam until I found a hidden small hawker centre next to the old Cheok Sah cinema known by locals as Cheok Sah food court. Honestly, being a BM resident for more than 20 years I didn’t even realize it existed lol.
For RM4 you get a honest bowl of Hokkien Mee with pork ribs, some halved prawns and lean pork slices.
The soup looks clear but it certainly did not lack the sweet prawn flavor, it was satisfyingly good until the last drop. Good thing MSG was not heavily used to achieve the taste, as I didn’t feel the side effects after that.
River South (Hoe Nam) Prawn Noodles @ Tai Thong Crescent
Mar 23rd
To be honest, besides Wah Kee’s Premium Big Prawn Noodles there is hardly any prawn noodle in Singapore that managed to really excite me. Sure, the prawns they use are big and fresh but I am not impressed by their tame prawn soup that seriously lacks that special kick. You know, the kind of flavor that once you taste it you can’t stop?
After trying all the purportedly popular and recommended prawn noodles in Singapore I have come to a conclusion that River South (Hoe Nam) Prawn Noodles is the best of the bunch. Hoe Nam’s prawn noodles is also not pretentious in the sense that the prawn soup itself is good enough, which does not require any huge prawns to make up for the ‘wow’ factor to impress the eaters.
Lean Gaik Hokkien Mee @ Chai Leng Park – Avoid it
Jan 3rd
If you happen to chance upon Lean Gaik Hokkien Mee at Chai Leng Park, all I can say is avoid it. Years ago when I was doing my industrial training at Perai, I went there once or twice before and decided that their Hokkien Mee was above average at best, didn’t really like it at all.
One of the reasons Lean Gaik is popular is because they let you add additional stuff into your usual Hokkien Mee like roast pork, mantis prawn (now no more) and Teochew fish balls. This proved to be an effective crowd puller back then.
Yesterday, I was at Chai Leng Park and decided to give them another try given that one’s taste bud could change over time. Turned out that I still didn’t like it and worse still, I hated it even more simply for two reasons: Hiring of Indonesian maids to prepare the food and excessive use of MSG.
Penang Prawn Mee @ O & S Coffee Shop, Taman Paramount
Dec 20th
After trying Wah Kee Big Prawn Noodle, I have concluded that although it is very good and also impressive with the huge tiger prawns, taste wise the best ones are still in Malaysia – specifically Penang.
Unfortunately due to my current circumstances I seldom step into Penang island anymore, unless I am taking a flight home lah lol. But then again, you don’t have to travel all the way to Penang to have a taste of great Prawn Mee (or what is more commonly known as Hokkien Mee to us).
At Taman Paramount Petaling Jaya there’s already an impressive prawn noodle stall that can beat most of the Penang ones. I was at KL three weeks ago to meet up with some friends and we had our lunch at O & S Coffee Shop.
Besides Penang prawn noodle, you can also find quite a number of Penang styled hawker food like Chee Cheong Fun served with thick shrimp paste, Penang Char Koay Teow and Lor Bak. It is an ideal place for any Penangites to cure their “foodsickness”.
Sang Har Meen @ Soo Kee Mee Stall, Medan Imbi
Nov 29th
Taking opportunity of the Hari Raya Haji holiday, went back to KL the last weekend to visit some friends as well as visiting some restaurants I didn’t get to cover previously. Since I was staying at a guest house around Bukit Bintang area, Soo Kee’s Sang Har Meen @ Imbi was the first one to come into mind for dinner.
I think I have some kind of bad luck whenever it comes to popular restaurants. Why do I always get scolding from the owners lol. First it was Kin Kin, now it’s Soo Kee.
If you have been to Soo Kee you must know that the restaurant is jam packed during dinner session. So there I was alone unable to find a table. Then when I finally got a table for four and sat there, the lady boss got all worked up, started to make a scene and said I was not supposed to sit there. I was asked to sit somewhere else instead, which was ALSO a table for four. Makes no difference right? So was the cursing and all really necessary?
I guess when your business is so big and good and be featured on TV so frequently, you can be all lan si and even screw the customers. Less 1 returning customer is nothing to them anyway.
