When asked if he’s the nephew of Ah Leng (the famous Char Koay Teow seller in Penang), Frankie said yes. He’s from Penang too and could speak a number of languages including English.
I don’t know why I feel that I should mention this, but Frankie was surprisingly approachable. Maybe because many popular Char Koay Teow hawkers in Penang are notorious for being bad tempered.
You could order your noodles with either with chicken or duck egg. The latter runs out fairly quickly so you got to be early as not to miss it. Like many other hawkers who are struggling to make ends meet, Frankie’s CKT had seen an inevitable increase of price since last year. A small serving that used to cost RM4.50 is now RM5.00, while the large one is RM6. His eye protection wear reminded me of the lady at Lorong Selamat :)
The large CKT here is really large and could be quite filling, so no complaints there. Looking at the charred but not burnt surface of the noodles you could tell that it had a nice smoky aroma. And even though the taste is different from Ah Leng’s, I think it’s good that his CKT here has its own uniqueness.
The ingredients used by Frankie are also slightly higher in quality and plentiful as noticed in the larger than usual prawns. Aside from being a tad salty, the CKT was absolutely delicious and deep in flavour. In fact, I’d rank this higher than many already well-known CKT found in PJ. However, that’s just my own observation.
Frankie usually rests on Monday, sometimes unpredictably so I’d suggest you only to drop by purposely on other days. You could try bumping into him on Mondays if you happen to be nearby.
Restoran Four Eight (8888)
Jalan PJU 8/5C, Bandar Damansara Perdana,
47820 Petaling Jaya
Business hours: 10am – 3pm (until finish)
