Black gooey KL style Hokkien mee has a strong following in JB and Singapore, but good ones are rather rare here. So, whenever a KL Hokkien mee stall appears, social media will be abuzz with feedback on the noodles. The new KL Hokkien mee stall at Hoa Kee coffee shop in Taman Gaya, Ulu Tiram has been getting good response from JB foodies.
The stall doesn't have a name, just a sign saying KL Charcoal Fried Hokkien Mee. Stall holder Mr. 鍾 hails from Kuala Lumpur and had been frying Hokkien mee since he was a teen. He worked for many years in the popular Sentul Ah Yap Hokkien Mee (he mentioned the Damansara Utama outlet which has closed) in Kuala Lumpur.
We made our order and was given this number tag to wait at our table.
Mr. 鍾 was very busy working two charcoal stoves at the same time. From our table, we could hear non stop clanging as Mr. 鍾 worked the iron wok and noodles vigorously with his steel spatula. This is the unmistakable "music" we hear at KL Hokkien mee stalls.
Our piping hot noodles arrived after about 20 minutes. Our two person serving costs RM18.
It's the wet type of KL Hokkien mee with the noodles smothered in thick gooey dark sauce. The fat noodles (tai lok meen) were very slick, well greased with sauce and lard. The noodles were a bit too soft for my liking but they were very flavoursome. The savoury salty taste was robust with good depth of flavours. The fat yellow noodles provided a bit of sweet taste.
The generous amounts of lard and lard cracklings complemented the savoury salty sauce and sweet noodles well, so this KL Hokkien mee has a winning taste profile.
I like it.
There were prawns, fish cake slices, pork slices, cabbage, and chye sim in the noodles which added texture but didn't really contribute much to the flavour which is dominated by the dark sauce and lard. No pork liver, chicken liver, nor squid heads.
The savoury salty spicy sambal chili. We didn't use it much. (We also had fried rice from another stall which came with cut raw chili padi, which we enjoyed more with the Hokkien mee 😄 )
We happily finished the large plate of Hokkien mee because of the flavourful sauce.
Please note that as Mr 鍾 is elderly, waiting time can be long during peak hours. Sometimes, he may not be at the stall due to health reasons.
Update 17 Aug 2019. Mr. 鍾 is in hospital. He is hoping to meet with family with whom he has not met for many years. They can reach Mr. 鍾 through his friend Mr. Tay at ☎ 0187726128.
My tried and tasted list of KL Hokkien mee in Kuala Lumpur (I haven't tried Sentual Ah Yap) 👈 click
Restaurant name: KL Charcoal Fried Hokkien Mee stall
Address: Jalan Gaya 25, Taman Gaya, Ulu Tiram, Johor Bahru (Hoa Kee 好记 kopitiam)
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/uFHbB
GPS: 1.567759,103.801145 🌐 1°34'03.9"N 103°48'04.1"E
Hours: 5:00pm to 10:00pm
Non Halal
Date visited: 10 Aug 2019
would like to go and try. is the uncle chung still working there? any offdays i need to avoid? thks
ReplyDeletewould like to go and try. is the uncle chung still working there? any offdays i need to avoid? thks
ReplyDeletei would like to try, may i know whether uncle chung still working? and any off days that i need to avoid. thks
ReplyDeletei would like to try, may i know whether uncle chung still working? and any off days that i need to avoid. thks
ReplyDeletehi! any idea if this stall is still operating?
ReplyDelete