90 Year Old Senai Noodle Shop with Coconut Shell Fired Stove 士乃干捞面

This is a quaint little shop well known among Senai residents for its old school noodle and stove fired by coconut shells.

Stall name: Senai Noodles 士乃干捞面

Address: 44-42, Lorong 2, Taman Bahagia, 81400 Senai, Johor, Malaysia (beside Senai Proton Anggerik Motor)

Hours: 8:00am - 3:00pm (Fri off)

We had some difficulty locating the shop - drove a couple of rounds around Taman Bahagia but couldn't find it. I got down from the car and asked some local men having kopi at a coffee shop. "Oh, it's just beside the Proton at the main road".

It's the yellow shack at the intersection of Senai Highway and Lorong 2. The Proton car dealership is the big blue building.

Inconspicuous and easy to miss, so just look for the big blue Proton building first.

Uncle 蕭 Siao and his sister who are both in their 70s now are second generation owners of this humble shop selling snacks, drinks and noodles. Their father came to Senai from China in the 1920s.

Most, if not every, Senai resident knows Uncle 蕭's shop as it is near the Senai Chinese elementary school SJK (C) Senai. Uncle 蕭's late father also sold noodles inside SJK (C) Senai tuck shop.

For 90 years since Uncle 蕭's dad's time, generations of locals come here to chill.

Uncle 蕭 used to use wood to fire the stove for boiling water and cooking noodles. But, he switched to burning coconut shells when he could not get a regular supply of wood.

Uncle 蕭's shop is famous for using coconut shell to fire their stove.

Elderly Uncle 蕭 cannot hear or speak very well anymore, so we have to communicate by gestures and hand signs.

Despite that, Uncle 蕭 is very chatty and friendly. He loves visitors and visiting his shop is like visiting his home.

It's a simple bowl of generic yellow noodles wrapped in lard and dark soy sauce topped with char siew, fish cake slices and some greens (price RM6.50). Comes with a bowl of pork soup with a tau pok and fish ball inside (all generic).

The first thing that struck me when Uncle 蕭 brought us the noodles was how much pride he put into making the bowl of simple noodles. I like how those slices of char siew were carefully cut and fanned out across the bowl. The choy sum were greased and the greens were gleaming deliciously when the morning sun fell on the bowl of noodles.

Uncle 蕭 and his dad before him used to make their own egg noodles but have stopped due to old age. That's why locals still refer to Uncle 蕭's shop as the wanton mee shop.

The next thing that struck me was the aroma of the blend of lard and dark soy sauce. It was the smell from my childhood. So, the smell of school tuck shop noodles are the same between Senai and old 1960s Singapore.

Uncle 蕭 is very hospitable. Seeing that there were three of us sharing one bowl of noodle and soup, he brought us another bowl of pork soup to enjoy. Like the noodles, it tasted like the soup at my primary school tuck shop in Singapore.

Uncle 蕭 came to chat with us and showed us some of his precious old photos. This picture of Uncle 蕭 in his 20s at the airport with a MSA plane in the background caught my eye. Between 1966 and 1972, Malaysia and Singapore actually operated a joint airline known as Malaysia Singapore Airlines, before MAS and SIA went their separate ways.

Bidding Uncle 蕭 good bye as we got on way on our whole day food trail.

Truth be told, Uncle 蕭's noodle isn't going to blow many minds but that's not the reason for dropping by his shop. It's more to pay Uncle 蕭 and his sister a visit and also revisit the simple taste and smell of our old school tuck shop in 1960s Singapore.

That quaint little yellow shop along the Senai Highway beside the Proton car dealership will close for good when Uncle 蕭 retires.

Other interesting food in Senai 👈 click

Written by Tony Boey on 21 Sep 2022