Keong Kee Famous Herbal Soup near Pudu KL 强记補品 ☎ +6016 227 8688

Keong Kee Herbal Soups is one of the type of places I travel for - We won't get exactly the same dishes and very unlikely to get this type of setting and vibes in Singapore now.

Stumbled upon Keong Kee on a rainy Wednesday evening in KL, on my way from Pudu over to Bukit Bintang on foot.

It's a large "restaurant" under a zinc roof and the shade of three or four large leafy trees. Yeah, "restaurants" under big trees 大树脚 (toa chew ka in Hokkien / Teochew or tai shu keok in Cantonese) are a fairly common thing, though I can't think of any left in Singapore right now.

I studied the stall front and menu intently but was hesitant to order as I was already very full from a whole day of food hunting 😂

Boss showed me his best selling herbal chicken soup in a coconut. The family has been selling herbal soup here for 40 years! His enthusiasm left me with no choice.

Yeah, with some people, to make a sale, you just need to be a little encouraging, give a little nudge 🤭

Keong Kee's signature and best seller is their herbal chicken in a coconut. But, I don't have the tummy space for it.

Anyway, I already had lots of coconuts these three days. Whenever I needed a drink or coffee, I had a coconut instead 🥥 RM5 or RM6 a pop at the mamak (Indian Muslim eatery). All natural goodness (I digressed).

I scanned through Keong Kee's menu. Zeroing in on the more exotic items.

Black chicken soup? No more.

Pigeon soup? No more.

Pig brain? I don't want. I heard very high cholesterol 😬

Ah! Turtle soup - that's it, I want that!

For RM12, truth be told, I wasn't expecting much. Just nice a bit of sampling to slot into the 1⁄4 tank still available in my tummy.

The soup was light, like a mild tea with Chinese medicinal herb, savoury, sweet taste.

I was surprised by the amount of turtle meat, feet, gelatinous skirt, etc that I was getting.

Most of the flavours came from the mild herbal soup while the very soft tender meat didn't have much taste on its own. The meat was over done (too soft) in my opinion.

Then, I saw another customer had a fiery looking, meaty curry. So, I asked the boss out of curiosity. It's wild boar meat, not on the menu.

I want to try lah.

Then, one thing led to another.

Tony has no will power 🤭

Curry wild boar meat was tender but chewy and didn't have much flavour on its own. Relied more on infused curry spices for its spicy sweet taste.

Finished the wild boar curry because I like taste of the thick spicy curry.....

.... (and the turtle soup too).

Stomach full, feeling very satisfied with a fruitful Pudu food hunt for the last three days.

Shall be back for their signature coconut herbal chicken soup and popular items like stewed pork belly with preserved cabbage, steamed pork with salted fish (comfort dish which Cantonese are emotionally attached to).