Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Yang Kee + Otak-Otak Place

Oh yes, a food crawl. Which means there'll be a sequel!


The second stop brought me to a residential area that was as unfamiliar to me as Tanjung Tualang and Nibong Tebal. With the help of my faithful 2006-2007 edition of a certain brand of KL’s printed map, I managed to get there in 20 minutes. Not too bad, HairyBerry. I beamed and was very confident that I would be among the first to arrive. But I was not aware of the extremely limited parking spaces surrounding the wet market. Damn...That aside, the wet market was a food haven! At that point, I must admit that I was jealous of the residents here. Besides the colourfully canopied, tantalizing stalls filling up every inch of the market, there were also many restaurants within the vicinity that exude a certain old kopitiam charm. There is NO reason to not to have breakfast in Taman OUG, absolutely NOT! The most attractive, to me, was an impossibly crowded pork noodles stall that spilled out from a cornershop to the adjacent alleyway. It was a sight to behold; the blistering sun, the steaming soup, sweat, chunks of minced pork, the Chinese newspapers, and lard – all the essentials to a hearty bowl of ala wet market pork noodles. I’ll be back to give this a try, definitely.

Back to Yang Kee, the menu was a spread of mostly divergences of the signature beef noodles. The virgin that I was had the infamous dry version with egg noodles and a bowl of soup consisted of beef, tripe and beef ball. Too bad about the rather soggy strands of noodle as it would have enhanced the overall experience, given the well-seasoned minced pork topping. I can’t help but to compare this to Ngau Kee, which offers a sweeter, stickier topping and springier noodles. Some had the lou shyue farn that proved to be a better choice. I wonder if the minced pork will go well with thick rice vermicelli. Another important dish that we shared was the braised brisket with daikon. I could almost salivate, fantasizing about the toffee-coloured braise as it presented itself in front of me. Despite a tried and tested (and loved) formulation of cinnamon, star anise, soy and pepper, there was something that didn’t feel right. It was a certain powdery substance that somehow brought the whole fantasy to an abrupt end. Thank goodness for the soft cuts of brisket, complete with a good amount of attached fat. As for the daikon, too hard for a braise, I thought.

The table was filled with talks of the declined standard of Yang Kee. The virgin wouldn’t know. His mind has wandered off to the pork noodles stall.

If a few hours of songs from the 80s and 90s don’t warp one back to the days of being playful and free, perhaps a visit to Otak-Otak Place will. We were at this local-themed cafe right after a karaoke session at Neway. Local in the sense that the dishes were everything a Malaysian can relate to; otak-otak, nasi lemak, roti jala, chicken rice, mee rebus and asam laksa. Oh, and a cup of hot teh tarik with cream cracker. Local also relates to the props the proprietor used as decoration – toys and games that we all loved when we were young like toy soldiers, Happy Family cards and Lego. I wished they’d offered bottle caps for us to play as well but perhaps it’d be too noisy for a restaurant setting.

Thanks again, Precious Pea, for organizing this outing. It was certainly memorable and we should do this again when you are back. Great meeting my other blogger friends as well! I’ve not met some of them since my first gathering at My Elephant in 2007! Time does fly when we’re having fun, doesn’t it? Maybe the next crawl should..erm, MUST end with a dinner or supper. In the meantime, eat well!

And thanks Simon for the yummy buttercake from Taman OUG wet market!

Yang Kee
52 Jalan Hujan Rahmat 2
Taman OUG
Jalan Klang Lama, Kuala Lumpur
Click here for Precious Pea's earlier experience.

Otak-Otak Place
Lot LG 311B
Lower Ground Floor Oval
1 Utama Shopping Centre
Bandar Utama
Tel: (+603) 7727 4181

20 comments:

Selba said...

Our Indo otak-otak looks more like fish cake... I wonder how msian otak-otak tasted...

Precious Pea said...

It was certainly a fun outing. Can't wait to meet up with you guys again...and yeah, let's make it to supper next time!

minchow said...

Happy Family cards!! HAHAHAHA! I love those! I think I'm going to shore up some of these gems so I can paste an entire wall of my future house with them!

Rebecca Saw said...

yes yes..atr food crawl please!!
When was the last one?? Aiyo ..missed those makan get-togethers!!

Lyrical Lemongrass said...

So sad that I missed that food crawl. A pity about the food, but at least the company was good, hor.

J2Kfm said...

and we polished off his cake while he was busy wailing away.

qwazymonkey said...

wah, balik saja then makan liddat! U must really miss Malaysian food. LOL

Ciki said...

young like toy soldiers eh? haha.. no longer young ler..

I want to eat here!

choi yen said...

adore the butter cake from OUG pasar~~~

HairyBerry said...

selba, i think it's about the same. i wonder why they call it otak-otak..hehe

precious pea, we shall do that when you come back!!!

minchow, omg, very interesting choice! haha. i think i'll put up food posters..hehe

thenomadgourmand, ya lor, must find time to do it again. december is good for me! :)

lyrical lemongrass, the company was excellent! u must come next time. karaoke included! hehe

HairyBerry said...

j2kfm, we so bad hor? hahaha...well, cakes and songs. what can be better, right? hehe

qwazymonkey, no lar. here oso i makan liddat. different kinda food only. u come here, we go makan next time. :)

cumi & ciki, come come! we go next time! i think the toycouple oso wanna go together-gether!

mimi, ooohhh, u tried before? it's good, right? hmmm, suddenly feel like baking leh..hehe

Jun said...

yang kee is da bomb for beef noodles! my fav! damn u nic why u put pics of my fav msian food on9 see la now u make me crave for them o.O

choi yen said...

i never try b4 ler...only read the reviews & saw the photo, enough to make me drooling....

HairyBerry said...

jun, more reasons to come back to kl? hehehehe...

mimi, u shd go visit the oug wet market. and try eat some of the stuff there! :)

Simon Seow said...

You're welcome Nic. So, when is the next Karaoke session? I'll be reaching Singapore this Friday. WeiZhi, Christine and Chris will be coming too for the Nuffnang Awards dinner. We got free and easy from 2pm to 5pm. You think you got time to meet up? We'll be staying at Link Hotel, Tiong Bharu.

HairyBerry said...

simon, woah, so many ppl coming over ar! so nice!!! i gotta work on friday leh...so sad!

jason said...

It's been a while since the last food crawl! Nice pitures as usual bro!

HairyBerry said...

jason, thanks for the compliment, bro! :) hmmm, we should meet up again soon. i'll be back in dec! :) must throw in karaoke as well!

fatboybakes said...

precious pea is intown????

HairyBerry said...

fatboybakes, no la. this was wayyyyyyyy back in jul 2009 before she left..hehe