A new acquiantance – both of food and person

Another deary Monday was salvaged at the last hour of work by an unexpected invite for dinner.

But …
Venue: Unheard of place.
Directions given: Vague. Turn left, car park, tabib cina (arghh?) and church. Road name? “dunno worrr.. ” Outlet? “dunno also…” Hmmm…
Person inviting: Never met him before. Now that I come to think about it, never spoke to before either.

Anyhow, promises of good chinese food, supposedly a better tai chow than Seng Kee on Jalan Sultan, and assurance that they do serve good noodles is too good to resist.
So, with some scribbled directions on a piece of paper, I braved the Pudu road jam at 530pm, and head towards Petaling Street, in search of churches, car parks and chinese medicine halls.

To give credit where it is due, that person wasn’t that hopeless in giving directions, and I found the car park and church pretty easily.
The restaurant and tabib cina was another thing entirely.

Part II: Meeting the person.
Call :
” oh hi, I’m in a very bad jam in front of Puduraya. Are you there yet?”

“Yeah, right in front of Seng Kee.”

“I see. Did you find the place? ”

“Nope, I found the car park though. Can we meet you here and you bring us there?”

“Ok, I’m in a (describe car model). I’m already on Jalan Sultan.”

“Great, we will wait for you; you can’t miss us, we will wave.”

So we waved enthusiastically at the first black car that matches his description.
Oopps, female driver. Wrong car.

Ahh.. there’s another one. Enthusiastic waving again. Driver looked at us askance and honked. Shit.

“He said he is already on Jalan Sultan right” my friend queried. “Uh huh..” I replied.
“Can’t be that long right..”. I didn’t reply to that.
For the next car both of us were more subdued and I peered cautiously at the driver..
Male – check.
Match of face to pics I saw before on blogs – ok, 70%.
Acknowledgement of driver to us – ok, car stopped and we were greeted warmly by Unkaleong in flesh. ;p

Finally.

Completely hidden, the restaurant was an old roofed “space” with typical tables and chairs of tai chow outlets that boast an open air dining concept

Famished, we got down to the ordering quickly. We went by UnkaLeong’s recommendations and I added an order of noodles just to test his judgment of food ;p

Cantonese Yee Mee (dunno exact name, moi no comprehend cantonese)
Loved it. The noodles wasn’t too crispy and yielded a satisfying bite. Flavourful egg gravy and generous pieces of soft chewy squids among other toppings made me abandon my bowl of white rice.

Braised Beancurd in Egg Gravy.
Same gravy, with addition of mushrooms. Even the mushrooms was prepared right. (I am particular about this as I do not like the “smoky earthy” taste of dried chinese mushrooms that is not rinsed properly). The deep fried bean curd was fresh and smooth.
Sweet and Sour Chicken – I think.
Both the onion rings and chicken was lightly coated with flour and deep-fried. I am not sure what sauce it was meant to be, for it was very mild and a cross between sweet and sour.
I liked the additions of onion rings here, something not too common. Fragrant and soft, it was a delight to munch on.

I personally thought the chicken would have tasted better if the sauce was poured over it instead of letting the whole piece sit on top of the gravy on the plate.
Maybe it was due to the onion rings? Well, nothing that a bit of mopping up of the sauce with the chicken and liberal dose of in-house sambal and green chili sauce can’t help.

Four Heavenly Kings. The pungent member was sorely missed though. But it’s ok, guess not everyone is a fan of petai.BEFORE:

AFTER:
Any guess for whose hand is that?? ;p
Another concurring thumbs-up!
Obviously a place that goes purely by word of mouth, the tables were slowly but surely filled up as the night progressed.
Overall, I liked the food here. While liberal douse of oil is common place in chinese tai chows cooking, thank god here the cook has exercise some form of prudence & likewise, condiments were added at the right dose, without any one flavour being overbearing in any dish, ie: none were too salty nor overly msg-ed.

UnkaLeong evidently has fond memories of this place. He regaled us with stories of how long it’s been in operation, how it used to look like, to remembrance of steam rice cooked in individual metal bowls.

I can feel the fondness he has for this place and his enthusiasm in sharing it with fellow foodies but apparently none has visited yet. (ahem..his foodie friends please take note! And yeahhh, the name FBB was mentioned a few times..)
He had even reminded me to blog about it. Ahhh… now with some really backlog-ged posts due, I honestly told him it will probably be sometime before I do so.

But hey, how could I say no, seeing how earnestly our Unka promotes his childhood outlet? ;p
So here it is; pics, directions, GPS and a story. No excuse for not paying a visit ok!

Restaurant Sang Kee
Jalan Hang Jebat.
Not visible from the main road, the entrance is via a car park which is right opposite the Gospel Hall Church.
Within the car park, there is a chinese sinseh “clinic”, behind it is this roofed open- air dining restaurant ;p

GPS: N03 08.597′
E101 41.956′

The meal cost RM55, with a pot of really fragrant chinese tea and 3 cups of white rice in addition to the above dishes.

chinese, KL, tai chow