Many sacrifices are made when one leaves home and migrates to another city, state or country.
Home flavours is one of them. For Penangites we have heard it all the time, they have the best char kuey teow and prawn mee.
For Ipoh it is the hor fun and dim sum. Melaka lay claim on the most authentic Nyonya fare (though I personally find that debatable) while the east coast has their nasi kerabu and lekor.
Sarawak’s laksa and kolo mee are legendary.
Now, what about Sabah?
Other than seafood and fish noodles (I’ve only been to KK twice) I drew a blank myself. It was only nearly a year ago that I knew of “tuaran mee” and that it is available in KL!
A friend who is a Sabahan gushed positively of Ah Soon Kor’s Tuaran mee.
It took me a year to get myself here for I’ve wrongly assumed that the noodles are only available in the mornings. Since weekday mornings is not an option, weekend mornings were all I had.
And trust me, weekend mornings are just as difficult to secure a slot.
And now after a year, I realized that the restaurant serves Tuaran Mee for lunch and in the evenings too!
So here I am, tucking into a plate of delicious Tuaran Mee and admittedly getting more hooked with each bite.
It is easy to be addicted to Tuaran Mee really. For RM8, there are so many ingredients and it is so insanely flavourful!
I found out too that Tuaran Mee is unique from other noodle dishes in Malaysia. The preparation of this dish involves deep frying the handmade egg noodles followed by boiling it before it is fried again with egg.
The result is delicate springy and wavy noodles with a pleasant smokiness. Ingredients thrown in include homemade char siew, vegetables and pork meat.
The overall taste is umami-rich and wonderfully eggy.
Trust me, it is delicious and you will find it challenging to set down your utensils until the last noodle is safely in the mouth.
Now, I haven’t had the “original” from Sabah thus I would have no base for comparison but as it is this dish is gratifying so I’m not complaining.
Another local Sabahan delicacy we tried during this visit was the Beaufort Mee (RM8).
For Beaufort Mee the noodles are smoked foremost and then a starchy gravy is poured over it. I like how this noodles has a more pronounced smoky char. The standard ingredients of vegetables and pork are cooked with the gravy with the char siew added after.
When queried, Mr Wong, the owner stated that the noodles for both dishes are made using different recipes.
Honestly? Beaufort Mee reminded me of our local cantonese (ying yong) noodles.
We shared a Vietnamese Pho (beef or chicken version available) as well as a whole steamed tilapia.
The beef pho (RM7) uses local beef and the soup was light. The flavourful Tuaran Mee totally outshone the pho so it didn’t leave much of an impression on us. We won’t be ordering this again since there are other better choices on the menu.
The fish on the other hand was exemplary; flaky, sweet fresh flesh in soy sauce garnished with plenty of ginger and garlic.
So if you are a fan of noodles and have not tried Tuaran Mee or Beaufort Mee from Sabah, you can enjoy it in Petaling Jaya now!
Ah Soon Kor offers a variety of steamed fish (tilapia from Rawang and garouper etc from Sabah) as well as other popular dai chow dishes.
I spied pork belly and stewed pork ribs which translates to a revisit pretty soon. Do let me know if you are keen to join me?
Last but not least, our beverages that evening were the Teh C special and freshly brewed barley. The former was disappointingly diluted while the latter refreshing.
When you dine in, you would notice that there are 2 chilli pastes on the table; one fluid and orange and another a thick, dark paste.
Both of these can be used to favour the noodles or any dish you order. I’ve tried both but I found that Ah Soon Kor’s dishes (or rather the ones we have that evening) are tasty without the need for extra chilli.
***Ah Soon Kor is open every day from 11am till 3pm and 5.30pm till 10.30pm but it closes on alternate Mondays.
Ah Soon Kor
42, Jalan SS 3/31, Taman Universiti,
47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
