SFS vs FSF, at The Char Siew Street of Aman Suria

I remembered my first visit to SFS in Aug09, & the 50mins wait that followed our order, even though it was only 1130am.

We appeased part of our hunger with this; dry pan mee which was not the least memorable.

I almost changed my mind about the pan mee when my wan tan mee finally arrived.
It looked even less appealing and made the long wait seemed fruitless. Besides, I thought the portion was rather measly.

Though one is always preached not to judge a book by its cover, this one proved to be a spot on.

1st thing I must mention about is the mee. Perhaps to some, it is considered ‘Q’, a term used to describe the elusive consistency where the noodles are both elastic yet tender.
To me, it just was dry & hard to the bite.
The sauce that it was bathed in neither excites nor spurred the jaded tongue.

The famed char siew can be merited a ‘good’, DEFINITELY better than most, yes I agree, but certainly would not be my PERSONAL chosen choice should I have any char siew cravings.

The wan tan (pork dumplings) were nothing to shout about either. Well, at least the soup fared better than Famous Seremban Favourite’s.

I thought perhaps it was a bad idea to come on a weekend or maybe I’ve got a bad cut of char siew. Hence a re-visit is required. Or so I had vowed.

Anyhow, the dismal memory lingered on, & I never made it back.

But then again, when one is on the topic of char siew, the research is never complete if a comparison to the “other famed one” is not done.

So in Dec 09, I made it to THE Famous Seremban Favourites, with fellow foodie bangsar-babe.
This visit reminded me again that 747 or SFS, still awaits my 2nd visit.

The opportunity presented itself soon enough, when a friend told me of a decades old establishment in Loke Yew, named Hang Kee that serves the best char siew he had tasted. I immediately whisked him to Aman Suria and told him that these 2 char siew establishments has been supposedly the creme de la creme of KL char siew.

I then told him of my plan, to hop- eat on the “Char Siew Kai” (street of char siew) of Aman Suria, since there are 3 char siew outlets (another being the Char Siew Zhai) all within walking vicinity.

All in agreement, we started at 1030am at SFS. A tummy filler was ordered, & we braced ourselves for the notorious long wait.

So here I am back again in SFS/747 Char Siew shop.

Our tummy filler: A totally forgettable set of toast & eggs.

My friends was amazed at the crowd & I could feel their anticipation growing.

Anyhow, after a 35min wait, I find myself staring at almost the same sad looking plate of wan tan mee as I had in Aug09.

Well, I consoled myself, at least I can pass proper judgment now.

All of us dug in, and while they was pleased, some said they had tasted better.
Myself?
Same verdict. The mee was stringy & the sauce was nothing near of a worthy-praise.

I think the problem lies in the cut. Certain pieces were almost all fat, and the others were too lean. Perhaps if I have gotten well-balanced tiers of fat & lean cuts I might have enjoyed it better?
Anyhow, marinate & texture- wise, it was still good char siew.

So, tummy still rumbling, we ambled over to Famous Seremban Favourites, and repeated the same order.

Before that, let me rewind back to my 1st visit to Famous Seremban Favourites, where I had one of my mid-week lunch with bangsar-babe & Shum.

So here goes FSF, ROUND 1, in Dec09.

Bangsar-babe, Shum & I polished off bowls of Hakka mee, which to me was absolutely good to the bite & doused in the mixture of concoction of sauce that wafted of lard yet wasn’t as oily as the famous Pudu one.

We ordered a plate of char siew to share. It came with a small saucer of char siew sauce, which was a nice extra.

SOFT, GLORIOUS meltingly creamy fat with lean parts that didn’t require much chewing.

Heck, who are we kidding? One plate was like an appetiser. Hence the second plate.
This second portion was even better, simply cos it has well separated tiers of fat & lean meat.

Just for comparison, I took a picture of a single portion plate goes for RM4.50. Doesn’t look like much right? (this was someone else’s order by the way).
Do yourself a favour, just place an order of 2 straight up & save yourself the wait.

We added orders of Sui Kow, which wasn’t fabulous but edible.

The well-balance marinate, that was neither too sweet yet salty enough, gave the sticky shiny glaze that had many char siew connoisseurs drooling & moaning.
Parts of the caramelized crust at the edges of the char siew provided a pleasant smoky flavour.

The soya bean that you should NEVER order. Trust me.

There you have it, my 1st visit to FSF. The 2nd visit (below) is with my hop-eat friends, in continuation from where I left off after 747 (my 2nd visit above).

Our orders of wan tan mee took less than 15mins, and while it was packed with customers, I noticed that FSF maintains pretty good crowd control; ie orders were taken not long after you are seated (no frantic waving of hands needed), the food arrived in reasonably good time, & even payment was efficient.

The wan tan mee tasted so much better here. The smooth & SOFT yet springy noodles went great with the accompanying tasty mix of sauce, albeit a bit oily.

The char siew here won favours from my friends, and they declared it much much better than 747.

Bill recognised me from my first visit & came over to chat with us. He admitted that the noodles might not be consistent since it is cooked on the spot & their foreign workers are not that dependable. Which is why he is always in the shop overseeing the operations personally.
The char siew however, are under strict quality control since it is prepared beforehand.

He then added a separate plate of char siew for us.

Wonderful..

Luscious char siew with exquisite layers of fat.

Even the vinegared chilies & red chilli sauce is much better than SFS/747’s, although unnecessary. The fish ball soup is cooked with “ham choy” & hence tasted different from the wan tan soup base. The fish ball was bouncy enough, but lacked the fishy taste that bear testament of high ratio of fish meat used. The wan tan is not worth describing.

I bought packets of chicken rice here for lunch before. My advice is, stick to the char siew.

Random thoughts: I stared at this kid in amazement, and wondered if that would be what I might look like if I eat like this everyday ;p
I think he is the boss’s kid. Cute right???

Here a map for those who haven’t been here.
Bill, as you can see, is a highly educated fella, with all the BBA, B, M & whatnots on his cards.
But like he said, the best one that describes him is the 3 words below those titles. LOL!

I don’t think I’m qualified to say that FSF is the best in KL, since I have not tried as many char siew places as some bloggers I know.
I do opine that the char siew I had by Ah Khai; shop inside Simon’s Delight, opposite Sea View Coffee Shop in Paramount Garden bought by Ciki & alilfatmonkey for Potluck at Nigel’s is very good, though some find it a bit too soft.

Anyhow, if the final verdict is to be only between SFS vs FSF, then for me I would prefer FSF.