KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 21 — Wantan mee is not for young lovers. At least, not for those on their first dates.
The risk of splattering the dark sauce all over your pristine new shirt when tossing the noodles with your chopsticks – or worse, if the splatter goes wide and hits your date.
The horrors.
Which is why wantan mee is for seasoned old couples or platonic dining companions who have seen you at your worst, streaks of gravy dripping down your best, freshly pressed garments. Or so I reckon.
This must be the only reason why one is up so early and in the heart of the city for breakfast. My workout buddy Chai had come across this wantan mee shop during one of his weekday drives to drop his girlfriend off at work.
(The latter part is something I understood all too well, having used to make the journey every Monday through Friday from Taman Desa to Ampang Park on chauffeuring duties.)
Why brave the insane traffic back to Old Klang Road when one can hunt for food in the city instead? A morning meal here ought to be much the same: carbohydrates, protein and fats.
Or maybe not.
For one thing, the shop in question — Kei Suk Wantan Mee — is at a more off-the-beaten-path location, right behind Caltex Jalan Pudu if you squint. It is a nondescript unit in an old building that has seen better days, just off Jalan Brunei.
One might imagine there will be a dearth of customers given its less-than-approachable site. On the contrary, nearly every table is occupied and the auntie taking the orders warns that there is a 30-40 minute wait.
Sounds promising.
While waiting for their signature char siu wantan mee, you’d be wise to also order a cup of kopi. There’s nothing like a bit of caffeine to keep one awake until the meat, noodles and dumplings arrive.
Make your order then enjoy your wait with a cup of kopi. — Picture by Chai Chi Wei
People watching seems to be the morning pastime here; many of the tables are occupied by old uncles, mostly regulars by the looks of it, shooting the breeze. (Note: It’s not eavesdropping if you can’t help but speak Cantonese too.)
The owner is cooking up a storm, his efficient movements like a ballet: tossing noodles into boiling water to blanch one moment, slicing char siu the next.
Cooking up a storm. — Picture by Chai Chi Wei
From slicing ‘char siu’ (left) to serving (right). — Picture by Chai Chi Wei
Each plate of char siu wantan mee (clearly their signature dish, given how every table orders at least one) has a haphazard appearance – from the spatter of soy sauce to the barbecued pork heaped in a mound without ceremony.
That’s how you know it’s going to be good. There is no need for fancy plating when the food speaks for itself.
The noodles are springy and toothsome. The char siu, despite its coarsely chopped up look, is surprisingly tender despite the lean being favoured over the fat. Sweet, slightly smoky with a mild bitter aftertaste.
Chai tells me that the stall owner is the second generation to run this stall; the shop has been around since 1962. It’s considered to be the oldest wantan mee stall in Pudu.
Little wonder there hasn’t been any need to reach out to new customers or walk-in traffic – this is the sort of place where if you know, you return, time and again.
But come early; most days the stall sells out well before noon. (Also overheard: the auntie telling a customer that they are off on Sundays and Mondays but sometimes they take extra days off because the work is, understandably, back breaking.)
It’s unfussy kopitiam-style cooking, hailing back to yesteryear. This feels like nostalgia for a place you have never, in fact, visited before till today.
Some customers also order Kei Suk’s sui kow soup, with or without the noodles. They are plump bites of pleasure, for sure.
‘Sui kow’ noodle soup. — Picture by Chai Chi Wei
Yet this is a wantan mee stall after all. The final verdict comes down to the shop’s ingot-shaped dumplings. Thankfully Kei Suk’s fat and meaty wantans more than pass muster, each a slippery morsel with that distinctive “swallow tail” silhouette.
Fat and meaty ‘wantans’. — Picture by Chai Chi Wei
How elegant and all the better to smoothly glide down one’s throat.
And yes, there was sauce splatter and stains. But this is why you have breakfast with your gym mates and not your first dates.
Kei Suk Wantan Mee
Off Jalan Brunei (behind Caltex Jalan Pudu), Pudu, KL
Open Tue-Fri 8-11:30am, Sat 7:30-11:30am (Sun & Mon closed)
* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.
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