By SAM CHEONG
JUST when I thought I had seen them all, my colleague James Lam, an avid foodie, invited me to have lunch with him.
“Eh Sam ah, you free or not? We go to Jalan Kuchai Lama for makan?” he said. I needed no coaxing, it is always an honour to makan with Lam because he goes to great lengths for a decent meal.
Lam and I had earlier met over breakfast and our topic of conversation was ... what else, but food, glorious food!
After making the necessary arrangements, the man said he knew of a secret spot that served yee thau mai (fish head noodles). I had been alerted to many such makan places but, according to Lam, this was one of the “unspoilt” places that I must visit.
Yummy: The Udang Galah beehoon is a notch better than the fish head noodles.
“It’s not commercialised yet and very few food critics know of it. So, we must check it out before its prices go up — especially after a review is posted in the newspaper.”
So, we met up for lunch on a Friday. The place is about a 15-minute drive from Section 16 in Petaling Jaya. Lam manouvred his vehicle through a series of housing estates before we ended up at Jalan Lazat, which is located near Happy Garden in Old Klang Road.
To the uninitiated, this is one place at the fringe of the city centre where there are plenty of good makan places. I can go on and on about the food here, but this week’s pick is a yee thau mai stall at the Choy Kei coffee shop in Jalan Lazat.
If you are not familiar with the housing estates in Old Klang Road, finding this coffee shop can be a real adventure. The landmark here is a row of hawker stalls; Choy Kei is the last corner coffee shop if you are coming from the direction of Happy Garden.
This housing estate brought back plenty of memories of the time when I was a secondary school kid. This was the neighbourhood my friends and I visited when they first acquired their driving licences.
High school romance was blooming and if you were a schoolboy with wheels, your social circle expanded tremendously. And, during the Chinese New Year, there was no shortage of red packets when we went visiting around the area.
My first encounter with the good food here was some 18 years ago. I was introduced to a steamed fish head stall in Jalan Lazat and well, that was the first and last time I visited the place. So, Lam’s invitation held sort of a “Happy Garden revisited” nostalgia for me.
At Choy Kei, he wasted no time in ordering the yee thau mai.
Creamy and tasty: A small portion of Choy Kei’s fish head noodles.
Now, prices here are at a premium. For RM6.80, you get a bowl of fish head noodles with extras like the yee wat (fish paste) thrown in.
To my surprise, the noodle dishes can cost up to RM13.50. I asked the food handler what the extras were and he said: “Ah, for the highest price, you get halved udang galah and yee wat along with the fish head.”
I found his description satisfactory and when the noodles arrived, I found it to be one of the best fish head noodles I had tasted so far.
The gravy was creamy as expected, and the portion of noodles and fish head were generous, so there was hardly anything that I could complain about.
Lam also ordered the sang har mai (prawn beehoon), which was a notch better than the fish head beehoon.
I had fresh sauteed udang galah halves and the the prawn’s aromatic flavour blended with the evaporated milk gravy to give it oomph! At RM11.50 a helping, this is the second most expensive noodle dish in the house.
Now, the “secret” ingredient that made my yee thau mai experience at Choy Kei complete was the chee yau char (pork cracklings).
No other fish head beehoon stall can come close to what this coffee shop offers and so far, it is the top contender for the best yee thau mai in the Klang Valley.
I was also told by Lam that there is a dancing cook in this coffee shop. Ah, well, that will be my excuse for a follow-up visit to Choy Kei.
If you plan to head to Jalan Lazat, be sure to get there early as the coffee shop is usually packed during lunch hour.
The GPS coordinates for Choy Kei coffee shop are 3 4’ 35” N, 101 40’ 43” E. This time round, I will be a bit generous by including the map from my Nokia maps screenshot that cost me a bomb for your reference.
And lastly, the fish head beehoon is a lunchtime treat, so be advised on the timing, and to all you foodies out there — happy hunting!
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