Gou Lou Choy fish head

It was my good old friend KP who told me about Gou Lou Choy (高佬财). Gou lou (高佬) in Cantonese means 'tall fella' and Choy (财) apparently is his name. The assumably lanky GLC runs a fish head meehoon (鱼头米粉) stall in Shui Kee (水记) coffee shop in Jalan Alor, KL. About a month ago, GLC opened a shop in PJ selling his specialty.

 

The makan place carries his nick name - Restoran Gou Lou. The shop is located on Jalan SS 21/60 in PJ Uptown, Damansara Utama, not too far from Jin Xuan Hong Kong dim sum restaurant. It is on the same row as the PJ Uptown OCBC. When KP told me about the new PJ shop, my wife and I did not loose much time heading there.

The shop has a big picture of GLC and his Jalan Alor stall. Indeed he looked very tall.

When we arrived at the place on a Saturday morning, it was rather quiet. As we progressed into our meal, the breakfast crowd started to move in.

Gou Lou offers fish head noodles in various styles. You could have fried fish head (i.e. fish head, deep fried before being cooked in the noodles), or you could have the "original" un-fried fish head. You could opt for clear soup or you could prefer milk in your soup. You could also have tom yam soup with your fish head and noodles. If you do not like fish head, you could even have a bowl of curry noodles with seafood or chicken. Beside fish head, they also serve fish meat and fish paste. The menu is quite comprehensive. And of course, they serve the usual beverages.

My wife ordered the fish paste (鱼滑) with noodles in milky soup. The fish paste was so very nice. They were smooth and chunky and tasted fantastic. The milky soup was rich, sweet and aromatic. 

I had a bowl of curry mee with seafold. It was OK, not fantastic. The curry was so-so. There were shrimps, sotong, la la, tau fu pok and some long beans. But I kinda regretted ordering the curry noddles. Next time, I will go for fish head.

We also shared a bowl of fish head soup - without noodles. We opted for the un-fried "original" fish head, without milk. There were some hum choy (咸菜) and tomato in the soup. The soup was somewhat salty but otherwise very delicious. The fish head was really very fresh - not a trace of fishy smell. However they obviously used fresh water fish as I could detect a little taste of mud. All in all, we were glad we opted for the un-fried fish head as we really enjoyed the freshness of the fish in the soup.

Our experience in Gou Lou was great. This is another place, like the sisters curry laksa, where the success of a humble coffee shop stall has grown into a full fledged restaurant. We will definitely return to Gou Lou. If you like fish head and enjoy this unique Malaysian way of cooking it in noodles, you should pay GLC a visit - either in Jalan Alor or in his brand new place in PJ Uptown.