Dengkil's little secrets

Are you willing to drive  50 km for a good makan? I mean, a really good one. If you are, there is a small rustic restaurant in Dengkil that may delight you.

Dengkil is a small town in southern part of Selangor, not far from Cyberjaya. The name of the shop is Sinki (成记海鲜饭店), a modest small town makan place. We went there for an early lunch one Saturday. It took us about 40 minutes from PJ, driving along the LDP, passing Puchong towards Cyberjaya. From Cyberjaya, it was just a short 10 minutes away.

It is located at No.96, Jalan Besar in Dengkil town. I will not attempt to provide any directions here. I would be writing too much. Jalan Besar is clearly shown on Google Maps. Following Google's direction is perhaps the best way to get there. I also have a very rudimentary map (at the back of their business card) which may be of a little help. It is really not that difficult to find.

The place is, like I mentioned, modest. It is a typical small town Chinese place. It cannot be more rustic than this...

But it has distinguished testimonials. On the walls of the food shop are pictures of some well known visitors - among them were Chua Soi Lek, Koh Tsu Koon, Chan Kong Choy and Michael Chong.

We had a fish, deep fried and topped with a really delicious sauce. The fish was very fresh and very well fried. The greatness was really in the sauce. It was absolutely delicious on the fish. I could taste soy paste, chili, garlic and ginger in it. What made it so great is probably proprietary that I would never find out.

The deep fried udang galah was superb. Udang galah is a fresh water prawn with a massive head. I don't normally consider it a good eating prawn because it does not have a lot of meat. A lot of the head is inedible. But the udang galah in Sinki was so very well fried that you could actually eat the complete head. It was crispy and every morsel of it was deliciously palatable. The fried prawn was cooked in a nice sauce. To me, Sinki's deep fried udang galah is a must-try.

Next was the sayur paku - a popular Malaysian green. It was plainly fried and its freshness made it a very enjoyable dish.

Our final dish was a pak cham choy yuen kai (白切菜园鸡). It was another enjoyable dish. Just look at my picture and you can perhaps see the firm texture of the chicken meat and how good it was. It was served with a oil-based garlic sauce. Dip the meat in, and every morsel was delicious.

It was a great meal. We were unanimous that our drive to Dengkil's little secret was absolutely worth the while. Apparently Sinki has 6 signature dishes. The fish, udang galah and the chicken were three of them. We will be there again for the other three.


Oh yes... There is another little secret in Dengkil. It is the Hainanese pau (包). I will tell you about them after our next visit.