Ramadhan bazaar

We went for our Ramadhan bazaar walk last weekend. The bazaar we chose was at USJ 4, which is off Persiaran Tujuan in Subang Jaya. We were there rather early, just after 4pm. The stalls were all ready for business in this early hour. This bazaar in Subang Jaya was very well organized. The stalls were all very clean and they all had standard blue MBSJ canopies.

The advantage of being there early was that the place was not at all crowded and the foods were fresh. The disadvantage was the searing heat.

Enjoy these visuals of what they had to offer.

Surprisingly only one stall had the requisite dates for sale.

The Malays normally break their fast with some kuih muih. And there were lots of them.

This stall had several types of very tempting Malay noodles. I bought the Johor mee rebus. It was very good.

Spring rolls, curry puff, samosa, keropok lekor and others.

These lekor were particular good.

This boisterous chap kept calling me to take his picture. I obliged.

But this stall had much better drinks selection.

All these dishes to go with rice.

Murtabaks were very popular in the bazaar. Several stalls offered them.....

But somehow, only this stall attracted the queue. So we bought a couple of them and they turned out not bad at all.

Roti jala in big portions.

Kebab.

Chee cheong fun and various goodies in sticks.

He sold nasi briyani and other hot stuffs.

Chicken rice. The deep fried chicken looked very good. We bought some fried ayam kampung. They were delicious.

More chicken, hot from the oven.

Ayam perchik and other meat stuffs.

Ikan panggang or grilled fish.

What Malay makan is without satay?

Are they not too young to be in business? Regardless of the look she gave me, she was really quite cheerful.

Lemang and rendang - one of my favorites. I regretted I did not buy some.

A wonderful big wok of soup ekor (oxtail). What a sight to behold. But we didn't get any.

This type of Malay style fried popiah is actually very nice. I like them.

Kuih putu piring.

Donuts.

Tau fu fah of various kinds.

Selamat berbuka puasa.

Living Food

Somehow, I like this little makan place. It is not a fantastic restaurant. It does not serve a great variety of food. It has no dining ambiance. It is not a very friendly place. I cannot pinpoint the reasons but I do keep returning there. Perhaps I like the taste of their noodles.

The makan shop is known as Living Food Restaurant and its signature is apparently its "MKP Lum Mee". I have no idea what this MKP lum mee (淋面) fuss is all about. I have tried it and do not think it was exceptional. I normally go there for its kon lo (干捞) noodles.

Living Food is sited in PJ Damansara Utama Uptown, along Jalan SS21/37. It is directly opposite an open car park in Uptown, so parking in this terribly congested part of PJ is not a big problem. The place is clean, air conditioned and is very simple in decor.

The kitchen is staffed by some Indonesian ladies who are very efficient. The food is delivered almost immediately after you have ordered them.

The boss, who is rather grumpy and unfriendly, normally just sits at the counter and collects money.

The restaurant's offering is limited - just noodles in clear soup, kon lo (干捞), lum mee style (淋面) and curry. They also offer a limited variety of yong tau fu (釀豆腐) stuffs.

On our last visit, we did not order their signature lum mee, so I cannot offer a visual of it. But the kon lo was very nice. It had ample taugeh, shrimps and chicken strips in a nice thick sauce. Looked appetizing and tasted good.

The curry noodle wasn't bad either. The curry was rich and not too much santan. It came with see hum (鲜蚶), pieces of chicken, long beans and tau fu pok.

We also had some fish balls and fish stuffed fu chuk (釀腐竹) and brinjal. They were ordinary.

The fried shui kow (水饺) were stuffed with fish paste instead of a mixture of meat. They were also rather ordinary.

The above mentioned are just about all you can get in Living Food. And of course, the usual beverages. They are really quite unremarkable. But the place apparently does quite a good business with these "unremarkables". They normally have very good lunch crowds. Perhaps they got good feng shui (風水).

Living food is apparently a branch or franchisee of a lum mee chain that originated in Pudu, KL. I have not been able to get much info on this. Nothing much written about this in the Internet. I tried asking the boss of Living Food. But he was very unfriendly. He muttered a few words confirming the Pudu establishment and was unwilling to talk further.

Duck egg char koay teow

I first stumbled upon duck egg char koay teow several months ago in a coffee shop in Subang Jaya. But I did not think very much about it. Until I saw it in another shop in PJ. Then my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to give it a try.

The shop where I first saw the duck eggs was New Apollos coffee shop in USJ 4. It is a corner shop on Jalan USJ 4/6B, off Persiaran Tujuan.

It is an ordinary looking CKT stall. Apparently it started as such.

Then the guy started to offer duck eggs in his CKT. It got popular and he made a specialty out of that. The signboard above his stall has an added-on poster promoting his duck eggs. And a cutting of a newspaper article which he said was done without him even knowing about it.

I do not have much experience on duck eggs, so I really do not know how they compared to chicken eggs when fried or boiled.

But in CKT, duck eggs provide a distinct aroma that is very pleasant and I liked it. The guy at New Apollos made a creditable plate of CKT. The texture of the noodle, as stated in the newspaper cutting, was creamy. It was unmistakably different from chicken egg. However, I think he added "choy poh" (菜宝) - a preserved vegetable) into his CKT and I didn't quite like the flavor of that. Still overall, I enjoyed my first experience of this duck egg CKT.

 

Away from Subang Jaya, the other place that I had duck egg CKT was in Kelana Jaya, PJ. It was in Lin coffee shop on Jalan SS7/13B, off Jalan SS7/13. This is also a corner shop in the location where the demolished Kampung-ku seafood restaurant used to be, just outside the Kelana Jaya waterfront.

The stall is owned by a guy named Jasmi. I don't know what his ethnic origin is. I forgot to ask him. He looked like Chinese, but when I talked to him in Cantonese, he couldn't understand a word I said. We ended up communicating in English. From his slang, I think he is from East Malaysia.

He told me that his duck egg CKT is very popular among his regular customers. I asked him where he got the idea to put duck eggs into his CKT, he said his customers asked for it. When I told him that there was another place in Subang Jaya serving the same, he looked rather surprised. He thought he was the only one around selling CKT with duck eggs. He believed duck egg CKT originated from Penang. Penang folks - any idea? I personally have not encountered duck egg CKT in Penang on my many trips there.

Jasmi's CKT had the same distinct duck egg aroma and creamy texture as the stall in New Apollos. But I liked Jasmi's better. It was somehow more fragrant. It did not have the taste of choy poh (菜宝). Also, Jasmi served his CKT with a small plate of sambal belacan. It was a great complement. 

The duck egg CKT did not come cheap. Both places charged RM 5.00 for their plate. Normal chicken egg CKT is only RM 4.00. The duck egg is RM 1.00 more. Quite a price to pay for just a duck egg.

So far, these are the only 2 places I know that serve this deviant popular Malaysian culinary icon. Is duck egg CKT set to stay? Will the popularity spread? Why not? It tasted very good. I like it and I believe it so will a lot of other Malaysians.