Sentul Hokkein Mee

I was on a quest to find the best Hokkein mee in PJ and Subang Jaya. I still am. And my finding will probably appear on a separate posting at a later date in this blog. Anyway, my wife said she came across a shop in PJ Uptown that may be worthwhile to visit. And it turned out this shop serves a lot more than Hokkein mee and merit my review of what they have to offer.

The name of this shop is  a mouthful Sentul Ah Yap Hokkein Mee (冼都阿叶福建面) . It is located on Jalan SS21/37 in Uptown, Damansara Utama. The place obviously has its roots in Sentul KL, and the original shop has apparently been around since 1960. This shop is their 5th branch.

The place had quite a good crowd when we arrived. They had a comprehensive menu. And they appeared to have 2 kitchens. One was in front of the shop and this one cooks only noodles, including their signature Hokkein mee. Everything else emerged from the back.

After we ordered our food, I asked the boss if I could take some pictures. He was most obliging. The cook at the front kitchen was visibly pleased that I was taking his picture. He gave me a big smile.

The food wasn't too bad. The Hokkein mee made by the big-smiley fellow was really quite good. The noodles were well lubricated by pork lard and they were lots of nice crunchy chu yaw char (猪油渣). I know the best Hokkein mee must be from KL for our capital city is where is this unique noodle originated. This would be a good place to get genuine Hokkein mee without having to drive all the way there.

We also had a plate of Cantonese style "wat tan hor fun" (形蛋河粉). It was also quite nice. I enjoyed that as well. But I still preferred the Hokkein style.

We ordered a "Home Special Bean Curd" (家香豆腐) to supplement our noodles. It was deep fried home made tofu, served with a chili sauce. The tofu had some fish paste mixed into it. It was crispy on the outside and soft inside. Not too bad at all.

My wife wanted some soup and we had a bowl of seaweed. It was rich, with a good portion of the weeds and lots of other goodies in it. The soup was sweet and pleasant. Another plus for the shop.

We were greedy that night and ordered too much for 2 persons. At the end of it, there were substantial leftovers. The shop boss came over and concernedly asked me if the food was OK for our taste. I assured him that the food was good, just that we had ordered too much. He could had thought that I was a reporter or somebody doing an article on his place, having seen me taking pictures both on his restaurant and all the dishes we ate. I wondered if he had quietly asked his cooks to spice up our orders to make our dishes better.

Perhaps being a food blogger has its little advantages.