Lot 10 Hutong

I have heard about this food court at Lot 10 shopping complex in KL. It is known as Lot 10 Hutong (十号胡同). They apparently picked the best street foods in Kuala Lumpur and brought them together in this one place. And apparently they are quite renown. They even have the endorsement of Hongkong celebrity food critic, Chua Lam. With such apparent credentials, who could resist a visit?

Crystal wanted to go to the Sungei Wang Plaza to get something one Saturday. We took this opportunity to go try out the place. Fortunately the drive to KL that morning was smooth. We parked our car at the Sungei Wang, took the pedestrian bridge across to Lot 10. We were inside Isetan. We walked down to the lowest floor (I think it was like the basement) and we were there - Lot 10 Hutong.

In terms of ambiance and environment, this food court was perhaps one of the best I have experienced. It was cozy and comfortable. The lights were soft. The seating was not mess-like rows of tables and chairs. Instead, there were small isolated groupings of tables and chair between food stalls. With this arrangement, we didn't get the crowded feeling.

 

The food stalls were all bright and cheerful. The food they displayed all looked very good and tempting. I walked around surveying what they had to offer and had a hard time deciding what to eat.

 

Here are more visuals of the place...

We finally settled down to some food. As starters I got some yew char kueh (油炸鬼). I realized it was hardly the stuff for an appetizer. But heck, who cared. I liked it.

The best Hokkein fat noodles in KL was apparently brought to this place. So we had to try it. It was not bad. I don't know if it was the best. It had sufficient wok-hei (镬气). It is hard to define wok-hei. It is a Cantonese concept. In simple terms, it means they had used a sufficient strong flame to fry the noodles. There was also ample chu yaw char (猪油渣) in the noodles. This actually is a very important ingredient in Hokkein fat noodles.

The 2 pieces of popiah looked pathetic. But they were really not bad. There were adequate crunchy stuffs in it.

This plate of hor chien (蚵煎 - oyster omelet) was not good. The omelet was rather dry. The egg was actually separate from the flour. Again, the white bulging oysters looked like eggs of some lizards to me. And that really put me off. I have to remember to stop ordering hor chien again.

I wanted some soup. Beef soup sounded like a good idea. So I went around looking for it. I asked the wan tan mee stall. They said "yeah sure, we have beef soup". But it did not turn up to be my expectation. It was not the type of beef soup I was looking for. The soup was very MSG. The beef portion was meagre and did not taste good. And it was very expensive. They charged me about RM9.00 for this silly bowl. Ridiculous.

I also wanted more noodles. And I found the char koay teow (炒粿條) at a remote corner of the food court. It was good but certainly not the best. It was Penang style - with a couple of large prawn, Chinese sausage, and of course see-hum (鲜蚶 - cockles). But the taugeh (bean sprouts) were way over done.

This very sweet bowl was peanut flavored shaved iced. I do not know what exactly was in it. I took a taste. It was very sweet and I didn't go further. There was lots of ground peanuts and I believe there was also some sago. I don't know what else...

Lot 10 Hutong is perhaps a little over rated. The foods there are certainly not the best in KL. The choices are OK. They apparently have 26 stalls. And each stall is unique in what they offer. No two stalls sell the same food. But they are bloody expensive. The Hokkein fat noodles for example, was RM15 and the char koay teow was nearly RM10. With that sort of prices, we could eat in a hotel.