ALL-DAY SIMPLE SNACKS
Kepong Baru’s cosy desserts corner harks back to the good old days, writes Estung
LIVING in a Chinese village on the fringe of the city some 40 years ago, there were many dessert outlets that operated out of villager’s homes. You could get eats like wheat porridge, barley-gingko soup, red and mung bean soups and soyabean milk for a few cents a bowl, eaten at the outlet or packed home.
Some outlets also sold traditional snacks like yam cakes, crullers ( yow char
kwai), dumplings, wantans and the like to go with the desserts.
Most of these home-run dessert outlets operated from afternoon till midnight, offering the hungry a bite or two of traditional snacks. These days, such places are practically non-existent in Kuala Lumpur, unless you drive to Kepong, for instance.
I stumbled on an outlet in Kepong Baru at the junction of Jalan Kepong Baru and Jalan Ambong 4, adjacent to Kedai Makanan Lim Meng Kee. This outlet is simply named KTZ Food, Food Stall Restaurant. Perhaps its Cantonese name Kei Tuck Sek (which means “remember to eat”) gives a better idea of the nature of its business.
According to one of the waitresses, the outlet has been operating for over two decades. Originally catering to the people living in Kepong Baru and surrounding vicinity like Jinjang and Ipoh Road, people from as far as Damansara have been making a beeline to this underthe-tree eatery.
My wife and I are there on a Sunday afternoon, around 4pm and find the outlet packed to the brim. The 20-odd tables are all taken but fortunately, we soon managed to grab an empty one. Deciding on a light early dinner, I order a plate of Hakka minced meat home-made noodles while my wife orders a plate of Shanghai chee cheong fun or steamed rice rolls (RM3.00) and two cubes of steamed yam cakes (RM5.30).
For dessert, she orders a hot bowl of mung beans (RM2.65) while the shaved ice mango (RM7.20) catches my attention.
The service is quite fast. The Hakka minced meat noodle is springy and comes with a generous amount of minced meat cooked in soy sauce, garnished with two bulbs of blanched baby pak choy (lettuce).
The delightfully springy noodles are not oily but nicely moistened with minced meat gravy. It is also not salty. A fried chilli paste, done Szechuan- style, is served with the noodles for dipping. There are four hand-made noodle specialities of this eatery — the other three being Szechuan, shrimp-wantan and minced pork soup noodles.
The yam cake, however, is not prepared like those I have eaten before — that is with a generous drizzle of sweet brown sauce. This version comes looking quite plain so I decide to dip the yam cake into the fried chilli paste.
The Shanghai chee cheong fun has fillings made of minced meat and comes with a spoonful of thick brown sauce that is meant more as a dip than the usual gravy that bathes the rolled rice noodles.
The mung bean dessert is not too sweet but is well cooked, all soft and fragrant. To make it smoother, tiny sago pearls have been added during the preparation. This brings back childhood memories of how my mother would serve this dessert on a warm day.
The mango shaved ice is served in a bowl that is almost overflowing with the yellow puree which covers the mound of shaved ice. At the base are bite-sized cubes of fragrant mango and as I dig up the base of the yellow volcano of mango puree, I find sago pearls as well — no doubt the secret of this delightful thirst-quencher.
Among the desserts served at the outlet include gingko-barley soup, bubur cha-cha, sweet black glutinous rice porridge and sweet potato soup (all priced at RM2.65).
For those who prefer more nutritious desserts, they also have steamed longanfrog jelly (suet kap or snow jelly) at RM8.50 a bowland the gingko and white fungus steamed in honeydew melon (RM6.60). The snow jelly dessert is good for the complexion and to ward off the flu and cold.
There are fried and steamed snacks, including seaweed rolls (RM4.80), lotus paste cakes (RM4.80), paper-wrapped chicken (RM4.80), fried yam cake or wu kok by its Cantonese term (RM4.60) and crab meat in beancurd (RM6.40).
Steamed snacks include steam yam cake (RM2.65), Shanghai chee cheong fun (RM3.00), loh mai kai or glutinous rice with chicken (RM4.00) and Shanghai dumplings (RM4.45).
Although the menu comprises over 17 types of fried snacks, nine types of steam snacks and some 17 types of desserts, not all are available daily, depending on the demand. However, the availability of the items are subjected to the demand.
According to one of the waitresses, it is best to come in around noon when all the items are ready and if you want to have desserts for supper, try to be there latest by 10pm. Things are sold out fast, she says, especially during weekends.