Adai Village Fish Head 阿大鱼头米@ Pudu

A friend commented the other day ‘ wah..u write food blog ah , so good la, can have free food all the time, can I come with you ahhh ? ’, EHHHH, where got free food la..!! all from own pocket one lerrrr ( except where my fellow dining companions belanja me lorr, which sad to say, is not very often..*hint* hint*) ..meanwhile ….

We arrived at Adai at about 7:30ish on a Saturday , rather than sitting in the shop proper , we chose to sit at the five foot way,  to distance ourselves from the heat and smell of the kitchen. I was a bit surprised that the place was pretty empty, considering that I was warned that there are usually big crowds dining here.

Friendly man ( Michael)  came to our table and took our orders, we ordered deep fried fish slice noodles (you have a choice of fish head of fish slices, and plain or deep fried) with  thin noodles ( you can have thick ( chou- mai) or thin ( yau-mai) noodles,  and black bean paste +bittergourd wat tharn noodles.

For drinks, they had leong-char , lime and sour plum and canned drinks. I  opted for lime and soup plum since I am not a fan of the leong char of the day – pak-chi-chou. I was expecting the blended fresh lime version, but this turned out to be the pickled lime version, which was pretty nice too

When the  deep fried fish slices noodles arrived, we saw slices of fish perched on the soup ( I dunno why, but this reminded me of the synchronized swimmers) and the rest of the stuff were submerged under the sea of milky whitish soup.

We scooped the noodles into the smaller bowls, careful to make sure that we have gathered all the ingredients , salted vegetables, tofu cubes , fish slices, ginger into our bowls. The first bite into the fish slices.. oh la la…bells started to ring, these were absolutely wonderful fish slices !  Unlike the usual  fish meat that goes with fish head noodles where the meat will be kinda rough, dry and chunky, the Adai version appeared to be pan-fried versus deep fried with plenty of oil, the texture was smooth,  the sides were more burnt and hence more crunchy than the middle which was tender. Ahh…to die for la.. I think this would go lovely with rice.  interestingly even when soaked in the soup , the fish slices still maintain it’s texture. By the way, I find the soup and the noodles average only la..but I could still go on about the fish slices…

 

The black bean paste +bittergourd wat tharn noodles had plenty of bittergourd slices plus fish slices , capsicum and ginger slices. Plenty of  ‘fire’ ( wok hei) from this dish, the bittergourd slices were crunchy (I would prefer it to be softer) and not bitter , the fish slices were bland and tough ( what a pity)- we found the gravy being a tad too sweet for our palate.

 

One thing I must say, they are generous with the ingredients and the portions are pretty  big as well, between the two of us, we were struggling to finish the two dishes. The various stand alone noodles / rice dishes are priced from RM7 onwards for regular servings, and RM12 onwards for big servings. And apart from that, you can order dishes to go with rice. And for the record, while we were eating, all the tables had been taken up 

 

I would love to come back again and try the other stuff on the menu..till we meet again..oh.. delicious lovely fish slices..

Adai is open daily for lunch and dinner

 

Adai Village Fish Head

57, Jalan Landak
Off Jalan Brunei, Pudu
55100 Kuala Lumpur

03 2145 7178 , 019-2556190 (Michael)

From Sg Besi old airport,  head on to Jalan Pudu, passed Post office..etc, at the traffic light junction make a right into Jalan Brunei, look out for Jalan Landak  road sign ( on your right), turn in,  and then you will see a 7-11 , Adai is on the same row, 2 shops away.   ( round the corner from Pudu Plaza)

Kedai Kopi Hock Seng Hin @ Pudu

Wikipedia Lim – my food adviser had been raving about this shop that sells the best stewed fish head in KL for sometime and patient to draw maps and provide directions on how to get to this shop ( try explaining this to someone with no sense of direction- and this really requires a lot of patience lorrr)

 And some pre-warning from Wikipedia :-

• - be ready with some reading materials – as it could be a long wait
• - the lady taking the orders is very garang ( fierce) – don’t ask when is your turn to be seated

 Finally the day arrived, actually the place  was not too difficult to find- directions at the end of this post.There were rows of plastic chairs at the five feet way ( kaki lima)  for those waiting to be seated at the ‘dining area’ ,  and there were already 2 groups waiting, so we took a seat and waited, wasn’t too long before a lady came to us and ask everyone, who came first – everyone was ethical and did not lie about their turn. Lady then start to take orders ( so you order your food while you wait to be seated-which is a pretty good practice), we ordered stewed fish, bittergourd and stewed ribs and fried sai-yong-choy ( watercress). Corrections, the lady wasn’t garang , but she came across a no-nonsense person and she does have a strong voice.

We waited for about 15 minutes, and while waiting noticed a few things:-

• - the diners will send ‘representatives’ to wait for turns, while the rest of the group arrive a bit later
• - Each table had the fish which came in tons of gravy
• - There was a white ceramic bowl at each table

We were seated at a pretty good table at the centre of the shop but before we got too comfortable, another waitress came to our table and asked us to move to a table further behind the shop- to make way for a bigger group, we didn’t object.

 It wasn’t too long afters, a big ceramic bowl and some smaller plastic bowls plus eating utensils arrived at our table. So, turned out that the ceramic bowl is the rice bowl lorrr….

 

Next we had the fish, you could not but gape at this dish …numerous  pieces of fish was swimming in the gravy together with condiments of ginger, chilies, garlic etc etc. I am not a good fish identifier, but it looks/taste  like cat-fish, the fish was fresh and fleshy and smooth . I guess it’s pretty ok fish maybe due to that I had ( maybe too) high expectations of the fish and expect it to be perfect ! The 4 pax seated beside our table, ordered 2 plates of fish and no other dishes ! So, don’t take my ‘average’ rating  for this dish , this fish must have pretty good rating with all the other diners  ! ( this is a standard size dish, no S, M or L, just one size fits all)

The stewed pork ribs and bittergourd arrived next and YUMMMMMYY..i love this dish, the ‘fire of the stove’ can be felt in this dish, the gravy taste of fermented soybeans, the gourd was soft and the ribs were tender and well marinated. Other versions of bittergourd include :fried  with prawns or  roast pork or stewed with chicken . Bittergourd fried with prawns seemed to be a popular dish as we saw this being served at quite a number of tables.

Wikipedia Lim recommended to order the Chicken soup – yet again- this is a standard size dish ( no S,M, L) and it’s one chicken/ soup-due to our small group ( 3 pax) – we decide to save this dish for the next trip.The garlic stir fried watercress dish was a good choice and good balance for the two other dish we had which had pretty strong domineering taste. The watercress were tender and yet crunchy and we enjoyed this very much.

 

Overall- a pretty good meal !! I still can’t get over the stewed pork ribs + bittergourd ..hmmmm

By the way, if you have a chance to pay the kitchen a visit ( as this is a short cut to the car park behind)  you will be pleasantly surprised. There are no big fancy gas stove, but Hock Seng Hin still uses firewood for cooking !! no wonder the dishes taste so good-that makes me appreciate the food a bit more .

 

Location :

Go towards Jalan Pudu, passed Pudu market, passed post office and when u see a Caltex station on your right and a building named Goggles –  opposite – you should see a coffee shop with some plastic chairs outside ( no signboards though) and maybe some waiting-to-be-seated patron ,  then you should immediately turn left into a  road to which leads to the car park. ( I was told that the shops opposite – i.e same row as Goggles is also a famous shop for having fishhead)

Opening hours:

Tues- Saturday  11am – 2:30pm

Sunday 9:30am – 2:30pm

Close on Monday