Koon Kee 冠记 @ Petaling Street

Humans are habitual beings, for example, if I go to Petaling Street, I tend to do 2 things, 1- eat Wan Tan Mee , 2 – tarpau a dumpling ( with everything in it :salted egg, chestnut, mushroom, fatty pork, mung beans)  for next day’s breakfast  .  ( and sometimes # 3- have the logan & melon drink).

We had a heavy ( and late) breakfast and the gang thought that we might even be able to last until dinner, but…a little bit past 12:30 and I started to show signs  of a malnutritioned person stranded on a deserted island ( kinda like Tom Hanks in Castaway minus the beard and Mr Wilson)  and since we were in Petaling Street, it was kinda natural that the itinerary for lunch would be Wan Tan mee at Koon Kee.

 

 I ordered char siu wan tan mee (wtm)  ( even looking at the picture as I am writing …my mouth salivate for that tasty and succulent char siu) ..the mee was finer than the normal noodles used in wtm, and it was springy- the gravy was a bit salty though, and I would prefer the wan tan with a bit more meat as what I got was more the ’skin’ rather than meat lorr..

 

Chunny had the char siu + kai si (chicken shreds) wtm. While waiting for our meal, AhPhengg had nipped down the corner to tarpau the logan +melon drink for us. Kun Kee seemed pretty cool about this, although they serve their own drink -chrysentimun or sugar cane or chinese tea

 AhPhenggg had the thung ku+ kai kiok ( mushroom + kaki ayam) wtm -which was one other option that I would have ordered as I love the chewy wrinkled stewed  phoenix feet ( nicer way of saying kaki ayam)

 

 Chunny performed a magic trick by turning  2 chopsticks into 3 – Voila…this is better than Copperfield !   (chopstick was broken while attempting to dislodge part of  the ayam’s kaki from AhPhengg’s plate – this is not an indication that the kaki was too tough, but rather – #1 they don’t make chopsticks like they used to #2 Chunny has hidden kung fu  for chopstick breaking # 3 global warming ( well, everything is related to global warming !!)

 

Location :

 

Opposite Hong Leong Bank at the busy Petaling street

 

NB: I don’t think they charged us for the damaged  chopstick

Precious Old China @ Petaling Street

After the colour burst from Central Market as well as feeling lighter after having my feet nibbled at the fish spa, it’s down to the main agenda of visiting Central Market – i.e. lunch at Precious Old China Restaurant and Bar.

 

Stepping into Precious, you can’t help but let your eyes wander and wanting to take in all the objects and images around you, the medicine cabinet, the vases, the cengal bar counter , the bright painting of the Chinese opera figures….

We were led to a two seater table, and I was grinning like humpty dumpty ( before his mishap) as I sat on the antique looking chair and admired the stained-glass decorative panels, later the sight was more than what was absorbed as we caught the whiff of cigarette smoke , lucky we hadn’t ordered, so we asked to be seated at the non-smoking area.

Let me briefly  run you through the menu :

Appertizers : Pie Tee ( top hat) , spring rolls, Lobak, Jiu Hu Char

Soup : Itik Tim, Ginseng Chicken

One dish meals include: Nasi lemak ( RM10.80), Nyonya laksa, Mee Sua, Nyoya belacan fried rice.

Chicken : Fried Chicken, Ayam Pong Teh, Cincalok chicken, Devil Chicken curry, Nyoya rendang chicken, Kapitan chicken

Duck, Beef

Seafood : fish Head curry, sweet & sour, Sambal tumis fish, Asam fish fillet

Squid : fried sotong, sambal tumis, sambal petai sotong

Prawn: Lemak nenas prawn, fried asam, butter prawn, sambal petai,

Vege ” baby kalian, pucuk paku, okra kerabu, nyoya chap char

Tofu, eggs etc.

The Jiu Hu Char (RM10.80) presented to us was very dainty, the sengkuang/ turnip shreds were very finely cut with generous chicken pieces, mushroom and cuttle fish, there were some lettuce and also side dish of  sambal. Step one, take 1 leaf of lettuce, fill lettuce leaf with Jiu Hu char, dabble generous amount of sambal, roll the lettuce and …YUMmmy..it was very delicious

 

The rendang chicken curry was.. …yummyyy…the gravy was rich and thick and fragrant and the chicken pieces are well marinated and tender…I almost felt like  licking  the plate but managed to maintain my composure…

 

The pucuk paku came with lotsa toppings : peanuts, prawns, lemongrass, onion, chili padi etc. This was good as well..all the condiments complimented each other and flavoured the dish very well indeed.

 

The interesting part of the furniture is each (almost_ of the tables and chairs differ from the other tables, there is no uniformity here, there are  even Victorian style chairs here, these are said to be the props used in the movie Anna and the King. Directly facing me was an altar with a pair of deities ( said to be from Vietnam), one was riding an elephant and the other a tiger.

 

One other interesting thngy is the ‘traditional door’ in the washroom.

 

While waiting for the bill to be settled, we wandered to the table at the opposites of the bar counter and there were numerous Southeby auction catalogues- art, jewellery etc  these catalogues are for sale, and according to the staff, proceeds goes to charity, the smaller books are RM5 and the large books are priced at RM10.

 http://www.oldchina.com.my/

Location map Precious Old China Restaurant and Bar and Old China Cafe

Kuala Lumpur Central Market ; Pasar Seni

It had been quite sometime since my last visit to Central Market, maybe > 2 years ago ? I used to visit Central Market every forthnight to borrow and return the books from the 2^nd hand bookshop.

Central Market was built in 1888 by the British originally as a wet market, for the KLites and the tin miners. You can read more about  the history from http://www.centralmarket.com.my/

There were some interesting shops around CM, I was amazed by this shop that specializes in all types of wooden combs, they are sold individually and  and some come in a set + mirrors + hair clips , and in special pouches -  it would make a nice gift.

 

Fancy pens

 

Keychains not for the faint hearted

 

I was drawn to this place by a scream…and saw this Caucasion lady with her legs raised above a pool of water shrieking and laughing, her scream seemed to be a good advertisement for the place as she managed to attract  quite a crowd to see what’s all that laughing and screaming is all about. Oh..it’s a fish spa, and with all the nibbles from the fish, she was feeling kinda ticklish, that’s all, Mystery solved.

Anyway, I hadn’t had fish worshipping my feet before and at RM5 for 10 minutes of fish-spa-ing, we were game to give it a try.

It was kinda ticklish at first , but after a while, we got used to it and enjoyed the little sensations  ( and no, I didn’t scream). One thing I noticed is that, we were not asked to wash our feet before putting it into the pools, so, I imagine it can be not that hygienic guarr..? when I looked up the mighty Net for some information, the species that are usually used as Doctor Fish ( as it’s said that the fishes can cure skin diseases by nibbling away the dead skins etc) is the Garra rufa .

Extracted from Wikipedia

‘Garra rufa occurs in the river basins of the Northern and Central Middle East, mainly in Turkey,Syria, Iraq and Iran.  is legally protected from commercial exploitation in Turkey due to concerns of overharvesting for export. Garra rufa can be kept in an aquarium at home; while not strictly a “beginner’s fish”, it is quite hardy. For treatment of skin diseases, aquarium specimens are not well suited as the skin-feeding behavior fully manifests only under conditions where the food supply is somewhat scarce and unpredictable.

The sign below made me smile… When I asked the owner, what about the other 1%

- he said ‘ 99% Gombak, the rest might be ropes from China, nails from Indonesia, paint from India etc etc ‘ ( the shop sells local handicrafts)

Badges for all occasion, pledge your support ! Tee Keat or Jui Meng..err.oh..that one over already hor…ok..ok…Obama or McCain ?

Traditional Kuihs

Tempeyek kacang

Colours and more colours 

Silk Batiks

jewellery boxes & etc

Wau ( Kites) of all shapes and sizes

And the top security Toilet…Waisayman…so canggih one..

And why Mat Salleh mannequins shouldn’t be used to model traditional Chinese clothes..

As we walked, something seemed to be missing, where are all the portrait artist ah..? turned out that they are now at the Annex Central Market located at the back of the main building.  http://www.annexegallery.com/

 

Central Market

No. 10, 1st-3rd floor, Jalan Hang Kasturi, 50050 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel : 03-2031 0339 / 5399 / 7399 / 9399

03-2274 6542 / 2757 ( Information Counter )

Map to Central Market ( copied from Central market webpage)