I'm Lumin' It

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Continuing to work our way through an EatingAsia reader-donated list of chow tips (via which we've already been gifted memorable meals of herbalicious loh see fun and lardfully delightful pork noodles), we find ourselves at Kedai Makanan May King, famous for its rendition of lum mee, a sauced noodle of Hokkien (China's Fujian province) origin. Lum (pronounced lin in Mandarin) means to strain/filter or pour/drench. I'm betting that the name of this noodle dish is a reference to way it's served, noodles nearly submerged in a thin gravy.

Parked beneath an underpass mere steps away from the Jalan Yew entrance to Kuala Lumpur's gargantuan Pasar Pudu, May King is a cool, relatively quiet, and squeaky-clean respite from the exhaust and grime outside. With half-tiled walls, aged formica-topped tables, and a gaggle of elderly regulars sipping tea and idling at a table in front of the Chinese altar at its rear, the restaurant has a pleasantly old-fashioned air. 

Customers can order lum mee with the noodle of their choice - smooth, slippery kway teow (flat rice noodles), meehun (thread-thin rice noodles), or mee (thick round yellow noodles). We choose the latter - given a choice we almost always do, for their satisfying chew. Our mee arrive in wide bowls, swimming in a dark, almost black sauce.

As wonderfully toothsome as the noodles are, it's the gravy, made from a stock of prawn heads, water, and soy and thickened with egg, that garners the majority of our praise. Despite it's slight viscosity it tastes clear and bright, full of prawn essence. In addition to strands of egg, the gravy is populated by miniscule bits and bobs of this and that - chicken threads, shallots fried a golden brown, and unidentifiable nubs of deep-fried meatiness (pork cracklings?) that lend some spoonfuls of sauce an intense caramel sweetness.

Whole, medium-sized prawns, shredded white-meat chicken, bean sprouts, slices of napa cabbage, and slivers of tofu skin round out the bowl. On the side, a fine fiery and shrimp-fragrant sambal belacan.

Encouraged by our waitress, we sample a few of May King's sides, most of which are served in a bowl of clear meat broth heavy on the white pepper. Fish balls are flavorful and less bouncy than most (that's a good thing), and 'Kampar beancurd' (in bowl, 12 to 4 o'clock) is stuffed with tender, flavorful fish mash. We love the 'foo chook roll' (floating above the fish balls), bean curd skin deep-fried a deep brown and stuffed with a tasty combination of seasoned fish paste and pork. For us confirmed chileheads, all benefit from dip in the sambal.

May King also offers fried Hokkien noodles and curry mee, but it's the lum mee we'll be back for. It's our first since settling in KL, and it surely won't be our last.

Note: shopaholic visitors who are as enamored as we are of the brightly colored pastic/melamine plates, bowls, and chopsticks used at KL eateries might wish to peruse the overflowing shelves of the restaurant supply store right next to May King.

Kedai Makanan May King, no. 38 Jalan Yew (off Jalan Pudu), between the traffic circle and the Jalan Yew entrance to Pudu market. Tel. 9222-3740. H/P. 016-3166334. 930am-600pm, closed Mondays.

Comments

[shiewie]

There is also the other kind of lam mee which is also known as the Nyonya Birthday Mee as it's traditionally served at birthdays - my mother considers the Nyonya version as the real Lam Mee and dismisses the gooey kind we get in KL.

The Nyonya Lam Mee is served in clear chicken crab and garnished with bean sprots, shredded chicken, boiled shrimp, crab meat, bean sprouts, shallots and served with sambal.

[shiewie]

Ooops meant clear chicken soup ...not clear chicken crab!

[Cupcake]

I know how to make nyonya lum mee, otherwise known at our home as the 13-step mee. We should make a date for this - no point making it in small quantities.

Oh, and it's garnished with yellow and pink omelette strips.

:-)
Cupcake