Care For a Side of Diesel Exhaust With Your Noodles?

Ah, is there any more pleasant spot for a noonday meal than in an open shop under a freeway overpass, on a busy street thick with unmufflered motorcycles and diesel-spewing container trucks, at a table overlooking a row of burned-out buildings?

Well, yes. Of course there is.

But we're not here for the ambience. After listening to Dave wax poetic about Sin Kok Thye's mee mamak for nearly a year (he lunches here once a month or so with colleagues), I've finally convinced him to drive to Port Klang on a Saturday so I can sample it for myself.

Nevermind that the welcome is not the warmest we've experienced in the KL area, or that the staff seems unable to communicate in anything but shrill barks that bounce off the tile and concrete floor, walls, and ceiling. (See the small lady in the photo above? You'd better pray that she doesn't let loose with a bellow within a five-foot range of your eardrums.)

Nevermind. As long you order politely (and keep your camera pointed at the food), you'll be fine.

Mee mamak is a classic Malaysian noodle, a true fusion (yes, I hate that word too) of Chinese and Indian ('Mamak' refers to Indian Muslims) flavors. Yellow mee noodles, soy sauce, bean sprouts, and thin slices of bouncy fish cake hail from the former, and fresh curry leaves and ground black pepper, chunks of white potato, and slices of red onion slices from the latter. Chili boh - fresh red chiles ground to a fine paste - might well be a Malay contribution. Ingredients of indeterminate provenance include fresh tomato, egg, round cabbage, and chicken.   

The combo, stir-fried together over high heat sure to induce plenty of char, is quite unlike other Malaysian noodle dishes. Tomato, curry, and chile notes bring to mind a Keralan curry, while the cabbage, sprouts, and egg suggest a classic southern Chinese fried rice. What brings it all together is the potato - a perfect absorbent carrier of all the disparate flavors in the dish at once, it's broken down into starchy morsels that cling to every strand of noodle. Sin Kok Thye's version is scorchingly spicy, but our waiter indicated a willingness to tone it down on request.

Well worth the half hour in the car.

Also notable here: seafood noodles, a shallow bowl of kuey teow and beehoon (thick and thin rice noodles) swimming in a luscious chicken and seafood gravy thickened with egg and chunky with prawns, squid, fish cake, and Chinese broccoli.

Bonus point: At Sin Kok Thye, each table is graced with its own jar of that zippy Malaysian condiment, green chilies and vinegar, which means there'll be no need to get up from your seat and steal your neighbor's jar.

Restoran Sin Kok Thye, Jalan Kem near the corner of Persiaran Raja Muda Misa (the turn-off for the Ketam Jetty), Port Klang. Early morning till evening. Closed Sunday.

   

Comments

[Phil]

Occasionally, you write posts that are so tasty that I feel like I should lick my screen. Mee mamak probably tops my list of favourite fried noodle dishes. I'll definitely have to hunt some down in Phnom Penh over the weekend.

[Robyn]

Phil, if you ever make it to Saigon there's a great Malaysian place on Mac Dinh Chi. It's where we first tasted, and fell in love with, mee Mamak.

[Phil]

I found some mee mamak over lunch, but it wasn't so great. http://www.phnomenon.com/index.php/cambodian-food/restaurants/midday-mee-mamak-mission/

I'll definitely check out that place when I'm in Saigon, and will be heading over to KL early next year.