Prawn Paradise

This post will no doubt be a big ol' yawner for local readers. I know, I know, *everyone* is acquainted with this place; there's probably not an individual in Kuala Lumpur who hasn't dined here once or fifteen times. So this is for visitors to our lovely city. Malaysian readers, imagine this if you can: there are actually tourists who leave this town - nay, this country - without ever having sampled 'sang har meen'!!!

:-o

Greenview is a restaurant of unremarkable interior design (ie. you won't read about it in a swish travel mag) in PJ (Petaling Jaya - catch a cab from KL Sentral, it's worth the fare), known primarily for crab in various guises - several crates of live ones sit just outside the front door. We generally find crab to be more trouble than it's worth, but Greenview's sang har meen draws us back again and again.

Sang har meen is a dish of thick-gravied freshwater prawns (it translates to something like 'fresh sea noodles') over crispy noodles (soft noodles are also an option), a heavenly concoction that transcends the simplicity of it ingredients.

The orangeish gravy/sauce is strong on prawn juices and rich with roe; soy and rice wine no doubt play a part but it's the taste of the shellfish that dominates here. Greenview uses hefty prawns, and woks them to toothsome perfection - you won't find dry, stringy overcooked prawn meat in these shells. Working our way through the dish, we savor noodles that run the gamut from crispy (barely touched with sauce) to soggy (soaked through with the very essence of prawn).

A plate of stir-fried baby gai lan is a platter of sang har meen's perfect partner. Notable here are the sloooooow and looooow - fried garlic cloves, soft as butter and sweet as caramel, that hide amongst the greens. (Readers, do try this at home; Mario Batali puts this garlic prep technique to excellent use in his recipe for taglietele with garlic, arugala, and sweet vermouth.)

It ain't cheap - on our last visit (straight from the airport after 10 days in Thailand) these two items plus a large bottle of beer set us back something like 65 ringgit (almost twenty dollars). But it's a lot of shellfish and an overall mighty fine heap of food, one that I dream about on a regular basis.

Restoran Greenview, address and tel. no to come, Petaling Jaya. Open till 10pm.

Comments

[yyyap]

Hey there! Found your site by googling. Good to find another food blogger from M'sia. Mine's been going on for about as long as yours too. Good writeups!

[Fashionasia]

oooh...was just thinking about the sang har mean from greenview. :>

[michael]

i am really wondering what u do for a living. Wonderful Sang Har Meen and the way you spelt them makes me think of HK. Gai Lan instead of Malaysian Kai Lan...chuckle

[Robyn]

yyyap, welcome! Fashionista, we must be on the same wavelength. I think about this dish at least once every other day.

Michael - I speak Mandarin, thus 'gai lan' not 'kai lan'.... and I'd be more comfortable with 'sheng hai mian' than 'sang har meen'. Anyway, that's my excuse for bungling Malaysian food names every now and then ... ;-)

[orchid]

does sound familiar - but delicious it is, though it does cost a pretty penny.

PS. Just read your KK seafood tips and those were fabulously great!

regards

[Susan]

hah..worse still than that...here's a Malaysian who's never had one *sob* But thanks to your blog I will now know a million must-visit places next time I'm back in Malaysia!