EatingAsia: Fifty Years of Grease ...

... is not necessarily a bad thing.

Not when it's the by-product of the same number of years of high-heat stir-frying that turns out this kind of deliciousness.

I'd describe Kedai Kopi Sin Onn as 'old-style', but that would be stating the obvious.

It's a neighborhood joint, and its customers are a cast of regulars: twenty- and thirty-somethings whose parents introduced them to the place, middle-aged folks who've been patronizing it since they were kids, and old men and women who look like they've been around a decade or five longer than the shop has.

Sin Onn resides in an ancient wooden shophouse. Its structure is tumbledown, its 'kitchen' an improvised space roofed and walled with corrugated metal, 'furnished' with a few high-BTU burners and ancient, rickety tables shoved together to make a prep area, and adorned with an industrial-sized vent.

The coffeeshop has been in the same Hokkien (from China's Fujian province) family since it opened, when the neighborhood was still quiet and mostly residential and the four brothers who now run the place were knee-high or not yet a twinkle in their parents' eyes.

One brother mans the woks, the others help mom service the tables.

The place is busy and the wok-manship meticulous - at Sin Onn an order placed is not instantly filled. This allows plenty of time to take in the ambience. The blare of the TV is background to traffic noise and chatter in a few Chinese dialects. The clouds of smoke that billow from the kitchen and waft over the tables are carriers of the delectable scent of wok char.

We're here especially for the peh keh (pak kuo in Cantonese), 'white cakes' made from rice flour dough. These thin, chewy oval 'coins' (a thicker, larger version of which - called nian gao - are popular in Shanghai) make perfect stir-fry fodder, greedily soaking up whatever seasonings a wokmaster cares to throw at them.

At Sin Onn they're tossed with small shrimp, slices of flavorful fish cake, and irregularly cut gailan (Chinese broccoli) stems and seasoned with lots of dark soy, then left to simmer long enough for the dough to absorb the flavors of the other ingredients.

The result may not be especially pretty - no, they don't wipe the rims of the plates at Sin Onn - but it is exceptionally tasty: a slightly sweet, lightly bitter (accentuated by the gailan) peh kek that has, in spite of a fairly long simmer, retained a delightful, almost-gummy chew.

The same treatment - a fry followed by a simmer (see second photo) - is applied to Hokkien mee, that sinful Malaysian favorite of dark soy saucy extra-thick yellow noodles with pork and Chinese greens.

Hokkien mee connoisseurs insist that lard is an essential ingredient of any version worth its money; there's no doubt that pig fat coats the surface of Sin Onn's woks.

It also shows up in most stir-fried noodle dishes (including the peh kek) in the form of deep-fried cracklin' , a supply of which is replenished as needed and kept at the ready within easy reach of the brother behind the burners.

In addition to Hokkien mee, peh kek, and a few other specialties like stir-fried meehoon and fish head noodle soup, Sin Onn turns out an exemplary old-fashioned fried rice, a dish that so often misses the mark. This version boasts light, almost fluffy rice - individually distinct grains infused with fifty years of wok char. Look for the classic additions of tiny shrimp, nubs of barbecued pork, egg, and chopped scallion. But no soy. It's not necessary; the wok adds enough seasoning.

Sin Onn is one of those Malaysian gems that hearkens back to yesteryear and turns out wonderful food. If, like us, you're a fan of such places, better hurry on over. The coffee shop will be moving to new, no doubt spiffy but generic digs at the end of 2006 to make way for the demolition of the wooden shophouse it's called home since its inception.

One more piece of KL's culinary history bites the dust.

Many thanks to BHW, an EatingAsia reader who's been exceptionally generous with this, and other, tasty recommendations.

Sin Onn, Jalan Gombak. Open for lunch from 11am to late afternoon. Closed Mondays.

Directions: Jalan Pahang towards Setapak. Take the J Gombak turnoff and look for Petronas and BP stations on your left, then right after a yellow mosque, also on the left. Sin Onn will be a bit further up the road, on your right, the corner unit in the first of two wooden shophouses separated by an alley. Park out front or in the alley. Note: there is another coffee shop two doors away, but BHW warns that it is 'a poor imitator'.

Comments

I love a good mom & pop. They make the world go round, especially in an area full of souless corporate eateries.

- Chubbypanda

Posted by: Chubbypanda | 2006.11.16 at 05:18

OOh! I love Hokkien mee. Just makes you want to slurp the whole plate a 1 go! I can't wait to go back to Klang to eat Hokkien Mee, there is this famous Hokkien Mee beside the Klang bus station.....

Posted by: Susila | 2006.11.17 at 11:36