Hung Kee, Jalan Loke Yew

"Meet downstairs, lunch, wantan mee, Loke Yew"

 

Few things can match the perk-up power of finding a slew of messages about a wantan mee lunch upon coming back to your desk after a whole morning of meetings. Yes, charsiu powers are never to be underestimated.

Hung Kee

28-5 and 28-6 Jalan Loke Yew

Pudu, Kuala Lumpur

Hung Kee seems to ring a bell with most KL-ites but I'd never heard of it until now. We found a parking spot in almost no time at all, much to my surprise, and were quickly seated at a table in the air-conditioned portion of the restaurant.

Noodles are thin and springy in Hung Kee and the char siu is of the moister, well-caramelised sort, as opposed to the drier, red-rimmed char siu that one sometimes gets in less authentic places. The boys ordered a "large" each and I must say that I've not seen portions quite so large anywhere else. I reckon that a "large" would probably be enough for three small eaters (though some extra char siu would probably be needed).

 

We ordered some sui kow to go with the noodles and I have to admit that for the most part of the meal, I was extremely confused by the bowls and bowls of sui kow and wantan that arrived at our table - I only realised later that each plate of noodles came with a bowl of five wantans in broth (it's wantan noodles, duh!). I think perhaps if we'd known beforehand that they were going to be so generous with their wantans (most other places only give you two or three), we'd have been a bit more conservative with our sui kow order. I personally didn't mind though - I thought the large, prawn, pork and black fungus-stuffed sui kow had a really nice bite to it.

So the char siu isn't quite like my mum's and I would have preferred more char siu to go with my noodles but the fact that it still felt somewhat authentic earns it some brownie points. The funny thing is, amidst all the talk of char siu, it was really their sui kow that left the biggest impression (on me, anyway) - I'd go back, even if just for the sui kow.