M’sia – Takeaways

While back in Malaysia, we ate out alot, but sometimes it’s really nice to buy the food back to be eaten in comfort as opposed to while sweating, on a bench, avoiding other people's elbows while they stand over you trying to make you leave the table so that they can have it all to their selfish selves. I know because I’ve done that lots of times. The making people leave, not the being asked to leave.

I find it especially useful when applied in London restaurants because the diners here are not used to this method of Table Battle. Though, they seem to be catching on in Chinatown. Thing is, you don’t really need to do Table Battle when the waiting staff do it for you (throw-bill-on-table technique).

Sometimes we like to buy siew yuk (roast pork) from the markets. We either eat them on their own, dipped in some soy sauce, or we have them with the fried meehoon (vermicelli) from the market.

Even with siew yuk, there are famous and not so famous stalls from which you can buy these little pieces of roast pork. The locals have their own favourites, but one of the better ones is the stall with the lady seller in SS2 (the side closer to McDonald’s).

Our favourite Indian rojak has to be the one from Hasan (mobile rojak van, that’s what it’s all about). Him and his van are based in SS2, outside King’s bakery and the queue to buy the rojak seems to be getting longer all the time. Lovely pieces of fried flour (there must be some name for it, but I don’t know what that is), with some cucumber, hard boiled eggs, all topped with lovely, slightly sweet peanut sauce.

Whoa and then we come to the Ramli burger; the Malaysian-made burger which is like no other. Only sold in hawker stalls, or, more specifically, Ramli burger wheely carts, these little patties of processed, slightly peppery, slightly soft meat sandwiched between 2 halves of buttered and lightly fried buns are completely different from the burgers you find elsewhere.

When the guy makes it and wraps it up in the waxy paper, it takes quite alot of effort not to eat it immediately. By the time you get to where you wanna eat it, the sauce, the heat, and the soft bread will have all combined into one mushy mush, kinda like what you see in the picture above. It’s still really awesome though. Maybe it has to go through the whole steaming process, to kinda let the sauces blend. Maybe it won’t be as nice if it was eaten on the spot.

The Hokkien Char. Anyone who’s anyone knows that a proper Hokkien Char has to be the one with the fat, yellow noodle. Yes, crude description but it is just that – fat – yellow – noodles. Someone said you can’t find these exact types of noodles outside Malaysia (myth not debunked, so I have no comment) but recently, I’ve seen this dish on menus in London’s Chinatown restaurants, so maybe they’ve started importing the stuff. (But if there is still none here, a business opportunity seems to be on the horizon)

The Hokkien Char above was from the coffee shop by the petrol station in Section 14 (or somewhere there). This is as good as it gets from me, as far as directions go. No need to get absorbed in the details, you know what I mean? There is a coffee shop by the petrol station, it sells Hokkien Char, and that’s all you need to know.

And that the Hokkien Char is oh so niiiiice. Thick, gooey sauce (and the noodles) with lots of lovely little things to pick out (prawns, fish cakes, vegetable, squid).

And to round off a post on takeaway food, what could be better than one plate full of stuff – kinda like the Best of Takeaways Compilation 1.

Now That’s What I Call Takeaway (vol. 1).