30 minutes to lunchtime.

Have you ever felt tired of eating? Like you wanted to take a break from gluttony? To go back to the simple life (sans Paris Hilton)? Half an hour to lunchtime today, I looked at the wishlist on my blog, and *gasp* turned away. I contemplated skipping lunch.

20 minutes to lunchtime.

Barbie scooted over to my room. “What’s for lunch today?”

“Dunno. I’m tired of eating”, I wrinkled my face, my tongue sticking out to one side like a sick cow.

Barbie looked at me incredulously. “How can you be tired of eating?”

I understood where she was coming from. Anyone who knows me well enough will know two things about me: 1. I have a missing patch of hair on my head due to a hairstyling disaster, and 2. I never skip lunch. Dinner, yes, but never lunch.

10 minutes to lunchtime.

My stomach growled. I looked at Barbie wide-eyed. Barbie looked at me. “Did you hear that?”

3…2…1….

The conversations happening between (T – 30) and (T) were erased from my mind. I was starving and ready to eat. I grabbed my car keys.

Despite changing my mind about having lunch, I wanted to eat something simple. And what could be simpler, and more satisfying, than a plate of Mun Fan (stewed rice)?

Sin Kee Restaurant in Brickfields used to be located in a wooden structure next to a petrol station along Jalan Tun Sambanthan. With progress and development, and the words KL Sentral whispered excitedly among the residents of Brickfields, Sin Kee moved to a shoplot across the road. Of late, there have been some positive refurbishments in Sin Kee. The restaurant now boasts a purple ceiling and orange lamps that create a warm and funky ambience to the otherwise old-fashioned chinese restaurant.

The members of the Makan Club have been patronising Sin Kee for over 10 years. We’ve tried almost everything on their menu, but the one thing we agree is the best in town is Sin Kee’s Seafood Mun Fan. Mun Fan is a one dish meal. Plain rice liberally topped with big fresh prawns, squids and sliced fishcake in a darkish sauce of onions, covering a fried omelette, and lettuce to complete the picture. We usually request for sliced lup cheong (chinese sausage) to be added to the dish to make it sinfully good. The flavours from the delectable seafood, lup cheong and caramelised onions work together perfectly to create a sweet and savoury meal.

This is comfort food at its best.

Other reviews:-

• EatingAsia

Sin Kee Restaurant
No. 194, Jalan Tun Sambanthan
Brickfields, 50470 KL

Tel: 03-2274 1842

Lunch: 12.00 noon – 2.30pm
Dinner: 6.00pm – 9.30pm

In the midst of rushing for deadlines before the Chinese New Year holidays, we were still itching to have a nice lunch together with colleagues. A number of us cannot resist yue sang and if there is an opportunity to eat it everyday, I think we’d do that!

I’ve blogged about Woo Lan before, but I wrote about the different noodles served there. This time, we ordered dishes, and our old friend, JT, coincidentally ordered all my old favourites. I’ve graduated from these dishes and moved to several new ones, but like old socks, it is comforting to eat what I term “happy meals”.

First up was the plate of yue sang which we promptly finished, right down to the last sesame seed. It pays to have guys in the group who are not ashamed of being seen as desperately hungry, haven’t-eaten-for-one-week blokes.

In 2001, I was a big fan of fried pork belly. This simple dish is made of thinly sliced, deep fried, crispy belly stir-fried with chunks of cut onions in a slightly sweet and sticky dark sauce.

In 2004, I discovered butter squid (sotong). The sauce is very similar to butter crabs, which is a creamy milk sauce, and the squids are fried in this sauce together with a substantial amount of curry leaves. I remember in the old days, I used to finish up all the sauce as that was the best part of the dish. I even licked the curry leaves dry. 🙂 This dish takes a longer time to prepare, so order this only if you have time to spare.

Yau mak (romaine lettuce) was my favourite in the 90s.

The salted chicken dish was too dry; it would have been better had the sauce not leaked out of the packaging. But the flesh was tender and moist, although it was too small a portion for a table of 6.

Woo Lan (map here)
19, Jalan Scott,Brickfields, 50470 KL.
Tel: 03-2274-8368

Opening hours: 11.30am – 3.00pm & 5.30pm – 10.00pm

Some of us in the Makan Club are well acquainted with Woo Lan Restaurant. Now housed in an air-conditioned shoplot at Jalan Scott, Brickfields, it didn’t start out that glamorously.A wooden structure under the overhead bridge next to the Holy Rosary Church. Cars parked haphazardly.

Was that all? Just another old shack to cater to those who lived and worked there? Probably not, judging from the old faithfuls that thronged the place. An interesting point to note about Malaysians (in general, anyway…there are some who have gone to the dark side…hehe) is that they do not care about appearances as long as the food is good. And that’s the success story of Woo Lan.

“Progress” and “development” eventually took place in that lot next to the church. Woo Lan subsequently moved to its current location, barely 50 metres from where it last stood.

My love affair with foo yue yau mak (romaine lettuce stir-fried with fermented beancurd) first started in Woo Lan over ten years ago. Over the next few months, I tormented my friends by constantly ordering the same vegetable. I wasn’t very compromising then! Pretty Pui and Bouncing Barbie are quite relieved that the obsession is over and that they can get on with life.

This evening, as Ecstatic Eeyore and I drove down to Brickfields in search of roti canai for dinner, instead of heading to our usual haunt, we were somehow drawn by a hidden force towards Woo Lan. Our minds were filled with visions of fried mee suah with seaweed and fried pak kor. The force was strong and in our moment of weakness, we yielded to it.

We are but mere fallible humans. Not only did we order the mee suah and pak kor, we also asked for yue sang. For two. The spirit of Chinese New Year was in us, and we wanted to be one with the yue sang.

What a wondrous sight it was. Our first yue sang (raw fish salad) for the year in all its colourful (artificial) glory. Bits of shredded vegetables, pomelo, crackers and raw fish drizzled with plum sauce and sesame seeds. Yue sang is normally consumed during the Chinese New Year period and is presented in the centre of the table whereby everyone, with chopsticks raised, toss the salad, uttering good wishes (good health, good job, lots of money, a girlfriend who looks like Amber Chia).

It must have been a sorry sight to see two very hungry looking people tossing the yue sang and yelling out every imaginable good wish to each other.

Pak kor is a rice cake that is thinly sliced. This dish was prepared in a nice garlicky dark sauce and fried with prawns.

The mee suah in Woo Lan is my current all-time favourite dish. A master of deception, this dish looks plain and unappetising. Mix it with the bits of crunchy seaweed, prawns, chinese cabbage and fried eggs and inhale…The combination of flavours arouse the senses.

Believe it or not, we finished everything. Burp.

Woo Lan
19, Jalan Scott,
Brickfields, 50470 KL.
Tel: 03-2274-8368

Opening hours: 11.30am – 3.00pm & 5.30pm – 10.00pm