40 years ago, Lorong Panggung, a small gritty back-alley in KL’s Chinatown, was well-known for serving various types of exotic (and not-quite-so-exotic) meats: dog, snake, wild boar, bat, even a tonic soup made from old cats boiled with chicken, sugarcane & Chinese herbs.
Its gritty past is a long-gone memory these days, and the only eatery left in this fast-gentrifying back alley is the wantan noodle stall which opens at the break of dawn.
We tried its KL-style wantan noodles: dressed in a blend of dark soysauce, light soysauce, sesame oil, dripping from BBQ caramelised pork and other condiments. Blanched choy sum (Chinese spinach) greens are indispensible. Here, a scoop of minced pork cooked in soysauce was also added for an additional meaty kick.
A small bowl of clear soup, with a trio of cloud-like wantan dumplings - the type in Malaysia would be filled with minced pork-and-shrimp - accompany each order of wantan noodles.
Another interesting option here is the chicken-and-potato curry with wantan noodles, a classic Cantonese noodle dish given a Malaysian twist. KL’s 3 million-odd Chinese populace are overwhelmingly Cantonese but they are Malaysian-Cantonese, with a predilection for chili-spicy renditions of Chinese food. This curry version of wantan noodles is found in quite a few places around town.
KL-style wantan noodles - my fave type of this very Cantonese dish anywhere in the world. They seem to get the textures just right for my taste - not as toothsome as the HK or Penang types.
Their clientele are a odd mixture of KL Chinatown’s denizens - bohemian artists, streetwalkers, odd-job labourers, elderly Chinese men, and us die-hard Hungry Onioners. 
Location: Lorong Panggung, off Jalan Sultan, Chinatown.
Operating hours: 6am till sold out (usually noon)
