Breakfast at Siong Pin, a popular traditional Chinese coffeeshop in SS3 this morning.
Although Penang is the undisputed street food capital of Malaysia, there are a few street food items which KL does best - especially the Cantonese and Hakka ones, as Penang’s street food has Teochew and Hokkien roots. KL undoubtedly has the best wantan noodles and chee cheong fun, and these were the two dishes I did not want to miss at Siong Pin this morning.
- Wantan noodles - Malaysian-style wantan noodles are usually served “kon lou”, Cantonese-speak for “dry”, as opposed to being steeped in broth, the more popular style in Hong Kong.
Malaysian-style wantan noodles will be tossed in a dark, soy sauce-based dressing which also includes sesame oil, shallot oil, garlic oil, white pepper and “char siew” drippings, among others. However, the taste profile vary from state to state - I liked KL’s best, and simply could not stand the Penang or Malaccan ones, and those from Malaysia’s 9 other states which I’d visited also had nothing which can hold a candle to the KL version.
In Malaysia, a small bowl of broth, usually containing 2 or 3 poached, minced pork-shrimp wantan dumplings, will accompany your plate of wantan noodles.
KL’s wantan noodle texture, IMO, is the best I’d had anywhere in the world. Somehow, most wantan noodle spots here has got their noodle texture exactly right, with the perfect bite - slightly softer than Penang or HK wantan noodle’s al dente texture, but firmer than the gluggy Singaporean one.
In KL, you get “real” Cantonese char siew, and not the anaemic, red-tinted monstrosity one finds at traditional/old-school wantan noodle joints in Penang, Malacca or Singapore.
The wantan noodles here at Siong Pin is excellent - as good as any in Kuala Lumpur.
- Chee cheong fun - chee cheong fun are Cantonese steamed rice noodle rolls, so-called because their shape resembled pig’s intestines (“chee cheong” in Cantonese). One finds “chee cheong fun” anywhere where there are Cantonese people: Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Penang.
There, the similarity ends - other than the steamed rice rolls, “chee cheong fun” takes on a distinct characteristic, depending on where they are made and served.
KL-style chee cheong fun with “yong tau fu” items, dressed in a savoury-sweet brown bean sauce (and sometimes with a curry sauce thrown in for good measure) is my personal favourite kind. And the version here at Siong Pin is one of my go-to places for this type of chee cheong fun, which is as good as any of the best I’d found in Kuala Lumpur or its satellite town, Petaling Jaya.
- The coffeeshop’s claim-to-fame is the chee yoke fun (KL-Cantonese-speak for “pork noodles”) - flat rice noodles (“hor fun”) in a rich pork broth, garnished with minced pork, slivers of pork, pig’s kidney and liver and “choy sum” greens. Usually, a whole egg would be dropped into the hot bowl of soup noodles prior to serving, for it to gently coddle in the broth. The stall is also the longest-serving one at the coffeeshop: 19 years this year.
Although it touts itself as serving “Penang-style noodles”, it is typically KL-style because: Penangites do not ever drop a raw egg into a bowl of hot soup noodles, Penangites will never add “choy sum” greens to their soup noodles, and Penang’s “koay teow th’ng”, the closest cousin to KL “chee yoke fun” tend to be lighter and less greasy - harking back to its Teochew roots, which favours lighter, clearer flavours compared to KL’s Cantonese/Hakka palate.
Of course, KL portions tend to be huge - usually 50% larger than Penang ones, and is often seen as too rustic by Penangites.
Very satisfied with Siong Pin’s quintessential KL street food breakfast options.
Address
Siong Pin
30, Jalan SS 3/31, Taman Universiti, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
Tel: +6016-212 6623
Operating hours: 6.30am to 10pm (some stalls only operate till lunch-time, e.g. the pork noodles stall)
