[Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia] Girl & Mommy Curry Mee, Chan Sow Lin Food Centre - CLOSED

[klyeoh (Peter)]

Deep in the Chan Sow Lin industrial area in Kuala Lumpur is perhaps the most popular curry noodles stall in the city. I’m a Johnny-come-lately where this place is concerned but, like Geoffrey Chaucer said, better late than never. On good days, Girl & Mommy Curry Mee can attract rather intimidating snaking queues: chili-heads and hardcore fans of 60-something year-old Madam Loi Yim Peng’s 18-year-old temple to the curry noodle. Madam Loi is the “Mommy”, a force of nature who ran this ever-busy joint like a well-oiled machine whilst her daughter (the “Girl”) managed a similar set-up in Kuantan, a city 150 miles (240 km) east of Kuala Lumpur.

1. Curry Mee. KL-lites are willing to slurp down curried noodles from 6.30am - and Mdm Loi’s fiery concoction is guaranteed to bring the dead back to life: a delicious, spicy, coconut-infused gravy blanketed her blanched yellow wheat noodles, to which she added roast pork belly, spongey slivers of rehydrated dried pig skin, barely-cooked fresh blood cockles, tofu puffs and char-siew. A small dish of chili paste was provided on the side - you simply have to add this condiment to your bowl of noodles - yes, there was a method to our chili-madness, but that condiment lifted the deliciousness quotient of that bowl of noodles up a few notches.
   
   

2. Beef Tendon Mee. This other noodle dish was almost as good as the curry noodle dish. Basically soy-braised beef tendon and tripe, very aromatic from Mommy’s secret blend of Chinese herbs and spices. She served it with thick rice noodles, topped with chopped green scallions, fresh sprigs of coriander leaves and golden-fried lardons.
   
   

I didn’t anticipate that I’d enjoy having the bowl of curried noodles this much, and am definitely returning for it again very soon.

Address
Girl & Mommy Curry Mee, Chan Sow Lin Food Court
No. 134C, Jalan Dua, Off, Jalan Chan Sow Lin, Sungai Besi
55200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: +6016-398 2622
Opening hours: 6.30am to 2pm, Mon to Sat (Closed on Sundays)

[klyeoh (Peter)]

Just outside Chan Sow Lin Food Centre, along Jalan Dua (Second Road) is a row of road-side eateries, mostly Indian-Muslim or mamak-owned, which functioned more like truck-stop diners to cater to the truck drivers, warehouse & factory workers, and people working around the century-old Chan Sow Lin industrial area. During my 6.5 year work-stint in KL back in 2011-2017, I’d only been to this area once, and it was to the much talked-about Chong Yen Steamed Fish-head stall featured in one of the earlier episodes of the late Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations series. That eatery started in 1983, located in a tin-roofed wooden shack on Jalan Tiga, Chan Sow Lin, before moving to its current shophouse location at Jalan 2/89C, off Jalan Empat Chan Sow Lin in 2010. It serves only ONE dish: steamed Asian Carp (Cantonese: “soong yue”) with a choice of sauces, either the classic one with minced ginger, garlic, scallions, birds’ eye chilis and light soya sauce; or a “spicier” version, with “taucheo” (fermented soybean paste).

I’d not been back here since 2013. We were finally back in this neighbourhood again last Monday for the Girl & Mommy Curry Mee meal detailed above, but one simply can not come to this hood and ignore the truck stop eateries lined along Jalan Dua. The most famous one being Warung Sinar Nor Nasi Lemak Kukus, which is over half a century old, and still purportedly serves the best nasi lemak in town, depending on who you speak to (Village Park in Uptown Damansara, and Nasi Lemak Tanglin near the National Mosque both lay claim to the title as well).

Unfortunately, Warung Sinar Nor Nasi Lemak Kukus was closed when we were here on Monday, so we traipsed across the street to this mamak stall which serves crisp, hot-off-the-griddle “roti canai” (Malaysian paratha) with a really amazing mutton-rib curry. You won’t miss this stall (it doesn’t have any name or signboard), as it’s located on Jalan Dua right in front of the main entrance/exit of Chan Sow Lin Food Court.

It looked like one of those typical roadside eateries which one sees along the streets of Chennai or Bangalore in Southern India, but the similarity ends there. This one is wholly Malaysian, its curries are piquant, robust, vibrantly coloured and definitely meatier. I’d eaten widely in Chennai, India, but had never worked up the courage to eat at its rough-at-the-edges roadside stalls, fearing my tummy won’t be able to take it there. But I’d eaten at KL’s Indian roadside eateries for years and had never had any problems as such, so this place was perfect for me to sample a fiery South Indian curry meal. And, my word, it was sooo good!

I liked slathering my paratha with lots of curry sauce - over here, I opted for a blend of mutton curry sauce and the yellow dhal curry sauce. The combined flavours were simply out of this world.

The off-the-rib mutton was not exactly fall-off-the-bone, but tender enough. In fact, the very texture which one would want - retaining a bite, yet juicy and flavoursome.

The two Indian men at the table right next to us finished off their parathas and curries, lit up cigarettes, paid their bill and climbed into an 8-wheeler truck parked just a couple of yards from our table, and drove off, our flimsy plastic-topped table shaking in their wake. This is what a dining experience here is all about - another memorable “anonymous” roadside stall to go into my scrapbook dining guide.

[klyeoh (Peter)]

Another victim of the COVID-19 lockdown: Girl & Mommy Curry Mee is no more, as the owners of Chan Sow Lin Food Centre decided to shut the food centre down permanently.

This was Chan Sow Lin Food Centre when I was there in Jan 2020, pre-COVID.

A deserted Chan Sow Lin Food Centre yesterday:

We did call Mdm Loi, and she said she’s taking a break until after the lockdown, however long that may take. She’ll then look for a new food centre to operate from.