497 days since the Malaysian Control Order (MCO) was first implemented on 18 Mar 2020, and Day 78 of the current MCO 3.0 lockdown. And with new COVID cases showing an alarming spike in numbers currently, it doesn’t look like there will be any loosening of controls to permit dining-in at restaurants any time soon.
Lunch today were take-outs from Gou Lou Sar Hor Fun. Noodle dishes that needed to be served sizzling hot, straight from being wok-seared over high heat, normally don’t travel well.
Ditto Gou Lou Sar Hor Fun’s dishes which we ordered today - they ended up rather gluggy as we plated the 3 noodle dishes we’d ordered from their take-away packs. Luckily, the noodles’ taste profiles were so expertly balanced, they made up for the deterioration of textures to a certain extent.
- Cantonese Sar Hor Fun - still one of the best in town. All things being equal (no one in town can offer dining-in anyway), Gou Lou managed to trump its nearest rivals with a well-flavored rendition of the dish. I’d always marveled at Penang sar hor fun - its closest equivalent in Hong Kong or Kuala Lumpur - the wat tan hor, do not come near the Penang version, which has a stronger taste profile, for “porky”, more intense seafood flavor in its gravy, sharper focus on its flavors by using vinegar, sugar, garlic and other condiments. Actually, the noodle dish which matches it most closely is Thai Rad Na noodles - about 80%-90% similarity.
- Dry Cantonese Yee Fu Mee - yee fu noodles in Penang (akin to “crispy noodles” one finds in Chinatowns in the West) are usually made in large keg-shaped wheels of crisp, dry noodles - one always see them stacked alongside a hawker stall. The noodles had been deep-fried to a dry crisp and has a lighter, spongier texture, plus a distinct toasty flavor when rehydrated by par-boiling.
The re-hydrated yee fu mee is stir-fried in lard, soy sauce and other condiments till a “wok hei” seared fragrance is obtained, before being topped with the meat-seafood gravy. As with the sar hor fun, the yee fu mee is served with pickled green chilis, which cuts through the richness of the dish beautifully.
- Hokkien Char - this is a local Penang-Hokkien stir-fry - a Fujianese dish which finds its way into many Cantonese noodle places in Malaysia by virtue of its popularity, and also the fact that the Hokkiens/Fujianese constituted the largest ethnic Chinese group in Malaysia, ahead of the Hakkas, Teochews, Cantonese, Hainanese and others. Hokkien char is never served with pickled green chilis, but with spicy-red sambal belacan chili-and-fermented shrimp paste dip.
We do miss dining out, and having these noodles served steaming hot, straight from the wok. But, with the current situation as it is, Gou Lou’s probably the best place to have take-out versions of those dishes.
