Friday, March 13, 2009

Penang - Jelutong Market - Wantan Noodles

Food: Wantan Noodles / 云吞面
Type: Non-Halal
Location: Jelutong Market
Price: RM2.30 (small) | RM2.60 (medium) | RM3.00 (big)

Stall Owner: Mr. Khoo Lee Koon (邱美焜) (016 456 8181)
Stall Operation: 0600 - 1100 (will rest on normal 1st & 15th Chinese Calendar month - except big day fall on Chinese Calendar month)

Parking convenience: Bad (You have to find a place to park far from the Jelutong market - advise - try best not to drive into market, you may stuck there from crowded place)

Hygiene: Fair (the stall location is not near with those wet market stalls - no worry)

Direction:

The stall is just beside the unique colour building - pinky colour with very yellow colour accompanied. Please don't assume this is Hello Kitty shop nor banana boat shop. Check out the hand cursor there by yourself.

Very busy - still have great customer service
When you come to this stall - first impression - Mr. Khoo is extremely busy. His wife and mum are taking order from customers nonstop. You may see them still getting prepared the final "touch" on noodles while talking to customer. Don't get stunned by not having eyes-contact with either one of them. They are listening to customer for specific order such as more chillies or "cham" (combined different types of customisation - allow me to show you one in my capture later). Impressive family business and still have great customer service. Every customer is their friends. Sold since end of year 1993 when Mrs. Khoo was pregnant for first child. Truly romantic.

Wantan Noodles Stall

Stall Owner --> Mr. Cool :-P
Mr. Khoo

Accessories
Accessories

Unforgettable taste - No. 1 super-duple fan shouted at me
Don't get misled by the subtitle. I was not having fight with someone. Just another portion to fuel you reading on. If you were to ask me about the taste - it's hardly describing in words. One word - great!~ Have you ever missed old taste? Have you ever heard a moving stall that selling "tok-tok" noodle? How the stall owner attracting potential customer? When move around, the stall owner will use spoon to heat the bowl to generate a high frequency sound. Certain time, certain moment - when you hear this "tok-tok" sound, you know the stall is near. I hardly assume all of you had this memory, probably some of you did. The fact is I gone through this and I missed the old taste very much.

Serving customers
Great Customer Service

Perfect teamwork
Perfect Teamwork

Basically, part of the noodles ingredient is made of egg. To retain the quality, they take high quality of raw noodles instead of cheapo one to increase profit margin. “The most important thing is the food quality and worth to pay to eat", highlighted Mrs Khoo

The interesting part is one guy claimed himself as No. 1 super-duple fan told me. His name is Jimmy, the clothes seller. He seriously described in words - When the wantan noodle served at table, DO NOT straight away pick up your chopsticks and start "slurpping". Give yourself 2-3 minutes, let the noodles absorb the dark soya sauce. Then starts your engine. The taste will be totally different from the impression you had normally for wantan noodles. Well, sounds very expert huh? This is according to that No. 1 super-duple fan. Why No. 1 super-duple fan? Whenever the stall is there for one whole week, he will only eat wantan noodles. Yes! No other food! You know what? Even the stall owner's mum smile tenderly to claim this guy also a bit insane to eat like that, from her smile - I quickly understand it is the food quality and taste hold someone's tongue firmly.

The freshly served wantan noodles is very springy and tasty. In Chinese - 弹牙 or very Q in Cantonese. The secretly made dark soya sauce mixed with pork oil plus sesame oil will directly stimulate your hunger via aromatic smell. This Jimmy even share one more secret - The raw noodle is even tasty after overnight. Wow, this is something new I never heard before. Jimmy did ask what kind of special ingredient added in for overnight raw noodles - Mr. Khoo said nothing and couldn't find a word on this to describe.

Wantan - the meat dumpling

Another options
Another Options

Without this - the wantan noodles mean nothing at all. There are two version of dumpling you can choose. One is fried and another one is cooked. It may look small for you or you can easily stuck 3-4 dumplings into your mouth. Don't under-estimate the taste. It is not only minced meat. Little "adjusted" salt, pepper powder and other ingredients normally bring out the unique taste of dumplings. You can order separate dumplings with soup to enjoy.


Another secret weapon - my preferable version

If you are not yet ready - don't try this. Otherwise smoke will come out from your both ears and hair. Yes, I'm talking about sambal. My preference for this food - one soup spoon of sambal add in. Smelling the sambal before mix with wantan noodles is the most wonderful moment. Check out the texture of sambal.

Are you ready for this?
Get ready to sweat - Sambal

I can say my tolerant level of spicy sambal considered good (better than my wife - I used this training to tackle my wife :-P pssshhhh - don't tell her - I can treat you another spoonful of sambal). This sambal still make me drop tears and sweat like after bath. When you eat with sambal, you won't immediately feel terribly spicy. The spicy feeling will only come after you finish a few mouthful of noodles. Still wish to challenge yourself? Get prepared to order another two glasses of cold drinks :-) Hmmm... just love this.

Built-on-order

No sidetrack topic here. Not hardware, dude. I'm still talking about wantan noodles. There are normal noodle, the thin and thick one, Hor-Fun and Bee-Hoon. You can mix thin noodle with Hor-Fun or Bee-Hoon with Hor-Fun. As far you like - just let Mr. Khoo know.

Thick version
Wantan Noodles (thick)

Thin version
Wantan Noodles (thin)

Mixed version
Wantan Noodles (mix)

Mr. Cool may look cool when taking order as he is very busy to cook the noodles with perfect timing. Talk to him several times - this firm mid-age guy may throw smiley face via your satisfaction to taste. Pardon me? I'm drooling while busy closing ceremony for this writing with several interesting shots... Can't stand for that anymore - I better grab my meal :-) Happy eating then!

9 comments:

  1. Great job man! I personally feel this website is nice and you may have spent a lot of efforts to interview the stall owner, captured the nice pictures.. describe the taste in proper words.. perfect! 猎食族 can be another version of 阿贤人情味 or Hok Chak.. haha!!! I am looking forward to see more great food in Penang, as well as other location too!

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  2. OMG... the wanton noodles at Jelutong Market! My grandmother used to buy back packs of these after her weekly shopping for breakfast. Till today, after my grandparents have passed on, my father and mother still reminisce about the wanton noodles at Jelutong market. They still say it's the best and I have to agree. Thank you so much for posting this, it brought back many memories. :)

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  3. Thanks KM, I wish I can capture something different which is left out probably :-) Dare not compare with Ho Chiak or 阿贤人情味. My time schedule and resources indeed limited :-)

    Thanks Elaine for letting me know this writing able to recall your many memories. I'm glad to know! One of the best! :-)

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  4. I have not tried the wantan mee before in Jeluting Market and thanks for sharing. I really loves your photo skills. Perhaps you could teach me some technique. ^0^

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  5. Food Paradise - glad to know this post able to let you try out something different. My photography skill still need rooms to improve :-) Perhaps we can arrange a meet up based on our mutual convenient schedule to share :-)

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  6. Really impressed by your details interview and info shared in your food blog....and nice photos as well.

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  7. Thanks a lot SimpleGirl :-)Hope to capture every detailed information at the best I can while tasting delicious food :-)

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  8. indeed the lard oil & crispy pork lard is a must for the wan tan mee! your potrait shooting is good. keep it up.

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  9. Gill - thanks for the comment. Shooting skill still have plenty of room to improve :-) Lard oil and pork lard are the catalyst to make wan tan mee special enough :-)

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