Sri Kembangan Prawn Panmee

 It's humbling to think about how the panmee's simple beginnings in malaysia where poor folks those days would eat them as a staple meal. So the story goes as how i'd remember my parents telling me that during the japanese occupancy in Malaysia, people were in hiding and were staying in the jungles. There wasn't much to eat and they would plant tapioca. The chinese folks would cook noodles made out of flour from the tubers with simple condiments. The idea behind eating panmee is that because you're starting out with a block of knead-dough, which one could either make strings of noodles or pulled to size, you can prepare it as and when it's needed, however you'd want them. A good panmee shop starts your noodles from that block which they'd cut a section to make your portion from. Bad panmee is shops which have them already prepared, urgk! They'd end up having to over-salt or end up putting too much sauces and oil to make their bowl edible!

 Hence a soup base of anchovies, adding the ever available sweet leaf which grows so easily and meat slivers, a simple and nourishingly conforting  bowl of noodles was served! Those days, only the poorer folks would eat panmee. The original recipe did come from China but it really is something to think about how far it has travelled, taste-wise becoming a dish with many different nuances to satisfy the populace. These days, the malaysian folks are eating more and more panmee as a healthier alternative with no or less MSG and lots of vegetables. Chillie panmee being healthy?! Maybe not to your stomach :P

 Thus far, if u're going to be eating a basic dry panmee, this place really does serves up a really scrumptious meal! The best way to enjoy this version of the panmee, is to order it with extra everything or in cantonese, to tell them "ka-lieu" (add ingredients). I'll always have the dry-version (kon-lou) and that the noodles are thin (yao). Typically, panmee comes in 3 versions; thin (yao),  thick (chou) and pulled (meet)... :P Depending on shops and also preference, one could order panmee and have them in different ways :) So, here's what you'd have to tell the cook when you wanna order! kon-lou, yao meen, sai... kah lieu! :P lol!! tai means big and sai is for small. Oh and yeah, meen is noodles in cantonese. This will ensure that u'd get all the good-stuff

 Don't forget your dose of vegetables! Here, you can order a separate bowl of vegetables. They'd also have fish paste-stuffed beancurd (fpsb) which goes brillantly with your bowl of vegies. I'd usually make a separate order of one piece of  fpsb in a bowl of vegetables! Sorry, no pictures though... missed this one, was too hungry! You could also order sui-gau which is seasonal! The bowl is served with a number of big prawns and comes with extra chrispy anchovies and sambal belacan on the side.  The first time i tried this place, i actually ate yee-mee instead and never realised their speciality is the panmee! Over a period of time and a colleagues insistent to try panmee, we took a drive out to Sri Kembangan! That was nearly 5 years back and as they'd say... the rest is history! 

All in all, a small bowl of noodles, with extra ingredients plus another bowl of vegie will set you back less then RM8, approx as i can't remember ever ordering a single order and remember what the tab was in the end!! Here's the map to the location. It's house no. 800! It's quite difficult to find as the shop's really in the heart of Sri Kembangan! :) Hopefully, the map does help though!