Pork Noodle style Panmee in Taman Berkeley Klang

A trip to Klang to try this famous panmee was long overdue, and last week we decided on a lazy sunday afternoon (bed-side baptist... unfortunately), to take a drive down south into the Klang territory! A friend who's another panmee aficionado, brought us here..professing of it being the best, most smoothest textured panmee ever made! :P

Checking out other blogsites, this shop has been around for a long long time...! Our friend was brought here by his dad when he was a small lil' kid! And here's something to take note of... there's actually a 7-11, two doors away from the restaurant! Sorts of tells u the crowd of people this place pulls, I would think it'd be a good deal for 7-11! (Which is where we went after a big bowl of panmee!! )

The master-chef in action. Erm, so i think! :) Not much have change over the years, looking at the older pictures from other blogsites! :P Except for their name-plaque...

A much needed drink to cool down with! I heard they've got some weird concoctions of barley and cincau! Didn't have to try that though... as lazy me only decided to check it out after the fact! 

You can see the hard-work that goes into the prepartion of your bowls of noodles! Each individual block of noodles is nicely squared off and place into a big huge pot! Upon making your bowl, a  slew of well-trained chef-de-partie pulls, prods and pinches it in bite size morsal. This as they say, is where the art is as you'd have to be quite quick to process these blocks before they over-cook! Note picture below of lady on the left in midst of action... :)

And voila! A hot bowl of pork-style pan mee! And yes, the kung-fu is there alright! The noodles turns up smooth, thin and not over-cooked! Unlike other panmee, which can at times be too hard or thick, or the soup ends up starchy, "Fatty Mee Hoon Kuih" has it down to perfection! We ordered nearly 7 big bowls among us with all turning up perfect. To our surprise, the cooks didn't want to prepare all 7 bowls on one go... deciding that they'd cook 5 bowls for us 5  and upon a go-ahead sign, to cook the other 2! Now, that's what you call good CMMI level of service!

Address is courtesy of Malaysia most wanted Food webiste,  No. 15 Lbh Bangau Kaw 17, Taman Berkerley, 41150 Klang, Selangor. There's also more writeups at the link above. Unfortunately, there really isn't any good maps to Taman Berkeley, so I'm guessing you'd have to be rather good with roads in Klang or what better reason to call upon your friends in Klang but for a bowl of panmee! :) But below's a map nevertheless...

***LFS Post*** Xian Leng Aquarium Shah Alam

In need of more victim for my cichlid tank as it was getting depleted by an unknown bacteria strain maybe from all the guppies we feed 'em with from a nearby water catchment area, I decided on a trip to Xian Leng to restock! Besides AI being the nearest biggest LFS in klang-valley for me (if you can consider something as sungai buloh part of the klang-valley...), Xian Leng Shah Alam comes in as second biggest,  sorta your one-shop stop for everything aquatic. From plants to the house speciality, localled bred arowanas, you could spend the whole day here, on a family trip if going to the Zoo is too expensive! Situated in the heart of Shah Alam, right beside the Wet World Waterpark Shah Alam, there's also a Mc'Donalds a walking distance away. Oh did i mention this guys are even Public Listed in our local KLSE Bursa?! :P Anyone wants to take their hobby to a newer level??? I really do wonder what they'd give during the AGMs... a baby arowana for each shareholder maybe?

This is the house winner, the grand champion RTG... Didn't really get a very good picture of him as I did earlier during the KLCC aquafair 08, 'cause the lighting in this tank is rather bad, more for him, less for us...

Expensive Ikan billis? 

Beautiful specimen...lousy composition though, can't help it if they'd keep putting them tanks all the way up there!

Ornate bichir

Don't forget to visit their gallery. Take a right at the guppy tanks, walk on forward pass the toilets and it's lead you to XL' Mini Aquaritorium...

The freshwater tigerfish. This guys are huge in this display tank! 

Red Giant Gourami (Sabah Kaloi) 

And it's albino cousin! At a fully matured size. This guy could fit a table of 10...

Some sort of salmon fish. Sure doesn't look like the salmon we'd sushi! Or maybe it is, just that we've never seen one up close!

Pangas... or the locally known Patin fish, good steam in superior sauce!

There's also a local kenyir-dam lookalike tank, where you'd have a dozen tomans swimming around... about a meter each in lenght, graceful beauties... Wonder what feeding time's like in this tank!

Tarpons or sea dragons

Curry fish head anyone? :)

A school of peacock bass... For those who's got a need to stock a fishpond for some good fly-fishing :)

Beautiful tank of frontosa...

Semaprochilodus Taeniurus (Lampan family?)

And of course, the resident Arapaima will greet you goodbye as you leave! :) So for my purchase, i bought 5 earth eaters (RM2.50 a fish), a pair of Yellow labidochromis (RM3.00 a fish) and 4 baby Zebra maylandia (RM2.50 a fish). All in all, a worthwhile trip all the way to Shah Alam. And if you're still wondering if it's worth your while... lets just say, if your local LFS has it, XianLeng would probably have it too and more! Here's some extra information on Xian Leng. 

http://www.arowanaclub.com/clubevent/XLF/XLfarm11.htm

http://wikimapia.org/5720617/Xian-Leng-Aquarium

Shah Alam, Kuala Lumpur Showroom : 
Xian Leng Aquatic (Shah Alam) Sdn Bhd 
Persiaran Dato' Menteri, 
Section 2, 40000 Shah Alam, 
Selangor Darul Ehsan, 
Malaysia. 
Tel: +603-55123109 
Fax: +603-55132109 
Email: shahalam@xianleng.com.my

***LFS Post*** Slippery Little Sucker (SLS)

Met up with Siang and YY at this LFS tucked away in Damansara Ara. The shop buildings are relatively new, with up and coming shops. This is my first time coming across an LFS (local fish store) operating on the 1'st floor only! You'd have Irene's which takes up both the ground and 1'st! And you'd have the Pet's Wonderland franchise that can afford an entire building to its establishment... but running an LFS on the 1'st floor... Reminds me of how the old Mindshop in Bangsar and ComputerWar, discreet entrance... where you're faced with the wonders in the shop only upon entrance, where you're transported to a new world. And a new world this is! Unlike many other LFS, this shop not only specialises in fishes but planted tanks, which was the main reason that brought us here! SLS isn't too difficult to find as it's a turn to Ara Damansara off the old Subang Airport. Upon turning, keep going straight till you come across shoplots on your right. The maps in SLS's website will provide sufficient information to get u there safely... i hope! So the question to ask is, why drive all the way to Ara Damansara for a few fishes, one might ask... Well, considering that SLS is a big supporter of the Malaysia Aquascaping Club and they did get mention in our local dailies, these guys are the forerunners in our local grassroots scene for the aquascaping. Well from what i was able to goggle that is. Do correct me if i'm mistaken!

For the snail lovers, this shop has them all. A whole assortments of apple, trumpet and sorts that I've never seen before (nerite snails?!).

They do boast of being a fish enthusiast too, and you'd see that in the malawi cichlid biotopes.

Is this a Firemouth Cichlid? Someone's gotta correct me here! I'm just starting out on raring cichlids these days, so rather new and for the life of me can't remember them names!

Pseudotropheus flavus i think? 

Malawian aulonocara mbenji

Your typical Labidochromis caeruleus...

Another picture of a Pseudotropheus flavus

If you ask me, i'd call this guy is an expensive tilapia :) Don't flame me!!!

These were taken mostly from the display tanks. The shop is split between it's viewing section which is the front and the buying section with you'd enter as you move on behind. With a good selection of plants for those who're into aquascaping as well as other fishes you'd normally find in the market, SLS do have specialised fishes like the very uncommon kilifishes (RM36 per pair)... Which i think is really erm, rather expensive, albeit worthwhile if you love 'em. They've even got kribs!! Maybe I'd get them for my new planted tank which i'm planning indefinately! I did purchase 6Kgs of holland sand (RM18) for that tank, so... we're heading in that direction someday!! By the way, anyone has any idea why holland sand is called holland? Does it really come from holland the country? Or is it a cantonese tongue-in-cheek saying for if you use holland sand, everything will go hor-lan in your planted tank?!

Operating Hours:
Mondays through Fridays - 12.00pm to 9pm
Closed Wednesdays
Saturdays/Sundays - 12.00pm to 7.00pm
http://www.slipperylittlesuckers.com.my/ <--- click for map!

Kepong Wet Market Panmee

So along we went to the wet market in Kepong last week for by far the best spicy soup pan mee i've ever tried! :) It's just one of those place u'd stumble into, on a cold morning marketday as u run your errands and end up being dead-hungry!! The usual fair would be a hot spicy bowl of panmee with pieces of fish paste, pork-slices, fu-chuok (fried bean-curd) and the most important condiment, lots of celery/parsley leaves! Pictures describes a thousand words...

Another view for posterity... It's the mix of slightly salted fish paste and belacan, n really soft and tender noodles...adding a taste of crunchy fu-chouk... yummy, and then the spicy soup... marvelous! It hits the spot! Well, actually...nothing else taste like it, seriously!

Notice the greenish, chilli belacan that comes with your bowl of noodles. That's the best stuff! It's really got quite a kick so, beware! Don't overdo the chilly, lest u'd be running. *Note :- nearest, decent toilet is in King's Confectionary/Pak Hai Lam's Kopitiam... in cases of dire emergency!

My usual bowl which i'd order comes with chop chillies, do ask for a soup-bowl of panmee and tell 'em u want it "SPICY!". And you can gauge how much hair you'd want on your chest... I would recommend trying mild, 'cause my bowl of mild has this amount of chillies in it!!!

And that is only half the amount i'd take out while eating this! Of course, remember to bring tissues...lots' of it! Also, because i always order a big arse bowl, will get them to make the noodles thin (yao?!) instead of thick (chou?!), this ensure that the noodles gets cooked thoroughly as it's really a big bowl! Depending on the alignment of the moon, stars and air pressure... you'd get different sorts of vegetables, defaults being chinese spinach (yeen choi). The adventurous sorts would try chinese celery or parsley (kan-tsai. On a really weird day, you'd even get peppermint leaves in yours!  For those who don't eat vegetables...shame on you! Dear Mr. Wilson, the owner has this to share with them, for those pro-vegan (don't eat vegie, 'cause you duwan to kill 'em) :-

It's a seaweed version!! :) Brand new, never seen before, spicy seaweed panmee! Which really isn't that bad, but i'd have to kill my vegies n eat 'em too!! :) Eating all that spicy food... you'd definately require something to cool your burnin tummy! Here's a glass of the house milk-tea (nga-lat, teah). Best thing to have, a really hot cuppa....

Oh yeah, before i forget... It's actually known as a vegetable panmee stall! Well, vegetable it is! But it's got meat too! Do remember to try their dry spicy version too. Mixed with their house-speciality, the belacan... it's just heavenly! Oh and yeah, they've got none-spicy too... but once you've tried the really stomach burnin, sweat like you'd had a 10mile run,  good stuffs, there's just no going back! :) Erm, disclaimer. The really hot stuffs should be given to the Restaurant KinKin ChowKit Spicy Panmee, which i'd have to blog about on another day! Afterall, free-flow oily chilly-flakes... even the ever present msian flies won't go near 'em...standing ovation!

Maps to location found here! . The shop's really behind the Pak Hai Lam Kopitiam at the wet market, perfect landmark to finding this place!