Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Segambut: Where the streets have no name

Any resident or visitor to KL will know this isn't the best signposted city. Many locals navigate solely by landmark and not by street name, which is just as well given that sometimes there just isn't one.

For a little Selangor girl like me, Segambut is one of those suburbs that seem awfully far away. It's not really, Malaysians often have a false sense of distance because the city isn't well mapped out as mentioned above. Call me snooty but it's not somewhere one would visit out of no reason, I would need a really good one. And on this occasion I would say I was given four.





Basically a large shack in a residential area, it's what I call a Chinese coffee shop. Fluorescent lighting, melamine cutlery that always needs to be bathed in hot water to kill germs, a Chinese television drama on in the background and an air of unfussy dinge. Local veterans arrive and shout out orders as there is no actual menu and if you're at a loss to what to order, you can always cruise other tables for ideas or ask for a recommendation.




So. Reasons One and Two for trekking all the way from Segambut are the Fried Fishball Wontons and the Curry Pai Quat (Spare Ribs). Wrapped in a bean-curd skin or foo chuk instead of a wonton wrapper, these fried fishballs have got perfect crunch on the outside and bounce on the inside. Many dishes here come in claypots and are bubbling furiously when brought to the table, such as the Curried Spare Ribs. One of life's little pleasures is to get your teeth and tongue around a little spare rib and ease of the pork. We slurped up the curry sauce and made sure our rice was sufficiently doused in the tasty stuff.



The Chap Choy (Sour Stewed Vegetables) and Cabbage Fried with Salted Shrimp were the humble side dishes that made up our balanced meal.



Reasons Three and Four. Caramelised Pork Belly is my new favourite dish. The sweet soya sauce infusion to the unctuous belly pieces was impossible to resist. The Steamed Fish was excellently done, it's rare to get this quality of fish in such a modest environment. Classically cooked with strips of ginger and spring onion, the meat was silky, meaty and enriched with a full flavoured gravy.


This place is nameless and is literally on a street with no name! For my fellow locals or visiting bravehearts, take the Penchala Link from the KL city centre and if there's no traffic, the theory is you'll be there in 15 minutes. Those seemingly simple dishes are testament to delicious food in hidden places, and worth the trip. I was very kindly treated to dinner and on a very educated guess would estimate this to be circa RM30 - RM35 a head.

Now I hope this map leads you to the right place...!



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4 comments:

Cinnamon and Truffle said...

That fishball wanton and caramelised pork belly look simply irresistible! Am going to need that recipe for the pork belly again.

Truffle

Hungry Female said...

I think I'm going to have to do a tribute to Pork Belly soon, one for good ol' Siew Yuk and one more for the caramelised version - stay tuned!

Sean said...

this is embarrassing. after more than 12 years of living in this city, i wouldn't have been able to give directions to segambut five minutes ago. but looking at the map, i realize it really IS just a 20-minute drive from my office. yikes! the food looks and sounds really, really yummy, but i have a sinking feeling that finding parking here might be tricky (ok, i'm probably wrong, heh) :D

Hungry Female said...

Hi Sean! The parking lot is right in front of the restaurant! Defo try it out and tell me what you think:)