Wong Chi Kee

I shall write this post from 2 perspectives. The first one will be what I felt and thought when I was there at that time, and the second will be what I feel and think now that I have more information about the place.

PERSPECTIVE 1:

The final meal that my friend from Melbourne and I had together, after the roast goose, milk tea and kaya toast, some Teochew kuihs that he had, the fish head and tomato soup, and some egg tarts, was in Wong Chi Kee, which is opposite Yung Kee where we got the roast goose from. From the menu, I gathered that this place is famous for its noodles.

The menu outside was promoting their Fried E Fu noodle heavily, and, wondering what ‘E Fu Noodles’ was, I decided that I was going to order that (it was more expensive than their other noodles. My friend was deciding between their wonton noodles, and some other thing, before settling on their noodles with shrimp roe.

This tasted good and everything, but its just ‘Yee Mee’. We get plenty of ‘Yee Mee’ in KL. I don’t like ‘Yee Mee’. I almost never order it. Why did they have to charge more for it? Nothing too special.

And this is what my friend had. I think his guidebook said that this was the dish to get. The noodles were a bit different from your usual noodles that you get in the wonton noodles, and the shrimp roe provided an interesting flavour to it. I preferred it the way it was, but my friend thought it was a bit dry so he mixed it with the clear soup that came together with the dish.

Would I have ordered this? Not really. Nothing too special.

PERSPECTIVE 2:

ARGH! The handmade noodles with shrimp roe was the exact same dish that Anthony Bourdain had in his episode (except that he had it at the shop of the guy who actually makes the noodles)! He also described this as the ‘perfect noodle’, as handmaking noodles is a dying art (that particular scene is one of the most moving scenes in the whole episode). And he had the noodles mixed with LARD! Not clear soup! LARD!

ARGH!

To think that I had the perfect noodle without even knowing it was perfect, and thinking it was just a ‘nothing too special’ dish!

ARGH!

Apparently, this shops buys the noodles from the guy who makes it (his restaurant is in Tai Po, called Ping Kee, I think).

Would I have ordered that dish if I had know about it?

YES!

I would also have asked for the bowl of lard as well.

ARGH!