A Whiff of Lemongrass

Some of us in the Makan Club are well acquainted with Woo Lan Restaurant. Now housed in an air-conditioned shoplot at Jalan Scott, Brickfields, it didn’t start out that glamorously.A wooden structure under the overhead bridge next to the Holy Rosary Church. Cars parked haphazardly.

Was that all? Just another old shack to cater to those who lived and worked there? Probably not, judging from the old faithfuls that thronged the place. An interesting point to note about Malaysians (in general, anyway…there are some who have gone to the dark side…hehe) is that they do not care about appearances as long as the food is good. And that’s the success story of Woo Lan.

“Progress” and “development” eventually took place in that lot next to the church. Woo Lan subsequently moved to its current location, barely 50 metres from where it last stood.

My love affair with foo yue yau mak (romaine lettuce stir-fried with fermented beancurd) first started in Woo Lan over ten years ago. Over the next few months, I tormented my friends by constantly ordering the same vegetable. I wasn’t very compromising then! Pretty Pui and Bouncing Barbie are quite relieved that the obsession is over and that they can get on with life.

This evening, as Ecstatic Eeyore and I drove down to Brickfields in search of roti canai for dinner, instead of heading to our usual haunt, we were somehow drawn by a hidden force towards Woo Lan. Our minds were filled with visions of fried mee suah with seaweed and fried pak kor. The force was strong and in our moment of weakness, we yielded to it.

We are but mere fallible humans. Not only did we order the mee suah and pak kor, we also asked for yue sang. For two. The spirit of Chinese New Year was in us, and we wanted to be one with the yue sang.

What a wondrous sight it was. Our first yue sang (raw fish salad) for the year in all its colourful (artificial) glory. Bits of shredded vegetables, pomelo, crackers and raw fish drizzled with plum sauce and sesame seeds. Yue sang is normally consumed during the Chinese New Year period and is presented in the centre of the table whereby everyone, with chopsticks raised, toss the salad, uttering good wishes (good health, good job, lots of money, a girlfriend who looks like Amber Chia).

It must have been a sorry sight to see two very hungry looking people tossing the yue sang and yelling out every imaginable good wish to each other.

Pak kor is a rice cake that is thinly sliced. This dish was prepared in a nice garlicky dark sauce and fried with prawns.

The mee suah in Woo Lan is my current all-time favourite dish. A master of deception, this dish looks plain and unappetising. Mix it with the bits of crunchy seaweed, prawns, chinese cabbage and fried eggs and inhale…The combination of flavours arouse the senses.

Believe it or not, we finished everything. Burp.

Woo Lan
19, Jalan Scott,
Brickfields, 50470 KL.
Tel: 03-2274-8368

Opening hours: 11.30am – 3.00pm & 5.30pm – 10.00pm

Inspired by boo_licious’ mouthwatering chocolate crepe cake, I replicated her efforts on Sunday. Surprisingly, I didn’t screw up. It turned out absolutely delicious. 🙂

Note added on 31/1/07: To the unbelievers (Smokin’ SOB), yes, this is the cake that I made. Not a picture taken in a bakery or a cafe. My cake. 😛

Smokin’ SOB normally doesn’t get ecstatic about food; his philosophy in life is to eat to live rather than live to eat (unlike the rest of us). So when he mentioned to me, about a month back, that he had just eaten same “damn good f*#^ing good fish”, I knew that it had to be something really special.

Unfortunately, the restaurant doesn’t open for lunch, and the Makan Club doesn’t do dinners, so we were unable to enjoy Smokin’ SOB’s out-of-body experience.

So naturally, when he suggested dinner today at Chung Sam Restaurant, I couldn’t say no. 🙂

Chung Sam is hardly what one would call a restaurant. It’s more like an open-concept shack. The “kitchen” is in the centre, and the tables surround the kitchen. The problem with seeing the kitchen is that one can easily be tempted by the array of food ordered by others. Take Richard, for example. Richard loves crabs, and his attention was on the crabs throughout the night. Unfortunately, all the crabs were booked by another table, so the poor chap could only salivate. I’ve never seen anyone look so miserable.

But the star attraction at this restaurant is the asam (tamarind) fish. The fish is first deep fried in a wok, then placed on a lotus leaf. The sauce (prepared beforehand) made of tamarind juice, chillies and belacan is then poured over the fish together with sliced onions. The “package” is then wrapped up and deep fried again to allow the flavours to envelope the fish. It was served hot and it was certainly delicious.

Smokin’ SOB was right. It was damn good f*#^ing good fish. 🙂

(Note: If you’d like to sample the fish, do go there early as they run out of the sauce pretty fast. We had arrived at 8.15pm, and we were the last customers to get the asam fish.)

Chung Sam Restaurant
No. 3, Jalan Anggor,
4th Mile, Off Jalan Klang Lama (coming from KL, just before the Tmn Desa exit),
58100 KL
Tel: 03-7822291/012-3685164