KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20 — Life is often about trade-offs, even with a bowl of pork noodles.
Maybe because it’s just a simple noodle dish, the flavour hangs on what you put in the bowl.
Around the Klang Valley, one can cherry pick from various stalls depending on your preference.
The dry version has noodles of your choice (left) tossed in a dark, sweet soy sauce accompanied with a bowl of broth (right) and goodies like minced pork, sliced pork, intestine and liver. — Picture by Lee Khang Yi
Love a stronger, richer pork broth? Well, you’re sure to find stalls that have your back where it’s a trade-off with your wallet or your “health”.
Stronger flavours can easily be built by loading up the pork with a higher cost that may hurt your wallet or using artificial seasonings leaving you thirsty for more that may (or not, depending on your body) give you an adverse reaction.
Or how about a cleaner broth supporting the assortment of pork and offal that goes into the bowl?
For the broth, it uses pork bones of varying sizes (left) at this Penang Pork Noodle stall that has been in business since 1976. — Picture by Lee Khang Yi
This particular Penang Pork Noodle stall offers the latter — a lighter flavour pork broth using pork bones of varying sizes.
Penangite Chow has been cooking his hometown’s taste that “doesn’t make you thirsty”, as he describes it, since 1976 around the Pudu area
Previously at Restoran Pudu Utama, his stall relocated to this spot about one plus years ago.
In the morning, the coffeeshop is full of friends chatting and reading the newspaper. — Picture by Lee Khang Yi
The soup version seems to be a popular pick, as seen by numerous diners slurping down their noodles in signature ceramic bowls.
The bowl is jam packed with minced pork, sliced pork, offal like intestine and liver. Pig’s kidney can also be added too except on Monday when the market is closed.
Here, the liver is thinly sliced, giving you a different type of bite.
The stall is right near the entrance for this coffeeshop that is right across Kedai Kopi Dan Makanan Pak Lock famous for their ‘wantan mee’. — Picture by Lee Khang Yi
When cooked lightly, the thin pieces have a creamier bite, reminiscent of those served with bak chor mee in Singapore.
With this broth you can happily drink each spoonful with the noodles of your choice and the meat, until the bottom of the bowl can be seen; a sign of true satisfaction.
For the dry version, the dark sauce coating the noodles feels a bit sweet but a generous topping of fried garlic gives it extra flavour.
A small portion of the noodles is RM10 while a big portion is RM11. An egg for RM1 extra can also be added too.
Penang Pork Noodle Stall
Restaurant KWB,
19, Lorong Brunei 2
Pudu, Kuala Lumpur
Open: 7am to 2pm, Closed every second Sunday of the month.
* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.
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