PETALING JAYA, July 24 — Eat your fish, it's good for you. I've been hearing that bit of "advice" from my elders since I was a kid.

In the case of haruan fish or sang yue in Cantonese, some believe that eating the fish helps to heal internal wounds.

Not many places in the Klang Valley offer this sought-after freshwater fish though so it's a real treat to discover Kedai Makanan Haruan-He.

The place in Taman Bukit Mayang Emas was started by Yan Wo, famous for its two restaurants, one offering Chinese food and the other serving Thai food, just further down the road.

Here, the haruan fish is cooked using a 40-year old recipe, perfected by the master chef from Chenderiang's Kedai Makanan dan Minuman Hong Kee.

The menu is kept simple from its clean and modern design with a white background and bright blue and red colours to the items featured.

Its focus is communal family meals to share.

Start with the haruan fish, which is served in two styles. You select the size depending on the number of diners, as recommended by them.

In our case, since there were five of us, we took a fish weighing 1.2 kilograms (RM12.80 per 100 grams). You have three frying styles for the fish meat, a choice of sizzling claypot, kung pao style and the classic spring onion and ginger combination.

Since the claypot version also uses the same spring onions and ginger flavours, this was the more tempting choice. This arrived with a "wow" factor with smoke emitting from the claypot.

For the kung pao style, this version was rather subtle compared to that in other places, but still retaining its savoury fragrance with its spring onions and dried red chillies coated with a brown sauce.

The highlight is the broth, brewed from the fish bones. Select from Pickled Vegetables and Tofu or a Herbal flavour.

The pickled vegetables broth was superb with its appetising taste, which paired beautifully with thin beehoon strands. You can, of course, pair it with rice.

The broth is kept warm in a small claypot placed over hot coals. Slowly relish the broth and eat the fish meat clinging to the bones.

If you're not into haruan fish, there's a Teochew style seafood congee using crabs, prawns and fish slices, perfect for rainy nights.

Otherwise, go for their rich, creamy fish head curry laced with an aromatic chilli oil. This would definitely be perfect with a plate of rice.

The menu looks limited but they also have off menu items. We tried all of them in small portions, since each dish sounded alluring.

You have fried chicken (RM28 for a small portion) that can outdo any Korean version.

What made the chicken finger licking good was the Thai fermented shrimp paste. It's restrained but the meat is juicy and tasty. Don't miss the best bits too, the sprinkle of fried Thai shallots that are extra fragrant and crazy addictive.

There's also a sauce with dried chillies, shallots and herbs to give the meat a little tangy taste too.

Whenever I see Sweet and Sour Pork (RM20 for a small portion), I must try it. This version didn't disappoint with its thin crispy battered pork drenched with a balanced sweet and sour sauce.

What amazed me was how the crispy texture still held its own after some time, until every piece was eaten.

The omelette (RM16 for a small portion) looked ordinary but it was fluffy and laced with a little fish sauce, making it a good complement to the other dishes.

From the menu, there's a choice of two greens, so we picked the Kangkung Belacan (RM30 for a large portion) which came with decadent lard crisps. Since my friend doesn't do spicy so well, we toned down the sambal here.

Last but not least was the unusual Pork Intestines Stir-Fry with Pineapple (RM28 for a small portion). This blew us away. We expected small intestines but they use the bigger, softer version, which is harder to source.

The genius addition was the pineapple pieces, cooked till it was soft and not biting to the tongue. The sauce was so appetising that even my friend who doesn't eat pineapple, was finishing the whole dish.

And the true test of how dinner went... empty plates all round!

Just note that the place only has six round tables, of varying sizes. Some sit at least four to five people, while bigger ones can sit up to 10 people comfortably.

Even though the food is designed to be shared, we did spy one solo diner happily tucking into the fish broth and a couple enjoying the broth with a few dishes too.

They also serve various drinks, like hawthorn apple or chrysanthemum which are flavourful and not too sweet.

Kedai Makanan Haruan-He, No. 20, Jalan BM1/2, Taman Bukit Mayang Emas, Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Open daily: 10.30am to 3pm, 5pm to 10pm. Tel:017-9740235.

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