KUALA LUMPUR, June 26 — One weekend, I ended up at Overseas Union Garden and after looking up places to try, I settled for this popular dry curry mee.
It recently had a spark of fame, thanks to social media.
Maybe that is why they sold out before lunch on Saturday. All I got when I arrived were empty pots!
Oops, I guess I need to be much earlier to catch this curry awesomeness.
The next visit had me arriving earlier and this round, I scored a plate of the curry mee.
You will find the friendly Beh running the stall, which he inherited from his mother.
If you add up the years both of them have been running the stall, it comes up to a whopping 60 years!
It seems his mother was operating the business for 40 years and he has been running it for 20 years already.
As he sells mainly Ipoh Hor Fun, Curry Laksa and this Dry Curry Mee I assumed he would be from Ipoh but to my surprise, he traces his roots to Pangkor Island.
Back to his signature curry mee. When you get to the stall, you will find huge pots filled with thick curry.
One pot has chicken feet with curry, which got me excited since I'm a big fan of that. Do make sure you add it to your order, you won't regret it.
It's priced at RM8.50 for the curry mee. If you greedily add more ingredients like me, it's RM9.50 for your fully loaded curry mee.
At first sight, the dry curry mee just looks like a mountain of curry.
Under the curry, you find different toppings like tender, chunky char siu and boneless chicken.
There's calamansi lime so squeeze it over your curry mee to give it a slight tangy taste.
I set aside those precious chicken feet to be savoured last.
As the curry is thick and flavourful, it's hard to be dainty when you eat it. I do suggest a black outfit to avoid unsightly splashes of curry.
I tried my best but still got one spot of curry like a proud tattoo to say, "I conquered the curry mountain!"
Since I selected hor fun, the smooth rice noodles were slick with the curry. It's not overly spicy but rich with coconut milk.
This is the type of noodles you just end up slurping to make sure you get every bit of that fragrant curry.
As the neighbouring table's patrons also ordered the dry curry mee, I could see how it was eaten and everyone would slurp it down with satisfaction.
The chicken feet were a great treat at the end. The skin was silky and gelatinous.
What I noticed too was how most people would pair it with a bowl of wantans from the wantan mee stall. That seemed to be a popular choice of many.
One happy point to also note about this place is its opening times. As they close on Tuesday, rather than the usual Monday rest day for many coffee shops, this means I finally get to indulge in dry curry mee on that day.
The coffee shop is also one of the most decorated places I have come across. The one thing that grabbed my eye was a wall covered with watercolour paintings depicting the goings-on of the coffee shop.
Each scene from the making of the drinks, the food preparation and even their diners who would just gather there as good friends to share their stories. Lovely!
Dry Curry Mee, Ipoh Hor Fun and Curry Laksa stall, Restoran Hoong Pin, 27, Jalan Hujan Rahmat, Taman Overseas Union, Kuala Lumpur.
Open: 6.30am till they finish. Closed on Tuesday.
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