PETALING JAYA, Aug 16 — “What’s the best thing you’ve eaten recently?”
In this line of work, this question becomes as routine as “How are you?”, “How’s the family?” or my personal favourite, “What’s your deepest fear?”.
Most expect the answer to be some dry-aged, lacto-fermented, freeze-dried, “brat-summer-coded” (lime-green food the colour of Charli XCX’s album cover), meticulously-tweezered creation, or worse yet, a beloved local dish with a pound of caviar or truffle shavings unceremoniously slapped on top.
Instead, the answer is almost always just an excellent preparation of something simple and humble in its roots, and recently, the answer has been a dish that features the ubiquitous egg at its best.
My latest hyperfixation is the large Plain Omelette (RM12) at Yak Yim Thai Kitchen (Yak Yim).
The menu may identify this omelette as something ordinary but in actual fact, it’s a Thai crispy omelette or khai jiao.
I love a light, fluffy and crispy khai jiao but finding one that’s exemplary is surprisingly hard given the simple components involved.
Too often, mediocre versions involve either hollow crisps of fuzz that merely hint of egg or a flaccid and floppy pile of eggs with no crispy bits in sight.
The version at Yak Yim is my idea of perfection – an aggressively jagged and crispy outer edge gives way to a soft, fluffy cloud of egg in the middle.
It’s a marvel what hot oil, eggs and skilled technique can produce. The tart and spicy green dip that came with it is the perfect complement to the omelette.
You will find that Yak Yim is incredibly popular in the neighbourhood.
On weeknights, getting a table can be hard if you arrive smack in the middle of the dinner rush – be prepared to tussle with families and office folks who have come to take advantage of the many dinner set options.
Some of the dishes featured in these set meals failed to impress us across multiple visits, but the series of fried noodles stood out.
The Pad Thai with Prawn (RM15.90) is Yak Yim’s statement piece on the iconic dish.
It was sweet, savoury and tangy as it should be – not a Thai char kuey teow like your friend who went to Bangkok once compared it to.
It came with three meaty prawns, but the real gems lay in the pile of tiny sun-dried shrimp that came with crushed peanuts, chilli flakes and a lime wedge as part of the traditional accompaniments.
These were bombs of pure ocean flavour, bursting at the seams with savouriness to give some edge to the sweet-ish noodles.
Pad See Ew (RM14.90) was also excellent.
A fitting comparison would be with Cantonese chow fun, though you have pork as a protein option here.
Dyed a light caramel hue, the slick strips of hor fun were full of smoky, charred flavour.
Velvety slices of pork and tender stalks of kai lan dot the rest of the plate, which, along with a similar dip to the omelette, vanished quickly into my greedy belly.
There was also a good version of Fried Glass Noodle (RM14.90).
Dark, boldly flavoured and full of wok hei again, this bore a lot of similarities with the Pad See Ew, except for the distinct flavour imparted by the liberal use of Chinese celery.
Whoever they’ve got on wok duty at Yak Yim is a real maestro; everything stir-fried gives a good account of itself, not least the virtuosic performance that is their “plain” omelette.
Yak Yim Thai Kitchen
26, Jalan 20/16a, Taman Paramount, Petaling Jaya.
Open Tuesday to Sunday, 11am-10pm.
Tel: 010-896 5928
Facebook: @yakyimthaikitchen
Instagram: @yakyimthaikitchen
* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.
* Follow us on Instagram @eatdrinkmm for more food gems.
