PUCHONG, Aug 19 — You just ordered a bowl of kai si hor fun at your regular coffee shop. What arrives is a bowl of chicken broth filled with smooth rice noodles, blanketed with bright orange prawn oil, topped with shredded chicken and prawns. For a final flourish, there's fried shallots and spring onions.
One sip of that broth delivers a double umami hit. You get that sweet, rich chicken broth followed by those impossibly rich crustacean flavoured oil. It works in perfect harmony with the silky smooth rice noodles.
That's the magic of a very good kai si hor fun.
Chances are you probably ate it at one of Wong Zhi Noodle House's food stalls, opened with their licensees.
Today, they have 47 stalls all around the Klang Valley plus Perak, with more coming up. No wonder it's not hard to bump into one of their stalls.
At the helm of Wong Zhi is Jun Wang, 39. He joined forces with ex-colleagues Andy Chong, 33 and Mike Wong, 35, together with his wife, Monbi Lee, 39, to start this venture.
The three guys had bonded over the many years working as chefs at Lammeeya and one of their related restaurants, Kissaten, that focused on Japanese food.
Lammeeya made a name for itself in PJ's Damansara Uptown for its KL-style lam mee and other local dishes. After an unsuccessful business expansion, they are now reduced to just one outlet at Jaya One.
They still offer a menu of local favourites but nowadays, many know Lammeeya for their omakase menu featuring fine Chinese dishes cooked by owner Andy Ong.
Back in 2018, Wang decided to dabble into kai si hor fun.
Even though he was cooking up Japanese food for work, he believed kai si hor fun would be a money spinner.
“I was inspired by Puchong's Restoran 2323 (Ipoh Thean Chun's son's stall) kai si hor fun as I saw them have a lot of business,” he explained.
For Wang, an important element that differentiated kai si hor fun from other dishes, was how he perceived it as “something not complicated”, making it easy to replicate.
In comparison, nasi lemak, which Wong had started a business with, was "complicated" for Wang since it involved many elements on the plate.
The first kai si hor fun stall was opened at a coffee shop in Bandar Puteri Puchong, where Wang's wife ran the show. After work, Wang and Chong would help her out.
It all changed in 2020.
The three chefs lost their jobs because of the pandemic. It spurred them to pour their efforts into this venture.
In April 2020, they bounced back by opening their second stall at Puchong's Restoran Wai Wai.
Their big break came when Thong Kee Cafe gave them a chance to open at their Puchong outlet, a month after they opened their second stall.
As Wang's friends, who were also chefs, were searching for a business opportunity, their third stall at Restoran Chan Hainan Kopitiam in Cheras was their first licensee.
From Puchong and Cheras, they spread their wings to PJ, with Sunway Mas Restoran Sun Yin Loong and Sea Park Restoran MJ Wang.
As their kai si hor fun captured many fans, their fame spread. This included Malaysian model Amber Chia who posted about the kai si hor fun from the stall located in Restoran MJ Wang.
Most of their licensees are through the trio's personal connections. Some stalls are collaborative efforts with coffee shop chains, like Thong Kee Cafe and Hwa Yan Kai Restaurant.
Wang explained that whenever Hwa Yan Kai opens an outlet, they will insist Wong Zhi open a stall there. In the case of Thong Kee Cafe, they will request Wong Zhi join their outlets, unless there's already an existing kai si hor fun stall.
Some of their existing licensees also take up multiple locations. The stalls could also be located within the same area, like the one in Subang Jaya, where a couple operates one stall at Restoran Happy Town in SS15 and another at USJ20 R.A.M. Food Corner.
For those interested to become a licensee, they can also contact them to apply for a stall.
As many areas are saturated already, Wong Zhi is only accepting applications for selected areas in the Klang Valley like Gombak, Wangsa Maju and Kota Kemuning. As they intend to expand to other states, those interested can also apply for those locations.
With so many stalls in popular residential areas, the kai si hor fun has become accessible to many.
One of them is Ipoh native Lin Chua who now resides around the Kota Damansara area. She frequents two stalls near her home, namely Ara Damansara's Restoran Dudu Yummy and Kota Damansara's Restoran Sun Yin Loong, where she terms the kai si hor fun as having a “phenomenal taste”.
Quality is controlled for all their stalls, firstly by ensuring their licensees use the same ingredients, which Wong Zhi has selected the best.
For instance, the important prawn oil that delivers a umami bomb for the kai si hor fun is made using farmed sea prawns sourced from Perak's Bagan Datuk.
Sea prawns are preferred compared to normal prawns as the flavours are far superior.
Another important element is the silky hor fun. The texture of the noodles is important as it needs to be smooth on the tongue for the whole eating experience of kai si hor fun to be complete.
Hence, Wong Zhi sources their hor fun from a factory in Ipoh, regarded by many as the most trusted brand for the rice noodles.
Even the chicken is delivered to the stalls, from Wong Zhi's trusted supplier.
Cooking experience is another important element to retain consistency.
Every licensee will have to go through many months of training to ensure they can cook the kai si hor fun to that required standard.
For more experienced licensees, like those who have worked as chefs before, it can be a much shorter stint.
Quality checks are also conducted by Chong who manages operations, to ensure the stalls maintain their standards.
Wong Zhi also has trusted people as mystery reviewers, who are unknown to the licensees, to test the consistency of the kai si hor fun.
A big difference with Wong Zhi is how they take an extra step to customise their broth to suit the customers' taste buds.
It's not like a fast food chain, where the taste is standard across the board.
Wang explained that for instance, a stall may keep the broth lighter to suit their regulars who are older folks. This applies to areas heavily populated with older customers, like Cheras.
That's not to say, the broth is tasteless though as it maintains the general standard as practised by all their other stalls.
It's a different case for the kai si hor fun stall at Damansara Heights Plaza Batai's Restoran Yum-Me Place. Here the stall's offerings seem to be amped up.
The broth is much richer and thicker, enhanced further with the layer of prawn oil.
And if you love the taste of prawns, even their poached chicken is served swimming in a bath of prawn oil mixed with soy sauce. That's truly decadent!
Wang explained that for some stalls, they also include prawn oil drizzled over the poached chicken.
Too much prawn oil may also lead to some misconceptions.
Like the kai si hor fun stall in USJ20 R.A.M. Food Corner, who put up a notice proclaiming that “This is not prawn mee”. It's even led some food lovers to cheekily tag the place as “#notprawnmee”.
Moving forward, Wang's dream is to push Wong Zhi beyond the Klang Valley.
So far, they have opened in Perak. Even though kai si hor fun is available in most places there, being the birthplace of that dish, there are two stalls in Ipoh opened by his chef friends.
In Kuala Kangsar, Wang's hometown, the stall is operated by his aunt.
Also under their Wong Zhi Noodle House brand, they have five outlets including one in Ipoh.
A new concept, Wong Zhi Kopi, also opened in Puchong's IOI Boulevard, a few doors away from their main outlet.
Here, you get a mix of local fare like fried noodles, fish head noodles, Hainanese chicken chop, where Wong is in charge of the kitchen there. It's also pork free, appealing to those searching for a Muslim-friendly eatery.
Not one to rest on their laurels, their next step is to introduce new concepts.
In September/October, they will embark on operating at night, at the Wong Zhi flagship outlet at Puchong's Jalan Kenari 7.
You can dine on chicken rice, inspired by iconic Ipoh Cowan Street's stall. Also making an appearance is Ah Boy Char Kway Teow, who is popular on the pasar malam circuit for his unique method of frying noodles in two woks simultaneously.
Wong Zhi Noodle House, 5, Jalan Kenari, Puchong. Open daily: 7am to 3pm. Tel:03-80804188.
For the nearest stall to you, check the full list of Wong Zhi's outlets and stalls on their Facebook:@wongzhinoodlehouse
