Millenium Eighty-Six @ Paramount Garden

I've been to this coffee shop, Restoran Millenium Eighty-Six @ Paramount Garden, numerous times for our Sunday breakfasts.

We're usually here to patronise just two stalls....one is the stall at the back of the shop that specialises in steam fish, fish head noodles and a variety of "tai chow" (stir-fry) noodles.

I shared the Steamed Garoupa Head Slices ("Sek Pan") and (Fried) Fish Head Meehoon with my mother-in-law.  Both dishes cost RM23 in total which saw an increase from RM21 the last time we were here.  I didn't ask for a breakdown of the prices, so I wouldn't know how much each dish went up by but my guess is RM1 each.

I still enjoy the subtle taste of the clear soup with coarse meehoon ("cho mai fun") and lots of fresh greens...and the slight hint of Chinese rice wine with the delicate steamed fish and silken tofu pieces.

Look-y what I found...an eyeball and a huge one at that! O_o  To some that may be one of the best parts of the fish head....to us it was not.  Even my M-I-L who loves the gelatinous parts of the fish wouldn't want to eat this! >.<

The other stall would be the one run by the adorable old lady selling "lor bak" (five-spice pork roll), "lo mai fan" (steamed glutinous rice) and "wu tao gou" (yam cake).

No increase in her prices...still RM2 for the steamed glutinous rice and RM3 for 2 pcs of yam cake, both still very good, especially her yam cake which is still one of the best (if not the best) around.

Eat it with her kick-ass, darn-good homemade chilli sauce (I have yet to find a better tasting chilli dip than hers).  You know what...I think she should just bottle her chilli sauce and sell them...it's that good! ^o^

Even my husband who likes to eat his lo mai fan with sweet sauce had to "kowtow" (bow down) to her when she insisted it's best eaten with her chilli sauce...well, who are we to argue with an 80+ year old lady, right? ;)

On one of our trips there recently, we didn't get to eat her wu tao gou or lo mai fan as she happily (and proudly) proclaimed that a lady bought her entire tray (she told me that this customer from Cheras doesn't come here very often).  On one hand I was happy for her that she managed to sell out quicky but on the other hand not so happy at being deprived of eating her wu tao gou and lo mai fan that day...haha! :D

Because of that, we had to settle for her Lor Bak @ RM12 which was acceptable.  Her lor bak may not be best around but we feel compelled to order from her just to ensure she has enough business.

This hard-working old lady definitely deserves our "love" for being so independent and running the stall by herself at her age.  And if you see her otak-otak and the yam-wrapped salted egg, make sure you get some coz those are good.

In our last trip here, we discovered a hidden gem in a plate of Nasi Lemak @ RM4 my son had with just fried egg.  A spoonful of the rice (even though it was a bit clumpy and soft) and I was immediately hooked...it was so, so fragrant.  The stall is located just in front of the shop.  This is a new stall and not the same nasi lemak that previously occupied the space.  You can smell the fragrant coconut milk-infused rice by just standing there...no kidding! ^.^

And I just had to ask what's her secret which she was more than willing to share.  It was a bit of a shocker when I found out the secret in her "nasi" that's "so, so lemak".  It's the use of coconut water to cook her rice (instead of water)! :O  And here I thought she just used a lot of santan to make her rice so fragrant.  Sadly, we didn't see her stall on our subsequent visits! :'(  I'm not sure if she's no longer there or she just weren't there when we visited.

But we did find two new stalls here.  The first was the chee cheong fun stall.  Judging from the looks of the reddish "tim cheong" (sweet sauce), this is Ipoh-style Chee Cheong Fun.  Unfortunately, the sauce wasn't good as it was leaning towards sourish (even the lor bak old lady concurred that there's not enough sweetness in the sauce when she saw me having it and graciously offered her tim cheong to me...haha!).

The other new stall is the beef ball noodles (now called Yang Ki).  One look at the stall owner and he obviously looked familiar.  I recognised him immediately from Pandan Indah's beef ball noodles (he is a dead ringer for his older brother who now runs the Pandan Indah branch).  I remembered him having a stall in Restoran Tong Fong in Seapark (called Yang Kee) but he has since shifted here (he told me).

His beef ball noodles are pretty good and, if you like oh-so-tender beef, their "Lobak Ngau Lam" (Braised Sirloin with Radish) is certainly worth a try (available on Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays and only limited to 99 bowls or so the signboard said)! ^_~

My Personal Opinion

Our stalls of choice are still the one dealing in steam fish and fish head noodles and the fiesty grand ol' lady's lor bak stall with the best (and our favourite) yam cake.

We also wanted to add on our latest find which is the nasi lemak that's-so-lemak-it's-bonkers at the front of the shop but we couldn't find it on our later visits.  But then the new beef ball noodles stall gives us another good option here.  

Restoran Millenium Eighty-Six
13 Jalan 20/22
Paramount Garden
46300 Petaling Jaya
Selangor