Madras Lane Chee Cheong Fun & Yong Tau Foo @ Petaling Street

I made two trips to Petaling Street just to try all three Madras Lane curry laksa stalls to see which one is the best and to see if I concurred with Lonely Planet's curry laksa pick.

I also had the opportunity to try some of the other well-known stalls while I was there.  One of which was the chee cheong fun stall which I managed to do on my first visit.

The chee cheong fun @ RM3.30 (for large) is highly popular with sprinkles of sesame seed in a chilli and sweet sauce.  I don't know if it's the chee cheong fun itself or the sauce that didn't quite endear itself to me. Maybe it's because I was so disappointed with the curry laksa I had on that first trip.  Perhaps the curry sauce might have fared better.

Another famous stall here is the yong tau foo stall that has been around reputedly for more than 60 years.   It was on my first trip that I first noticed the queue building up even before the stall was opened.  Curious to find out how they taste, we joined the Q (to tapau some home) after we were done with our curry laksa on our second visit.

This is a self-service stall where you have to line up, order, pay and take the food yourself.  It reminded me of other self-service ones in the (old) Imbi market and O & S Restaurant.  So, I was obviously excited...not excited that I have to do all the 'work' myself but excited that it'll probably taste good coz only stalls who knows they're good and doing brisk business will 'dare' make you do all the 'work'...otherwise nobody is going to go through all that trouble if the taste doesn't cut it! :D

Again, like most of the stalls here, this stall is also quite territorial (meaning you can't order food from certain stalls).  I did notice that some of the customers seated behind the yong tau foo stall were having chee cheong fun (besides yong tau foo), so I guess chee cheong fun is allowed (though the curry laksa is not).  I don't know how 'deep' this territorial thing runs since I didn't eat there but decided to tapau.  I suppose it can't be helped since tables are limited and competition is fierce.

The yong tau foo here is priced at RM1.40 per piece and they offer a limited variety but all the common ones are there like fried bean curd rolls, fried sui kow (dumplings), both fried and white tofu, fried and boiled fish balls, stuffed brinjal, chillies, ladies finger and bitter gourd.

All the yong tau foo are prepared fresh and fried on site.  Our favourite fried items are always the bean curd rolls and sui kow which also seems to be a firm favourite with others seeing how fast they fly off the shelves trays as soon as they're fried.

The fried bean curd rolls surprisingly were quite huge in size.  Sorry they look a bit 'deflated' as I got the ones that were at the bottom of the pile as they were 'cleaned out' very quickly once out of the wok.

I ate one of the fried dumpling as soon as I reached home and the dumpling skin still managed to maintain most of its crispiness.  Unlike most other fried dumplings out there which usually contain finely chopped carrots and jicama (and some even wood ear fungus), this one has none of those ingredients in its filling, just the fish paste.

These few yong tau foo pieces were my lunch that day (the pieces are of a good size but look small here because I used a big plate).

The man boss asked if I wanted to pack soup for my yong tau foo and I said yes.  That's when I noticed the soup was actually scooped from the wok that contains yong tau foo pieces (mainly the fish balls and tofu) steeping in broth.  But what surprised me most was the taste of the soup which was quite good, certainly more decent than most yong tau foo broth I've had before.  He gave me so much soup, I decided to reserve (and freeze) the extra to make noodle soup at a later date...hehe.

When it comes to yong tau foo, it's the filling that will set it apart from other yong tau foo...and this one tasted good.  I'm not sure if it was just fish paste or a combination of fish and minced pork (as some blogs mentioned, some even said there was salted fish).  Personally, I felt the filling was just fish paste (I didn't taste any pork but there was an extra savouriness to it though).  The filling had a nice, firm bite which I really liked as it wasn't the usually springy-type fish paste.  What got me was just how tasty the filling was.

My Personal Opinion

If you like a really springy fish paste filling, perhaps this one is not for you.  I, on the other hand, liked it a lot for that nice, firm and tasty bite.

Of course you'll read about complaints of how rude the stall owners are...but, then again, isn't that the norm with highly popular stalls?  They know they've got something good.  I suppose when you have a highly sought-after 'product', things can get a little heated when there's a massive crowd.  So, it depends on your luck whether you catch them on a good or bad day...kekeke! ;)

In the end, it won't be the Madras Lane curry laksa that'll make me return but the yong tau foo instead.  The place may not be that conducive for an eat-in but you can always tapau.

Madras Lane Chee Cheong Fun & Yong Tau Fo0
(Penjaja Gallery Jalan Tun H S Lee)
Off Petaling Street
50000 Kuala Lumpur