Ampang Charcoal Fried Hokkien Mee @ Pandan Indah/Ampang

I was first introduced to this place, simply called Ampang Charcoal Fried Hokkien Mee @ Pandan Indah/Ampang, through ShopeeFood.  The words "charcoal fried" was what attracted me in the first place.

This is a stall located in Tin Ha Kopitiam and it's situated in an industrial area known as the Pandan Indah Industrial Park that's a bit further away from the main Pandan Indah residential area and on its way to Ampang (so it's like in between Pandan Indah and Ampang).

So, the Fried Hokkien Mee + Meehoon @ RM13.30 was my first order obviously.  The plate of noodles was filled with prawns, pork liver, lean pork and cabbage as the vegetable of choice (instead of choy sum).

The medium-sized prawns (actually two only lah, recently down to only one) were fresh and sweet-tasting, nothing like those overly crunchy, translucent and crappy frozen kind.  The pork liver (also only two pieces) were meaty and thickly cut as they should be with lean pork slices (ah, this one definitely more than two pieces...lol).  Of course, the most important ingredient would be the crispy pork lard without which it's not really Hokkien mee, is it?  I loved that they was a copious amount of it...certainly more generous than many other places.

As much as I like the pork lard to stay super crispy when they're spooned over the noodles after they've finished cooking the noodles (like how it's done here), I do like mine tossed in the noodles for just a while to coat it with sauce to take away a bit of that greasiness when biting into a cube of fat (so the tapau kind of takes care of that)! ;D  Here, they're very generous with those crispy bits of awesomeness that's absolutely vital in any fried Hokkien mee.

Besides pork lard, getting a good charred flavour into the noodles is what matters most.  It's like getting a good sear on a piece of steak.  If you like your Hokkien noodle to be dry, then this one is sure to please you. The wok hei in the noodles can be a bit inconsistent but the flavours are good.  Somehow, almost everyone would say that noodles fried over charcoal fire have an edge over those fried with gas as it imparts wok hei and an added fragrance...not sure if the mere mention of charcoal was already playing in our minds as we may be swayed by that fact but it did taste really good.  These days, it's getting more and more difficult to find stalls using charcoal to fry their Hokkien mee as most would have switched to gas as it's so much more convenient (and less work to get the coals going, not to mention the danger of burns from the flying sparks).

Besides a good wok hei and fresh and crispy pork lard being important, so is the choice of thick, dark soy. Some thick dark soy don't taste as good while some can even have a hint of bitterness depending on the quality of soy used.  And, of course, a delicious sambal with a bit of kick completes the dish.

Seeing that I was really impressed with the flavours and realising that the place was very near to us, my husband offered to tapau (pack) when I wanted it again.  He ended up liking it too.  I told him perhaps next time we can dine-in to see if it tastes even better when served to us piping hot and freshly fried out of the wok.  But he says the place is not that conducive for dine in...and when he says that, he usually means the coffee shop looks a bit dodgy and not properly lit with a cleanliness standard you'd expect from an old kopitiam (he did take a photo of the stall to show me though).  So, I guess it'll be tapau or delivery if we want to continue enjoying this charcoal fried Hokkien. mee.....and we did.

 

On one occasion, my son wanted the Charcoal Fried Hokkien Meehun @ RM13.30 coz he has always liked meehun.  I found the meehun too dry for my liking (even my son taught so and he really likes his noodles dry) though I've to say that the meehun was well cooked without being stucked together but nicely separated.

In fact, the Hokkien mee here is on the drier side, so if you choose meehun only, it feels even drier (I prefer a mixture of mee + meehun).  There's a debate on whether a good Hokkien mee should by dry or (slightly) wet...or shall I call it a preference, as some of us love it dry while others prefer it slightly wetter (personally, I like mine just a tiny bit wetter but my family likes it dry).

Seeing that they specialise in fried Hokkien mee, I would think the ever popular Cantonese style fried noodles would be among them too, so he tapau-ed Kong Fu Chow Yee Mee @ RM10 for me once.  The sauce is packed separately from the noodles.  Unfortunately this was no where near as good as their Hokkien Mee as the sauce was watery and lacking flavour + no wok hei was detected in the yee mee either.

For dine-in, they also offer other types of noodles (which aren't available on ShopeeFood) according to my husband who snapped a pic of the menu (except no fried rice, he was told)...but, alas, it's written in Chinese, so we've no idea what are the choices.  All we can read is that each plate of noodles (small or for 1 pax) would be RM10 as opposed to RM13.30 via ShopeeFood.  Recently, I found out what some of the other noodle choices were as they've added them into the ShopeeFood menu...braised yee mee, taro loh mee (RM17.30) and fried chee cheong fun with shrimp & chilli (RM13.50, I think they meant shrimp paste and not shrimps).  I spotted the words bakao and I'm wondering if that's fried pak ko?  Similarly cooked like Hokkien noodles except it's done with those very thick rice noodles (or rice cakes).

With the recent Braised Yee Mee @ RM13.30 being added onto their menu, I decided to try that as well and the outcome surprised us as it turned out better than we expected.  The braised yee mee also had almost similar ingredients as the fried Hokkien mee such as lean pork slices, prawns, cabbage, pork lard and fish cake slices (in replacement of pork liver).

It was the taste of the delicious sauce coating the yee mee that made us all agree that this braised yee mee was a good rendition as well.  We now never fail to order this each time we have our fried Hokkien mee. We'll probably try the chee cheong fun with shrimp paste & chilli too in due time.

My Personal Opinion

Previously, all I could do was lick my lips and ogle at photos online of the many charcoal fried Hokkien mee places that are far away from me not knowing I have one just a stone's throw away from me.  Well, now I know....thanks to ShopeeFood...and we've had it countless times since.

There's nothing better than a plate of thick noodles laden with dark soy goodness together with a generous serving of heart-stopping crispy pork lard bits (and they aren't stingy with it + it's given with no extra cost unlike some places who charges if you want extras).

What is it about this old-school method of cooking using charcoal fire that makes fried noodles cooked this way taste that much better?  It must be the high heat (with sparks flying) that char the noodles and impart an added flavour.  Just the theatrics of sparks flying everywhere when it's cooked this way is quite a show already (that spurs cameras to start clicking away).  But it's a dying art as more and more places resort to the convenience of gas these days.

I'm glad to have found a good charcoal-fried Hokkien mee near me and the place is now a staple for us and the first on our list whenever we want to eat fried Hokkien noodles.  It's safe to say that there had been many repeat orders. ^_~

Ampang Charcoal Fried Hokkien Mee

(@ Tin Ha Kopitiam)

1 Jalan 3/1 Pandan Indah Industrial Park

Pandan Indah

55100 Kuala Lumpur