There is this little shop tucked in the middle of a row of eateries facing the small wet market in Taman Sri Sentosa that has been wowing folks with its rather unique pan mee. Now, I'm not really sure why their pan mee is called "Kungfu Pan Mee" but I do know their particular style is quite different from most pan mee outlets around town. Maybe they have to manipulate their limbs quite a bit, possibly in some kungfu stances, while kneading and pulling their pan mee!
For the uninitiated, pan mee is fresh noodles made from wheat flour, water and eggs (optional). The dough is then kneaded till smooth and rolled out into strips and cooked in soup or served "dry style" - tossed with some dark soya sauce and fragrant shallots oil. The very traditional style of pan mee is actually the "pinched" style, where no roller-machine is used but the dough is pinched out manually into irregular-shaped pieces of thin dough.
The Kungfu pan mee here is done in a totally different way. The dough is actually rolled out into long thick strips, measuring about 1" in width. The length of the flat noodles seems unending and you actually have to cut it off yourself or you may just have to slurp, bite, slurp, bite them from the bowl! I love the texture of the pan mee, which has a good balance of smoothness and chewiness in it. I suspect that besides wheat flour, their secret recipe includes the addition of some other flours as well, perhaps sago or tapioca flours that resulted in this excellent texture. And yes, they do guard their recipe ferociously as no photography is allowed near their "cooking station" — they would not even allow me to photograph how the noodles are cooked.
I like their soup version. The sweetness of the broth comes from boiling anchovies and meat bones for hours and because I always ask for more "sawi manis", my bowl of soup is extra sweet! Generous portions of minced meat, thick slices of mushrooms and fried crunchy anchovies give it the authentic touch. Tubs of sambal belacan and fried dry chillies are put on the table for you to scoop as much as you like and even fresh limes are readily available for that extra zing.
The dry version comes with a scoop of savoury dried chilly flakes atop a mound of glossy thick pan mee. Toss them over thoroughly so that every broad strip of pan mee is covered with the chilli flakes and you are in for a delicious slippery spicy experience.
Prices are at RM6.50 per bowl (small) and RM7.50 for a big bowl of pan mee. Additional anchovies, mushrooms or "sayur manis" are at RM1 each. They do have some other items on the menu like pandan chicken, fish balls, fried fuchook but I always just stick to their Kungfu Pan Mee here.
Kungfu Pan Mee
28 Jalan Sri Sentosa 9A
Taman Sri Sentosa
Off Jalan Klang Lama
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 016-2883911 (Molly)
Open 8.00am till 3.00pm (closed on Mondays)
This post is written by PureGlutton whose passion for food is often tantamount to gluttony. Many would ask "is that passion or is that pure gluttony?" Find out on http://pureglutton.com.
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