Hoi Kee coffee shop is our frequent stop during weekends, partly because we have grown so familiar with most of the food stalls in this humble little corner coffee shop. Most of them offer great variety and good value for money, which is why the coffee shop is always packed to the brim during lunch hour. If you are planning to stop by, be prepared to share a table with strangers.
One of my favourites here is the mee jawa. The lady manning the stall is really friendly and always accedes to my requests – such as for more chili paste, less beancurd or additional prawn fritters – with a big smile on her face.
Her version of mee jawa (RM4.50, small) is the best I’ve tried in the Klang Valley. It is generously topped with half a boiled egg, potatoes, slices of beancurd and cuttlefish, prawn fritters and bean sprouts. The gravy is thick with a nice balance of sweet and tangy. I like mine with additional sambal chilli and a good squeeze of lime juice. Give everything a good stir for a taste explosion in every bite.
Another perennial favourite of ours is the pan mee. The stall here sells only hand-pulled pan mee in soup or dry version. I like mine with soup (RM5) and it always comes in a generous portion. The workers will flatten the dough with their palm and pinch it into irregular shapes. They are then cooked in boiling broth and served together with vegetables, deep-fried anchovies and slivers of pork.
The hand-pulled pan mee is so smooth and silky that it can be quite tricky to hold them with your chopsticks. I love the bite and chewy texture. The broth has a mildly sweet flavour, from the slow boil of the anchovies and pork bones. We also like the special green chilli sauce that packs a lot of punch. It gives the pan mee a nice kick but beware – it is really spicy!
We first visited Hoi Kee for its non-halal nasi lemak, which our friends raved about. The nasi lemak comes in different combinations, just like fast food. For example, a nasi lemak with sotong and pork set (RM7.30) comes with two pieces of luscious pork belly, squid slices, deep-fried anchovies, half a hard-boiled egg, kangkung and sambal chilli.
But while non-halal nasi lemak is hard to find within the Klang Valley, we didn’t think too highly of this version. The rice is not fragrant enough and the pork belly is on the dry side.
There’s also a stall selling pretty decent pork balls noodles and wantan noodles, too. In this costly city, cheap and tasty food is hard to come by. No surprise then that we keep coming back to Hoi Kee’s delicious street classics.
Kedai Kopi & Makanan Hoi Kee
Address: No. 2, Jalan Segambut Tengah, Segambut, 51200 Kuala Lumpur
Opening hours: 6am till noon daily, closed on Sundays
GPS: 3.18564, 101.67633
Non-halal
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