Ginger Duck Noodle and Pumpkin Glass Noodle from Soon Lei Restaurant
A gem hidden among the grime and dirt of Malaysian shop lots.
Soon Lei Restaurant, now that's a mouthful to pronounce. It was quite hard to find this place as the restaurant is located in a rather shady looking area. Buried deep inside the concrete jungle and surrounded by grocery and hardware shops, it is barely noticeable. We got bored with the high end cafes and air conditioned interiors of most western restaurants. Now it's time to find a restaurant that gives of a more traditional feel.
The area surrounding the restaurant was quite dirty. The road was filled with chicken dung and a few rats could be seen crawling all about in the exposed drainage. Even the muddy water inside the clogged drains are milky white and filled with garbage. We hope the dirt surrounding this area does not reflect the hygiene inherent in the preparation of Soon Lei 's food and beverages.
The walls of the restaurant were filled with long red posters showing off its menu. Thankfully, the food list also came in English which were written at the bottom of the chinese words, for our convenience of course.
The sitting area is fairly cramped and there weren't much moving space for us to stretch around. This is one typical chinese style restaurant. I wanted to take a photo of the chef cooking area but the master chef was a little camera shy.
Soon Lei Restaurant aces in a couple of dishes, mainly the ginger duck noodle, pumpkin glass noodle, yam gravy with pork and bread as well as the mouse tail noodle. The mouse tail noodle is topped with a raw egg at the top that is allowed to slowly cook from the heat radiated from the noodle.
The yam gravy with pork and bread is also extremely delicious. The chinese bread is dipped into brown gravy of BBQ like sauce which gives off a very appetizing smell. This is a harmonious blend between pork meat and yam. Sadly I will not be ordering this two wonderful dishes today.
Yellowish gold with a blend of salted duck yolk and grounded pumpkin paste, behold the pumpkin glass noodle.
Today, we will be trying the pumpkin glass noodle as well as the ginger duck noodle. Both of this dishes cost a mere RM 8.50. The waitress there is a friendly chinese auntie with a really red sweaty face. Probably the weather. Anyway she speaks very little English, so we did a little pointing and jabbing at the menu to get our orders carried out. Lets get to the review of the pumpkin glass noodle.
I was hoping the glass noodle would be less dry. With a little bit more pumpkin paste, it would have made for a good gravy to moisten up the glass noodle. Even so, I cannot deny the salted duck yolk that has been masterfully added into it. It gave the noodle a really creamy, salty feel.
One word to describe the pumpkin glass noodle. GOLDEN!!!
Inside the noodles are also chunks of chopped pumpkins that have been fried into a deep golden crisp. The fresh prawns also made a beautiful combination to the pumpkin glass noodle. Besides the inherent dryness of the noodle, I have nothing much to complain about.
And here is my ginger duck noodle. From a chinese perspective, we would be expecting a ginger duck noodle to arrive in a bowl of soup with a dead duck floating inside it. The chefs of Soon Lei restaurant have decided to buck the order of things around here, making the ginger duck noodle more stew like.
The chefs were a little miserly with the vegetables here. I am quite a fan for greens and was expecting more vegetables compared to this stringy bits. But to hell with the vegetables when you take your fork and turn the moist warm noodles into a bunch and put it into your mouth.
Unlike most restaurants, the chef of Soon Lei deftly avoided the strange duck odor that kills off other inexperienced chef''s handiwork. The thin slices of ginger mask itself over the duck smell in a fairly balanced way. Here, the duck smell is aromatic and pleasant, coupled with other enigmatic chinese herbs that are beyond my taste buds recognition.
My table is filled with bones and duck cartilages. The experience wasn't a smooth one as I had to constantly spit out the refuse. Perhaps the chef could do a better job at slicing the duck meat to avoid splintering bones and other hazards that would ruin the experience.
The duck meat is so tender, yielding immediately to my fork as I prodded it open. Juicy and succulent from the inside, the experience was a wonderful one. At least they were bountiful enough to provide me with a generous helping of duck meat, unlike the vegetables.
Want to put some creativity into the mix? Dip the duck meat in rich sambal paste and watch the magic. The greasy shrimp paste adds an extra spice to the succulent flesh and makes the meat even more palatable.
Husband and wife blissfully eating. XD wouldn't want to disturb them.
The judges have been satisfied and now we are ready to give the verdict.
Cleanliness: 5/10
Wait time: 9/10
Deliciousness: 8/10
Economical: 7/10
Location: G7, Blok KP1, Jalan 3/115C, Taman Kuchai Jaya, 58200 Kuala Lumpur
GPS Coordinates: Latitude: N/3/5/24.616
Longitude: E/101/41/4.642
Restaurant website: None found
Need a quick peek into the other delicacies being offered in this restaurant? Here, let us help you.
Do watch out folks, most of the food written on the menu are in chinese. Can't read chinese? That's fine, just get yourself a local guide to help you along. Take care and thanks for reading.
