Chow Yang - The Good And The Bad

How I love the little tidbits of information, gossip and urban legend I pick up when eating. Just this weekend my dad told me something interesting about a popular eating shop. If you are a foodie in the capital, you should know the famous Chow Yang coffee shop in SS2. It seems that the original owner who first bought and operated the corner shop lot was a big time gambler. He suffered such huge losses he had to sell the shop opposite the corner lot, which eventually became Kayu Nasi Kandar.

Another big loss resulted in the corner shop being bought over by one of the stall holders who rented from the owner. Hence Chow Yang became Lim Prawn Mee. It was one of the best prawn noodles to be had in the PJ area, and the new owner made enough money to renovate the shop once.

The shop recently underwent another makeover, and rumour has it that it is now owned by the Kayu nasi Kandar boss. Whether it is true is anyone's guess. The only thing I can attest to is the prawn noodles are still good! There is a goodly handful of crunchy bean sprouts and a generous helping of kangkong along with the yellow noodles, wedge of hard boiled egg and shelled prawn. The stock is delicious, with just the right amount of chili.

Prawn noodles at their near best. 

My father also bought Nyonya dumplings (known as chung) from one of the stalls at the newly renovated coffee shop. This was an awful letdown. True, it had the pretty periwinkle blue which is characteristic of Nyonya chung (unfortunately very few makers derive the blue from its traditional, natural source, i.e. the pea flower, choosing the easy method if adding blue food dye instead).

Looks pretty. That's it.

The taste was awful though. Good Nyonya chung is made of minced pork with a little fat for the oil (which keeps the meat tender), and a combination of sweet spices like cinnamon and cardamom. The result is a sweet, yet savoury mix which is very palatable when combined with the stickiness of the glutinous rice.

How bad can rice and spices be? THIS bad!

This version was way over-spiced. The cinnamon leapt out and attacked your taste buds, while the cloves lassoed your tongue to the back of your mouth. It was an uncomfortable matching of flavours to say the least. I had one mouthful and could not even finish it. Horrible is the kindest thing i can say about it.