Tired And Curry-ed

I just wrapped up an assignment from hungrygowhere. The task: to find out if the equivalent or better, of MyKuali Penang white curry noodles was available from hawkers in the PJ area. After 8 bowls of curry mee consecutively, I don't think I want to eat curry mee for a very, very long time.

The last bowl of curry mee is featured here because I did not include it in my hungrygowhere review. It may have suffered unkindly from being the very last, and as such, judged on a fatigued palate, but that's life! I'm under no illusion that this review will dampen sales one bit!

Right off, you can see how red the soup is! Beware, faint-throated ones!

In its defense, it never called itself Penang curry mee. For those wondering why the Penang in the title would make a difference, it is this: Penang curry noodles are styled on white curry. A white curry begins as a stock of coconut milk (santan) and seafood or chicken/pork bones. It has some spices added in, and aromatics why may include ginger, fresh chili and lemongrass, BUT it will not contain chili paste or chili boh. The chili which turns the white stock beige or orange comes from sambal which is served on the side and not mixed into the stock. This way, patrons can decide the level of spiciness they prefer their curry gravy to be. Usual curry mee has the chili paste already incorporated in the gravy (it actually takes a lot of skill to gauge this, in order to appeal to the most common denominator of spice vs heat). KL curry mee also may use evaporated milk or powdered creamer instead of santan. Or they may mix the two, both for cost and flavour reasons.

I will link my Penang Curry Noodle 101 when it comes out on hungrygowhere.

Meanwhile, back to my final bowl of noodles. This was had at  O&S in PJ. The bowl contained tau pok (deep fried bean curd skin), cockles and steamed chicken pieces. The sambal came on the side, with a half of lime with it. Even without the sambal mixed in I found the heat from the chili in the gravy too overbearing. The gravy was too overly spiced. It hit my curry-ravaged throat like a sirocco - mauling and howling. Too much pepper, too much curry leaf, too much chili paste. It squirted out of the tau pok like an evil jack-in-the-box, delivering a sucker punch to my tortured mouth. I couldn't taste any more after that first spoonful. Despite the fact that my reviewing partner and I always found that curry noodles which contained cockles seemed to have a superior stock, possibly from the sweet brackishness of raw/semi blanched cockles; I was unable to detect any saving sweetness. It made eating the steamed chicken pieces difficult too, because the big curry taste swamped everything. A pity, because the chicken was separately steamed, and tender, though it was fiddly to eat as the bones has been left in. That was my RM6 closing act. Not a high note to end on, but I do wonder if anyone could do better after so many bowls of curry noodles in so few days!

Kedai Makanan O&S
Jalan SS20/14
Taman Paramount
Petaling Jaya