Many eateries, such as Old Town Kopitiam, Blok M Express and Singapore Chom Chom, have all tried to evoke the memories of hawker fare back home by naming themselves after famous food districts and icons.  Most [...]]]> 111 Kingsway, Glen Waverley 
Phone 03 9561 1388
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Many eateries, such as Old Town Kopitiam, Blok M Express and Singapore Chom Chom, have all tried to evoke the memories of hawker fare back home by naming themselves after famous food districts and icons.  Most of these do not live up to the standard of their namesakes, but they certainly bring out the feelings of nostalgia in so many of us.  Petaling Street is another such eatery, named after the Chinatown district of Kuala Lumpur’s Jalan Petaling, famous as much for food as it is for pirated goods.

Petaling Street has two locations, one in Hawthorn and another in Glen Waverley.  Both do not have counterfeit Rolex watches (that I know of), but hawker food is definitely the name of the game here.  The Glen Waverley restaurant is situated on the busy Kingsway, a buzzy strip filled with shops, restaurants and cafes.

The interior of Petaling was bright and cheery, with cafe style seating and a neat mural of KL’s Petaling Street covering one side of the room.  The menu lists well over a hundred items and covers the gamut of hawker classics.  You are sure to find something you’ll like here.  Prices were also reasonable; most of the hawker dishes were around $9 and serves were pretty massive.

Dad had the char kuey teow, which was a winner.  Nicely balanced, it had a fantastic smokey charry flavour, with a good lick of chilli for measure.  The dish also contained fat prawns and lap cheong (Chinese sausage).

I greatly enjoyed my mamak mee goreng.  A squeeze of lemon added a nice tang to an otherwise well balanced dish, the fat egg noodles accompanied by generous chicken pieces and prawns.

Mellie’s nasi lemak special certainly looked the part, with sambal, egg, fried peanuts and ikan bilis.  However, it lacked a certain oomph, with the rice nowhere near coconutty enough.  The curry beef that came with the rice was quite nice though, with a surprising spicy kick.  Mum had previously tried their Hainanese chicken rice and was similarly underwelmed.  Perhaps their flavoured rice dishes are not the way to go.

Mum had the winner of the day with the seafood hor fun.  No kidding, this was one of the best hor fun’s I’ve had – not too sweet or too gluggy from excess thickeners.  As with the char kuey teow, it had serious wok hei (breath of the wok) that imparted a beautiful smokey taste to the rice noodles.  The prawns, squid and other seafood were also nicely cooked.

Alas, we didn’t get any satay but we’ll definitely be back to try them, and other dishes.  The quality of the hor fun and char kuey teow suggests that all their wok-fried dishes will be a winner.  From other tables, the curry laksa also looked interesting.  Maybe avoid the flavoured rice dishes, although their fried rice and plain rice dishes (with rendang for example) might still be OK.

The food was also very cheap – $40 for all of the above, plus one ice tea.  Man I love suburban prices!

Just thought I’d share a few delectable mouthfuls from my latest visit to Shira Nui. As always, Shira Nui does possibly the best nigirizushi in town.  On this most recent visit, we got to try three different types toro (the [...]]]> 247 Springvale Road, Glen Waverley
Phone 03 9886 7755

Just thought I’d share a few delectable mouthfuls from my latest visit to Shira Nui. As always, Shira Nui does possibly the best nigirizushi in town.  On this most recent visit, we got to try three different types toro (the fatty flavoursome underside/belly of a fish); salmon, swordfish and king fish.  Oh…what bliss.

Above is salmon toro, sprinkled with shichimi and given a blast of heat from a blow torch. Salmon roe pearls were the crown to this magnificent glory.  The toro practically melted in the mouth, and the roe popped delicious salty sweetness.

Then we had okra that had been stuffed with crab meat, tempura’d and deep fried, sliced in half, placed on top of the nigiri, wrapped in nori and seasoned with a daub of umeboshi paste. Crunchy and sweet and salty and sour. A perfect mouthful.

You can read my last post about Shira Nui here.  I don’t think I need repeat how much I admire Chef Hirosan’s work.