Dinner at Meng Kee Grill Fish on Jalan Alor food street
Date of visit: 2 January 2025
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Happy new year! My first post of 2026 takes place in Bukit Bintang, the shopping and entertainment hub of Kuala Lumpur - and a popular, if crowded, place to ring in the new year.
I may now be a bona fide resident of KL but I still have a weakness for the nightlife in this part of town -heaving with sunburned tourists, newly arrived expats and pushy promoters touting meals and happy hour deals under bright neon lights.
Changkat - that stretch of bars, clubs and eateries cutting through the heart of Bukit Bintang - is almost synonymous with the area. It may not be everyone's idea of a good time, but I've always been drawn to the energy and atmosphere of districts like this, from Times Square to Soho to Lan Kwai Fong.
Jalan Alor, which runs perpendicular to Changkat, is just as popular. It's a long food street festooned with red lanterns and crammed with hawker stalls and restaurants, mainly serving variations on Chinese cuisine. Many of the permanent establishments open around lunchtime, but there's a deserted feel during the day. Nighttime is when the street comes alive; hours vary depending on the day and the venue, but 6 pm to midnight is a safe bet.
I first visited Jalan Alor two and a half years ago, new to KL and already entertaining
visitors - my sister and her friend - who were over from Canada. Tourist trap, we thought, but still something we ought to experience. So we had lunch at one of the stalls serving Malaysian food.
My curry laksa - noodles and toppings in a rich, spicy coconut milk broth - was awful. My sister's mee goreng - fried noodles with various veggies, proteins and aromatics - was tasty, but cooked Chinese-style instead of hitting the sweet, sour, savoury and spicy notes that reflect its multicultural roots. The chicken satay we shared was flavourful but dry. Only our friend's KL-style Hokkien mee - thick, chewy noodles with pork and other fixings in a dark, glossy sauce - tasted like the real thing.
(Full disclosure: I had no clue what mee goreng or Hokkien mee were at that point - those pronouncements were made by my sister, a real foodie if there ever was one.)
After that experience I stayed away from Jalan Alor, returning only last year with another Canadian, my good friend Trine, who was visiting from Japan. We randomly settled on Malaysian-Chinese restaurant Meng Kee Grill Fish - and were very pleasantly surprised by the quality and price. So much so that I went back with my sister when she was over for Christmas, and sampled much of the same fare.
The Belacan Kangkung was absolutely delicious, and a steal at 15 Malaysian ringgit (RM) - £2.75 - for the small size, which was generously proportioned. (The medium size was RM20/£3.66 and the large was RM30/£5.50.) The mildest option was a tad spicy for me, but still very manageable. Kangkung - also known as water spinach or morning glory - is widely used in Southeast Asian cooking, and is one of my favourite vegetables. Its subtle, slightly sweet taste is a perfect backdrop for different flavours - in this case belacan or fermented shrimp paste (which tastes a lot better than it sounds!). It also has tender leaves that absorb sauces well, and thin, hollow stems that remain slightly crunchy after cooking.
The Garlic Sweet Potato Leaf was also very good, and priced the same. Used in many Asian cuisines, sweet potato leaves have a mild, slightly earthy taste and a soft texture, perfect for soaking up sauces and flavours. They're also incredibly good for you.
Another fantastic pick was the Pan-Fried Carrot Cake. 'Carrot cake' is a funny mistranslation I've seen in Chinese restaurants in Canada and the UK, and on English menus in KL. It refers to a savoury cake that's actually made from Chinese white radish (also known as daikon). Steamed in big squares, then fried until crispy, it's a stalwart of dim sum restaurants the world over. But the Cantonese name - lo bak gou - gives rise to confusion because lo bak can mean radish, turnip or carrot!
Here in Malaysia (and a few other countries) lo bak gou is also chopped up and turned into a stir-fry called char koay kak, with bean sprouts, eggs, chives and preserved radish. (Just to be extra-confusing, there are those who insist char koay kak is made with plain rice cake, not lo bak gou. But this is Malaysia, where culinary clashes are de rigueur.) Whatever it's called, I was sold the first time I had it, at Taman Connaught night market (the longest night market in KL). Meng Kee's version was probably the best I've had, and terrific value at RM12/£2.20 for the small size, which practically overflowed off the plate. (The medium size was RM20/£3.66 and the large was RM30/£5.50.)
The BBQ Satay - grilled meat skewers served with peanut sauce, popular in several Southeast Asian countries - was decent, though not the best I've sampled. It was a little overpriced too, at RM22/£4 for five chicken and five beef skewers. They also had lamb skewers (RM24/£4.40 for ten).
The only disappointment was the Grill Beancurds, which I had last year. They were like tofu sandwiches, stuffed with something that tasted like rojak sauce - a Malaysian salad dressing made of shrimp paste, sugar and chilli. I'm not a fan of tofu and Trine thought they tasted like dessert (not in a good way). We had two of them for RM10/£1.83 (you can also get four for RM20/£3.66 or six for RM30/£5.50).
There was a big selection of drinks, and everything we tried was pretty good.
The Longan Water (RM6/£1.10) was sweet and refreshing. Longan is a small, juicy fruit from Southeast Asia with white flesh and floral notes, and a big black seed that gives rise to its Cantonese name, 'dragon's eye'.
The Teh Tarik (RM4/£0.73) was rich and frothy. It means 'pulled tea' in Malay, and is the unofficial national drink - made by theatrically decanting a mixture of strong black tea and condensed milk from a height to aerate the liquid.
The Kasturi Sour Plum (RM7/£1.28) was much more tart than what I've had before - but it really hit the spot. Usually called limau asam boi, this is my favourite Malaysian drink. It's made with calamansi lime (also called kasturi lime), sugar, ice and dried plums called asam boi, which are preserved with salt and sugar, and flavoured with herbs like liquorice.
Next time I'll actually have to try some of the grilled seafood Meng Kee is famous for! In particular the mysterious 'chicken fish' I keep reading about, which looks like a fish but tastes like chicken...
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