Wantan Mee at Pudu Wet Market, Kuala Lumpur

It wasn’t long after our late night dinner at that Indonesian Warung, that we decided to go back to Pudu Wet Market one night, to check out this wantan mee stall we saw the last time we were in that part of the neighbourhood. We were early and the cooks were just starting to prep the food. Great.. more photography opportunities for us!

This part of town never ceases to amaze me. Pudu houses the city’s biggest wet and dry market to date – Pudu Market is a crowded market place especially in the early morning where there are plenty of stalls and makeshift carts containing merchandise from live chickens to different kinds of fruits. The sellers of Pudu Market are super-friendly and bargaining is allowed. You can actually bargain and lower the price of all your purchases before giving in to the merchants. You need to have a strong stomach, as the surroundings are not always clean and the smell can be awful in the wet market but you will find almost any food that you desire. Just south of the Golden Triangle shopping district, Pudu Market is highly accessible via LRT and is only a 5 minute of walk from the station.

we work hard for the money..

pudu market during the day

In the evenings, this same area converts into a night-time hawker area and you will spot butchers starting to prep the pig carcasses for the next early morning’s activities in the Pudu Wet Market. Chinese Bakuteh, Wantan Mee, Indonesian Cuisine, you name it.. they have it.

is that a tong sampah (rubbish bin)?

no.. guess again!

It’s a roasting contraption for for BBQ-ing the charsiew !

Final product looks delicious !

The calm before the storm..

Just next door, butchers are preparing to receive the pig carcass for butchering, to be sold at the next day’s wet market. Some take this window of opportunity to catch up on sleep before the chaos starts once more..

Ever wanted to know the secret behind the super smooth texture of the Hainanese-style Chicken or “pak cham kai” (white boiled chicken) skin?

After boiling the chicken, extract with a long chopstick. then, time to go for a bath..

ready? dunk it in…

From boiling water, straight into a super ICY COLD bath!

Does wonders for the skin. And that, is the secret to the super smooth white chicken skin!

The wantan mee Sifu, from the new generation, preps the wantan noodles, and our dinner is on the way.

The family has been operating the stall here for over 30 years. Everything is made fresh each evening.

Check out the green chilli at this stall – it’s unbelievably fresh and green and crunchy! The red chilli made fresh each night, and ours is still hot from the cooking pot.

Cumi’s wantan mee – topped with a generous dose of curry sauce and sprinkled with chopped chives and coriander. You can see the thick, semi-coagulated santan (coconut cream) in the curry sauce. At the base, a layer of pork oil adds even more taste overload. Its a cholesterol redlining dish!

My plate of kai-si (shreaded white chicken), wantan mee

The texture of the noodles is al dente. The charsiew is fatty and succulent. The chicken is sweet and smooth – a delightful texture! The ice cold bath really worked! There are generous chunks of fried pork lard in the noodles which I try to avoid. Cumi just mops up the entire lot. The flavour of the wantan mee is far out! Best I’ve had in ages. Probably best in Pudu too.

Wantan – small but tasty and bursting with minced pork

the starting materials

We keep coming back here for dinner because we can never get enough. They start late – at around 930pm, so if you get there early, you’ll just have to wait patiently till they get their food organized. You cannot rush them.. you just have to sit patiently and wait .. but the Wantan Mee will be worth it!

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