Chun Kee Tai Bu Mee, Jalan Sayur, Pudu

What on earth is a Tai Bu Mee?

There’s wantan mee. There’s fried hokkien mee.. but Tai Bu?

Well Tai Bu (or Dabu) is actually a place China, densely occupied by the Hakka folk, and where they obviously cook food in the Hakka manner. So you could say that the Tai Bu noodles might also be Hakka noodles.

In East Malaysia, Hakka noodles is popularly known as Kolo Mee which literally means dry-mixed noodles.

The 4th Gen Tai Bu Noodle cook had no time to look up for a photo, but we did hear his staff whisper to him to try to smile for the camera as he might be in the press. Uncle was unimpressed.

However, the egg noodles made in-house at Chun Kee, really have a superb, springy texture of their own, which makes this place a favourite noodle pit stop for us, in Pudu. Unique and spot on in done-ness, I find this shack of a place can top any Italian restaurant in dishing out perfect pasta texture. Wait a minute… didn’t Marco Polo get some noodles to go from China?

Er, no, they don’t wear food grade service gloves here when handling your food.. 

Also, you might call it Hakka Noodles, but the minced pork concoction and flavour that’s heaped on top of the springy noodles here has a deep, dark, unctuous flavour of its own. It has the ability to evoke intense emotions – that of a wet dream, and a nightmare combined. So greasy it’ll make you swear in horror, but so tasty you’ll be begging for more. Definitely different to all the other Hakka Noodles shops we have tried in PJ and KL. One thing though, this rich, oily pork mince is so damn salty you’ll be gasping for water before the bowl is over.

Tai Bu Mee comes served with pork wantan (5 to be exact), swimming in a murky white pork bone broth. The intense pork flavour of the soup shocks me every single time. Its sweetness is commendable but I wouldn’t say that MSG didn’t have a small role to play in it altogether.

Love the old school crockery used here. All the chips and battle scars are still intact from a bygone era of great street-side dining you can be sure.

The assistant’s secret code on organizing the orders… really.

Just be prepared to wait.. and in the blistering heat no less. One guy decided to take away 25 packets of noodles, leaving me and Cumi the final two bowls that afternoon, and it was only 1pm. Hence the missing charsiew. Normally the mince and charsiew go hand in hand but today, they ran out of BBQ Pork. Well the good news is that we actually had the final two bowls and to make up for this, we ordered extra mince pork.

Finally, lunch is served! 

Give me more lardy mince please! 

Ciki goes nuts when she sees her lunch finally appear;)

One of the best Hakka Noodles in town. Don’t mess.