La Mian & Beef Ball Noodles @ Taman Bukit Anggerik

Ah… for the love of noodles.

And for the sake of art.. there is La Mian.

For the lore of La Mian that comes from China, is a beautiful art to behold. Not only that. The outcome actually feeds stomachs.

La Mian is one of my favorite dishes.. and eating it is only topped by possibly, watching the lady chef, twist, stretch and fold the wheat flour dough into strands, using the weight of the dough itself, to make my lunch.

The dough is repeatedly stretched and folded onto itself in order to align the strands and warm up the dough for stretching.

This dough is then pulled to about an arm span’s length. The lady then makes a loop with the dough, joining the two ends into one clump of dough, and inserts her fingers into the loop to keep the strand from sticking to itself. Doing this, the pull has doubled the length of the dough while reducing its thickness.

In between, she dips the strands into flour to keep them separated. Then there is a final slap of noodles against the table to remove excess flour.

The length and thickness of the strands depends on the number of times the dough is folded.. I love watching the strands get thinner and thinner.. multiplying with each sleight of hand.. it’s like magic!

And I can almost hear the guzheng playing frantically in the background as I watch her expertly twirl the noodles, cut it, dunk it in hot water to cook it, then into cold water again, to give it that springy texture.

Lovely springy textured la mian noodles.. served with wortip ( giant wantan stuffed with pork and chives). The flavour is full-on, just like in China, and the food is rather salty, just like in China.

Big portions for just RM5.50. Comes with chunks of braised pork meat, veggies and super sized wortips bursting with mince pork fillings. The noodles and the wortip skins is chewy as it is cooked a perfect al dente.

However, the food here was a little heavy on the salt. Be prepared for that if you eat here.

But another great dish to order at Sweetland restaurant is the Beef Noodles. A thick, beefy stock is what this dish offers, along with soft, and tender beef brisket (Ngau Lam) and generous slices of flavourful raddish. Normally served with a several choices of bovine innards, today we settled just for the tender meat.

Explosive beefy mouthfuls with after tastes of coriander and parsley are to die for, and a broth infused with a variety of herbs and spices we could see but couldn’t name. A must order at Sweetland for just RM8.

Taman Bukit Anggerik is also famous for their street side snacks. Here’s the Wu Tau Koh (Steamed Taro or Yam Cake) from one of our favourite glutinous rice snack (Lor Mai Farn) shops on Bukit Anggerik.

Love the generous chunks of yam they use.. not the blended rubbish that some places give you. This is one of the better quality ones.

Grilled fried tofu puffs are a street snack that must be eaten fresh. Wait too long and you have a juices from the cucumber and tofu dripping out. Have it basic as a vegetarian dish with julienned jicama and cucumber with sweet chili sauce, or have it with grilled baby cuttlefish sambal. Either way eaten is good but the sweet, spicy, sticky, chewy and stinky sotong (cuttlefish) will undoubtedly add several dimensions to the dish.

From the same tofu stall, you would normally find finely fresh pressed dried cuttlefish as snacks. Some have the pressed cuttlefish with fine sugar, some have it grilled, and some eat it plain. Koreans love to eat their grilled cuttlefish with shots of soju so you could complement these choices with the potent booze too.

Add:
Restoran Sweet Land
No. 65, Jalan 34/154,
Taman Delima,
56000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 014-329 6761