When Megan Wong left her job as a Financial Controller and said goodbye to the corporate world, she decided to revive her family’s heritage wanton noodles business. If you are older than me and has been a true-blue KLite, you’d probably know about Chan Fatt Wanton Mee in the Pudu wet market. Megan’s parents – the late Woon Poon and his wife, Lee Yit Yee started the business as a small stall in 1955 (imagine, that’s during the British era!). They sold only wanton noodles with char siu and sui gao – simple food which became a hit and Chan Fatt Wanton Mee became one of the biggest and most well-known eatery in Pudu Market.
Megan’s parents retired and closed the stall in 1996. The family recipe remained within the Wong family and knowing how her mother had always wished for the legacy to flourish, Megan decided to revive the family business. So, Pudu Chan Fatt Wanton Noodles was opened recently in the thriving Damansara Uptown area. It’s a simple and comfortable eatery furnished with wooden furniture for a seating capacity of about 50.
The menu features simple dishes which were made well-known by Chan Fatt, so don’t expect anything fancy. We tried their signature items – mainly the springy egg noodles paired with various ingredients, served in soup, dry-style (“kon lo”) and there’s even a curry laksa.
Sui Kow Noodles (RM8.50)
The signature “sui kow” (meat dumplings) were fairly large and plump with minced pork & prawns filling but the skin could be a bit thinner. For this reason, I preferred the wantons. The char siew was decent: caramelized roasted tender pork with nice layer of fat, evenly charred at the sides and not overly sweet.
Char Siew & Wanton Noodles (RM7.50)
The Lion Head Meatballs, so called because of the size of the minced pork balls, are another boon for pork lovers. Made in-house and not commercially produced, the deep-fried balls yielded sufficient porky sweetness to render them satisfying. However, I would have preferred them paired with some “kon lo” noodles instead of the soupy version. In fact, generally I’ll pass the soup versions as the noodles got soft pretty quickly and I’ve always preferred my noodles (and also pasta) to be al dente.
Lion Head Meatballs Noodles (RM8.50)
Curry Laksa with Chicken (RM7.50)
The Curry Laksa, while not mind-blowing, was decent with a tasty lemak curry broth and generous portions of chicken chunks, fried beancurd sheets (fuchook) and tofu puffs.
Char Siew with Dark Soy Sauce Rice (RM7.50)
Chicken with Light Soy Sauce Rice (RM8.00)
Noodles aside, Pudu Chan Fatt serves a few rice dishes – topped with slices of Chinese sausages, char siew or poached chicken. To enhance the tastes, lashings of either Dark Soy Sauce or Light Soy Sauce are drizzled on the rice. Dishes like these featured much in my childhood memories, during the times when my mother was working and didn’t have much time to cook for me before I went to school. I didn’t have the luxury of char siew or chicken during those times (unless it’s Chinese New Year) but Chinese sausages were affordable sometimes. Most of the other times, I’d get a raw egg broken into piping hot rice, seasoned with some soy sauce and pepper and quickly mixed well – my instant Egg Rice! I wished we had some liver sausage back then too.
Homemade Chinese Pork & Liver Sausage with Egg (RM10.90)
If you are at Pudu Chan Fatt in the morning and looking for some old-school traditional breakfast, have the Hainan Set which comprises two slices of Kaya Margerine Toast, two Half-boiled Eggs and hot coffee.
Hainan Set (RM6.90) – Kaya Margerine Toast, 2 Half-boiled Eggs & Hot Kopi/Kopi-O
Sweet Margerine Toasted Sandwich (RM2.80)
All in all, Pudu Chan Fatt serves basic traditional food at affordable prices. Food choices may not be very extensive but Megan and her team have pretty much stuck to her family’s recipes to serve up old favourites, reviving the feel and tastes of yonder years. Like I said, nothing fancy, just some good old traditional favourites.
PUDU CHAN FATT WANTON MEE
52 Jalan SS21/58
Damansara Utama
Petaling Jaya
Tel: 012-3838903