Hawker Stalls Behind Yut Kee Restaurant

**Non-Halal Post**

This is a hand painted picture I found one day dining at Purple Cane Tea Cultural Centre over in Chinese Assembly Hall. I was staring at it and suddenly it came to mind where about is this place. I was there a few days ago chowing down old hawker favourites of my parents era! Yeah the hawkers are located along the lane behind Yut Kee Restaurant in Jalan Dang Wangi have been around that long. My mother had always mentioned the curry laksa here costed her a mere 20 sens then as compared to now, RM3 - RM3.50 a bowl and that was way before I was born ok.

Reminiscing the old times, I brought hubby there one morning. He had only been to Yut Kee but not these hawkers at the back. There are about 8 - 9 stalls located along here and the fares offered ranging from char kuey teow, Penang prawn noodles, loh meen, tau foo far (soy bean curd), curry laksa, chu cheung fun, mee rebus and so forth. These stalls are opened for breakfast and lunch.

Take note of this stall... it's selling Penang style noodles of all sorts as you can see from the signage. I absolutely lurrrveee the loh meen Penang style from here. Take your pick of noodles to be served in a thick but not overly starchy gravy peppered with 5 spice powder. There will be a few generous pieces of pork ribs along with lean meat and braised hard-boiled egg slices. One spoonful of chopped garlic will be served, so its entirely up to you how much to add in. I'm salivating now even by virtue of describing it here haha... best eaten with the chili sauce.



This is the prawn noodles that came in a darkish brown broth which is absolutely so Penang haha... Halves prawns, slices of lean meat, loads of pork ribs and a sprinkling of deep fried shallots complete this other than some kangkung and half-boiled egg slices. Each time I will lapped up all the broth... do I need to say more?



Now the first stall at the entrance fries up one of my fave char kuey teow in town. I'm not sure what style is this but it's pretty rare to find this style these days. It's best to be eaten without any addition of eggs and I usually order keuy teow mix with yellow noodles. This kuey teow littered with bits of lard, is slightly wettish and full of charred aroma. I liked the cockles half-cooked and the plump taugeh (bean sprouts) with a bit of crunch. My parents favourite too!



My dad used to frequent here for the mee rebus which sadly it's no longer tasted as good ever since the original Indian Muslims owner went back to India for good. They sold their stall; lock, stock and barrel; to someone else and some how the recipe must have lost in transition. How sad!

My other love here is the soy bean drink and the tau foo far (soy bean curd). The man selling now has taken over the stall from his dad! You can opt for Michael Jackson which is just soy bean mixed with cincau (black grass jelly) or even a sour plum drink. Anyway, most of these stalls are manned by second generations by now and thank goodness the quality is still maintained.

The wantan noodles here are freshly made right at the stall. No wonder the texture is so different. I never knew about this until I saw them making the noodles one morning whilst walking past the stall.

There is a stall here selling curry laksa and assam laksa. My aunty who has since migrated, loved to order a bowl of mixed laksa but I never tried them though. The stall next to it sells the usual chu cheung fun. Apart from these, there is a new stall selling mixed rice which sees a steady stream of customers packing their rice.

Those days you can order from these stalls freely when you sit inside Yut Kee but at one time Yut Kee were cheesed off with them for not clearing their dishes fast enough that they banned them altogether. These days you could order from the hawkers but Yut Kee imposes a surcharge for that. Some of these stalls are closed on Mondays.



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