We arrived unannounced at Warung Kita @ Kg Melayu Sungai Buloh to check out their food after communicating with manager Mohd Tarmin Fauzi nearly a month prior.

By about 6pm, they were already closing, and most of the food was already sold for the day, but people kept streaming in to make more orders. Warung Kita is only a simple stall with about 100 seats, and the place is usually packed on weekends as it is open as early as 7am.

The food here is attractive for two reasons. It is relatively cheap, compared to restaurants in areas with higher rent, but more importantly, it tastes just how Kelantanese food should.

Its signature dish, nasi manggey, which comes with curry gravy, steamed rice and sambal belacan, costs only RM5.50 a plate. They use cili padi for the sambal belacan, which gives it an extra kick.

I can fully understand why. At that price, it also comes with a piece of fried chicken or ayam cincang. In fact, the Kelantanese recipes are from the mother of stall owner Mohd Khairi Abdul Karim.

Khairul has successfully set up three other Warung Kita, apart from this one in Sungai Buloh. The other three are in Klang, Bangi, and Bandar Baru Ampang.

Their nasi lemak ikan tongkol, which costs only RM4.80, is available only in the morning. Also priced the same is their popular nasi berlauk ikan tongkol.

You can also enjoy their coconut shake – coconut water served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, priced at just RM3.70 – especially on a hot day. For those who like their coconut water plain, you can also order their kelapa baldi, which is priced at RM4.25.

While Warung Kita attracts mainly locals from the area, others come from afar with their families and friends – not just for the great food, but for the kampung atmosphere, especially since you can also choose to have your meal while duduk santai in special palm-covered booths.

Everyone has their own take on where to fine the best Penang char kway teow in the Klang Valley. But when an 84-year-old restaurant owner and chef gives you his recommendation, you better believe it!

Especially when he has been a regular at the same stall for the past 31 years, frequently bringing friends and relatives to savour a plate of Robert Khoo’s char kway teow at Damansara Kim.

Whenever this octogenarian, James Kuok of Sri Nyonya Restaurant fame visits the coffee shop with his friends, he only orders food from Robert’s stall and nothing else.

That shows how much he still enjoys nice and simple street food that you cannot find in five star hotels or other posh restaurants.

When Kuok first told me about it, I agreed to check it out. So, off we went to Damansara Kim one morning, where Robert has been operating his char kway teow stall at Restoran Golden Kim Wah for the past decade.

He moved here after operating his stall in SS2 Petaling Jaya for 25 years.

In fact, Robert has been whipping up one plate of char kway teow after another for the past 40 years. Assuming he sells a 100 plates a day, and works 300 days a year, that comes up to a mind-boggling 1.2 million plates!

I agree with Kuok that Robert’s char kway teow is not just better than anything I have tasted in the Klang Valley, but also Penang.

The RM7 price tag for a big plate (RM6.50 for a small plate) is worth every sen. He doesn’t skimp on the cockles, prawns, lap cheong, bean sprouts, lard, Chinese chives and finely-beaten egg omelette, and not to forget some aromatic garlic bits.

You can pay an additional RM1 for more cockles and, if you wish, Robert can also regulate the amount of chili to suit your taste.

The prices are kept to a comfortable level, as he still has a lot of faithful followers who have been his regular customers for many years.

I particularly like the slightly sweet and umami taste of the char kway teow, which is hard to find elsewhere. Robert is not giving up his trade secret, but he does tell me that one way this is achieved is by controlling the intensity of the fire.

So, Penangites who are living in the Klang Valley never have to miss home again, at least not when it comes to char kway teow.

For other Penang delicacies over here, they can also look for Joo Tiang’s Penang curry mee in Sri Bintang, and for those more familiar with Desa Aman Puri, there is Tong Siang’s version. Not to forget Sri Nyonya, one of the best northern Peranakan restaurants around.

To me, there’s no such thing as objectively the ‘best’ char kway teow, and I also disagree that it can only be found in Penang. Even my Penangite friends cannot agree on which stall serves the best version of the dish. It does, after all, depend on individual taste buds.

But according to Kuok, Roberts’ char kway teow has been consistently good for the decades he’s been going there, even following the chef when he made his switch to Damansara Kim.

Who am I to argue with that?

Fake news this is not, but the owner and chef of Sri Nyonya Restaurant in Section 22, Petaling Jaya, James Kuok, is certainly 84 years old.

Even a Japanese businessperson would call him from Japan to pre-book his nasi briyani before touching down at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. This too is no fake news!

I was personally very impressed meeting this octogenarian, who is not just passionate about good food, but at an age when most people would rather call it a day. Nevertheless, he still puts on his apron and can easily whip up a sumptuous meal for his special guests.

Besides his signature dishes, which among others include the roti canai and his homemade rum raisin ice cream (both have my thumbs-up!), I find listening to James to be very entertaining indeed, that a whole three hours had passed by us without me realising it, until my 7-year-old daughter started nudging me to go home.

Preferring to be known only as James, Kuok and his wife Lorna have been running the restaurant for the past 31 years. Lorna was a former corporate lawyer who decided her passion was in the kitchen. They are very hands-on, which explains why every dish here has their signature on it.

Although the façade and the inner decoration is simple, the restaurant is a class of its own. The man, too, is a legend himself.

For a start, I agree there are many places with good briyani, but James’ version of the Hyderabadi cuisine gives me the unforgettable o-o-o-u-m-p-h!

Never mind about his nasi briyani being voted one of the top five in the whole of Klang Valley and among the top ten in the country, I initially found it hard to believe when a schoolmate of mine recommended James’ briyani as “the best in town”. Having tasted it now, this is indeed a “must” for all to try.

In fact, his well-known omelette, Nyonya assam fish and fried assam prawn were kind of overshadowed by the nasi briyani as far as I am concerned. The fish is fresh, and the gravy is not that spicy which means young children also get to enjoy it. You can be sure that James would not serve you something that is stale. He has been in the business for three decades, and is very particular about his quality control.

If you have never tasted what a good roti canai is, try James’ roti canai which is fried in pure ghee. His roti canai is a class of its own. It is best eaten with his beef rendang. Trust me, and you will find that his rendang is for real and unbeatable in the way he cooks it.

The rendang can be eaten with white rice, but it goes well with the roti canai because it gives a good balance of spiciness and the buttery taste of the roti canai. One has to taste it to understand what I mean.

What I particularly like about James’ food here is that he does not use MSG. He knows just the right balance between the spices and herbs that gives his cuisine the perfect taste. For each cuisine, it is a different sauce concoction that he prepares; there is no one sauce that works for his entire menu.

A semi-qualified cook myself, I learnt this little tip from James: “Spices for our curries are washed clean and roasted individually to bring out the flavour before grinding it into powder.”

And, for his homemade ice cream, he does not use artificial flavourings. Taste his durian ice cream and you know understand why my 7-year-old daughter said: “Wow! This tastes like great durian!”

So, if the waiters here ask you, “What would you like for dessert?” let them know I strongly recommend James’ one scoop of rum raisin for adults and a scoop of durian ice cream for the children. You may find yourself competing with them for the durian ice-cream, and you may end up eating one scoop of each.

Once you have eaten here at Sri Nyonya, you will feel like you have tasted some of the best Northern Peranakan cuisine in town. The secret I like to share with you is that the recipes are 160 years old. They were passed on from Lorna’s grandmother.

To avoid disappointment, make sure that you pre-book your table as James does not believe in running a big restaurant to serve the masses.

“A healthy eating lifestyle comprises eating environment, food ingredients, cooking method, food serving, and eating experience. This is the Paleo Lifestyle.

 

“We aim to change the world one delicious and nutritious meal at a time. We believe in eating as Mother Nature intended. This means plenty of plant-based food, high quality meat, seafood, eggs, fresh fruit, nuts and seeds.

 

“Our food never compromises on flavour. So our food is always fast-paced, flavour-packed and brimming with nutrition.

According to Thai, the paleo concept has been catching on since they opened their outlet in Taman Sri Bintang. “We have more of the expatriates visiting our outlet in Desa Sri Hartamas, whereas our Taman Sri Bintang outlet caters more to delivery orders,” he said.

Hidden in a corner of Kepong, Paelolicious is a nice, cosy place where you can enjoy a back-to-basics meal with your family.

For their signature dishes, I strongly recommend you to try their paleo chicken, which is served with sweet potatoes. instead of using common poultry, they use grass fed-free range chicken.

Forget about the expensive quinoa, here you should ask for a few spoonful of “rice” to go along with it. It does look like rice but, interestingly, it is made from cauliflower.

It is surely an experience for most people to try the paleo rice, and if you like it, this will surely be your best discovery for the week, that you can easily replace rice with Paleolicious rice.

Cheong tells me that she used to be 85kg, but after cutting down on carbohydrates including rice, her weight dropped to 58kg.

The cauliflower is also used to make the base of their paleo salmon pizza. My kids especially loved this, as it is topped with broccoli, capsicum, zucchini and wild-caught salmon.

Children will also love the paleo sausage egg burger, with a handmade patty using chicken, shrimp and lemon zest, which really brings out the freshness of the meat.

They use kampung eggs for the burger, which are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, as well as guacamole. My kids loved it more than regular burgers, and it contains none of the nasty nitrates and other chemicals that usually go into processed meat.  

Best of all, they only use coconut oil for their cooking!