Monday 16 November 2015

Portuguese grilled fish stall - silver puff parcels in Chinatown



This little pathway has seen its heydays . Waiting time used to be a minimum of 45 minutes and tissues used to be part of your combat tool . But with so many foreigners in KL nowadays , especially in Chinatown which has turned into PRC and Bangla town , local Chinese are a dime a dozen.







The men are still dressed in white pagodas ...the only material which absorbs sweat and cools the body so differently from a Uniqlo . Pagoda cotton shirts cost a fortune today , but the good chefs still don it like a badge of honour .

Thin boy has a boyish face that bellies the frenetic pace he can keep. Slathering paste onto seafoods he'd just slapped onto the silver foil with deft fingered precision , you'll hold your breath to the last crinkle. 
Watching him used to be like being at a tournament. 





Ahah ! Here is the master of the secret recipe paste. Yes , I have cornered him. 
He cooks the paste alone in a backlane nearby. He used to have a full head of hair and he was much smaller , but now he looks more prosperous as we Chinese say and hey look , I even managed to coax a half hearted smile out of him ! 
Yay !




Work station.
Of which I have spent some time standing up against the wall observing the hands on grand prix race .
This is how that boy sorts the orders , gets you in line , puts together the parcels and actually remembers which parcel belongs to who !
I never cease to be amazed by this .




Cooking station.
As you can see , they are still using charcoal like it was still Malaya .





Longer the parcels stay on the fire , the bigger they puff up.Seems so dangerously close to a huge kaboom until one of the servers puts a fork in to puncture it just before reaching your table .  




You have to do the opening ceremony yourself . At this price , you are not paying for butler service. You crudely saw through the parcel or rip it apart and when the aroma wafts out boom ! 
I hope you enjoy the glorious lady's fingers , long beans , swimming in the devilish paste which brings you one level closer to purgatory .






Price : it is as if time stopped . Just MYR 14 for my parcel.  

Spice level : nowadays anyone can eat this. They've toned it down .

Warning : do not look down at the floor. This is Chinatown after all.  

Location : Beside Hong Leong bank inside Chinatown , Petaling Street , KL



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