Zok Noodle House, Puchong

The iMiirage post had definitely caused a stir, causing a record for my personal blogging experience. It is now the top post with nearly 18k views in just a span of 7 days! At the same time, it is one of the posts drawing the most flaks, some being constructive and some comments from shallow minded, argumentative people. Knowing the fact that my blog is now more known among my colleagues and my boss(!), it's time to remain low and do some throwback food posts out of Ipoh.

Every tried waking up on a Sunday morning in Klang Valley and have the slightest doubt what to eat for brunch? Normally when I make my routine shopping/food hunt trip to KL, I will try my best to shy away from local hawker cuisines or Chinese restaurants since there are so many other unique things to try: Middle Eastern Cuisines, French, Italian, Korean, Vietnamese.... or even gourmet/themed cafes mushrooming all around. Reality kinda hit me hard on what should I be eating in Puchong as most cafes only open for business after 10:30am. I managed to Google about this place: Zok Noodle House and decided to give it shot before proceeding to UPM later to attend the annual Dogathon event.

Located at Bandar Puchong Jaya, Zok Noodle House literally means Bamboo Noodle House. Is it just me or have you noticed that the word "bamboo" is seems to be a cliche name for a Chinese noodle restaurant? Perhaps its because the traditional secret way of producing springy egg noodles lies in the act of "riding" the bamboo log on the noodle dough. Associating the name with the word "bamboo" seems to give a perception that the noodles are meticulously handmade with passion (and sweat of course!). Yours truly here just giving an initial test by impersonating Hong Kong's food critic Tou Tou in the poster.

So does it live up to its fame captured in wooden frames? Judging by the the near full turnout around 10am, let's hope nothing does wrong.

We tried the best of both worlds, the egg noodles in soup and the dry version. We have plump pork wantans in the soupy egg noodles. The broth was passable with minimal MSG usage as I was not overwhelmed with thirst after the meal. The wantan size is generally bigger than those you commonly see in hawker stalls. Since you are paying for RM7+ for a bowl of noodles, you do get back the worth. And the star of the dish is definitely the noodles! Cooked to near al dente texture, the springy texture makes it addictive and slurping the noodles with alternating spoonfuls of warm broth is comfort food on a lazy weekend morning!

The dry version was good too but somehow I still prefer the soupy version to keep the noodles moisten and warm till the very last bite. In other words, the roast meat managed to shine in this dish. Char Siew was well charred and bears a shiny caramelized coat while the Siew Yuk has crackling skin. The slight drawback was it was nearly total lean meat. A small layer of melt-in-your-mouth fat somewhere in between, would have scored perfect marks in my books. Since this is a throwback post, the receipt was indeed THROWN and this plate was around RM9 if I remembered correctly. Portion is quite substantial and its recommended for sharing if you would like to keep some space for their dim sum.

Dim Sum is priced reasonably from RM4 onwards. 3 of us were quite full from the 2 serving of their signature noodles, hence it was just Bacon Rolls, Siew Mai and Egg Tarts for us. Egg Tarts failed miserably while the other two made its mark. Is it just me or I feel generally Ipoh Dim Sum restaurants are better?

A myriad of dim sums catering to a full crowd. By the time we left, we noticed other dim sum shops within the vicinity to be quite packed. The noodles is worth a try, notably good but the dim sum is forgettable if you are a discerning diner. Till then, more KL short posts on the way :)