February 2010

Fact: Pudu is a place I seldom venture to unaccompanied; the labyrinthine streets confound me while the lack of parking isn’t exactly added incentive. Fact: I’m not a big fan of yong tau foo (YTF), never have been; stuffed vegetables in hot soup just don’t rumble my world.

Thanks to Yap Hup Kee, I may now have to eat my words. The food at this Hakka eatery makes a very persuasive argument both for going to Pudu and for adding YTF to my list of must-eats. And because YTF is largely about the soup, let’s start there. Light but aromatically infused with a subtle flavour of salted vegetables, the soup is so ridiculously more-ish that I left the eatery with more liquid in my belly than a Japanese water torture victim.

Home-made tofu (silken texture), home-made fish balls (“tastes like fish but isn’t fishy,” my dining partner proclaimed), fried tofu stuffed with salted pork (one definitely won’t be enough) and — for me, the star of the show — beancurd sheets rolled and neatly tied like a geisha’s obi before being deepfried (heeeeaaaavenly), were the lip-smacking winners.

Noodle freak that I am, I couldn’t resist ordering a plate of chicken curry wantan noodles. Mistake. The noodles were powdery and overdone, and the overall effect was more vapid than tepid water. Note to self: stick to the YTF when here.

You know you’ve hit the YTF jackpot when your lips are not coated with grease when you’ve finished eating (and boy, did you eat!), and you’re already planning your next assault on Pudu. And considering the quantity of food that passed through my gullet, the bill was more than reasonable. Moi, a YTF convert? Mos def, brother, mos def. Fay Khoo