Noodlies Sydney food and travel blog and friend were exploring Little India when we were hit with a sudden hunger. At the corner was Old Town White Coffee, a tasty, ubiquitous Malaysian food chain. We decided to try something local and stumbled across Restoran Hing Ang. I chose this little Chinese eatery because they had chicken rice. Regular readers of noodlies would know I always try to have some form of hai nam rice where ever I go. Inside, this double fronted restaurant it looked like any other food court with rows of formica tables, uncomfortable chairs and bright neons to discourage loitering.
Three things distinguished the chicken rice here. Firstly, the rice was of a much lower quality, it’s dry and relatively tasteless despite the chicken stock it was cooked in. Secondly, the chicken was roasted rather than boiled, though the serving was small, it was fleshy. Finally the sauce was chilli based rather than ginger and chilli. Despite the dry rice and less than glamorous surroundings, the dish really worked, partially because we were both so hungry but mainly because this was honest, no-nonsense street food. We were the only tourists in the place and felt, for a moment we were transported from our five star hotel and were experiencing a day in the life of Kuala Lumpur.
We washed our chicken rice down with a glass of sweet teh tarik. A perfect meal for two starving tourists in the tropical KL heat.
Later, we found out that Jalan Thambapillai was a street well-known for blind masseurs. They’re meant to be extra intuitive, able to seek out those nasty knots and stress points. While researching this post, I also found that “Brickfields is also known as a centre of prostitution. Jalan Thambipillay contains many brothels which operate round the clock with sex workers coming from around Southeast Asia and also local workers” according to wikipedia. I had to chuckle, we saw a few signs advertising blind masseurs but didn’t notice any sex workers operating “round the clock”!
Oh, the blissful ignorance of tourists.
Restoran Hing Ang
19-21 Jalan Thambapillai, Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, 50470, Malaysia.
Ph: 0322602680
Interested in Malaysia?
Check out the Tourism Malaysia website or their facebook.
Noodlies Malaysian posts were done with my super light, compact but powerful Lenovo X220 laptop – I call it “Junior” we’re inseparable these days, with thanks to Lenovo Australia and New Zealand.
yeah, the area where this ‘restoran’ is located is dodgy– and scary! but I had the best char kwai teow here. on the same street is Gopala vegetarian restaurant, where I had the best roti channai.
Maybe we were too much in the tourist mode, because I felt pretty safe.. though everything I read about it since has said the area is a little scary.