KUALA LUMPUR, August 17 -- In the fast-moving food and beverage scene, it is extremely rare to discover a restaurant like Setapak Teochew with its enviable 101-year-old pedigree.

The family patriarch and third-generation owner Ng Soo Teng, 73, still holds the reins of this Teochew eatery that has stood the test of time. Keeping the lineage intact, his son Ng Kheng Siang, 39, mans the kitchen, a task he inherited since he left school.

Select your biscuits and mooncakes at the counter

The older Ng pinpoints 1912 as the year the business started following stories told by teachers from nearby Chong Hwa Independent High School, one of the oldest high schools in Kuala Lumpur that opened its doors in 1919.

In the old days, the eatery located in the heart of Setapak was known as Kedai Makanan Song Kee. The venture was started by Ng’s grandfather and granduncle-in-law who both hailed from China.

The colonial shophouse was famous for its Teochew mooncakes which pulled in the crowds during the Mid-Autumn festival. In 1985, the bustling mooncake buying scene was even captured in an oil painting by local artist Chia Yu Chian.

Ng, who was the only son, followed his father’s footsteps and joined the business in 1962. Following a family feud, the restaurant was reborn as Setapak Teochew. In October 1993, it moved to this present site, a stone’s throw away from its original premises. The move followed the development of Jalan Pahang into a busy highway.

Ng Soo Teng with his wife and son, Ng Kheng Siang

Walk into the restaurant these days and you will find it busy with customers buying biscuits at the counter or diners crowding round the tables. In their early days, they carried an extensive menu that included Teochew porridge.

Nowadays, the menu has shrunk with an emphasis on fried noodles and classic Teochew fare like steamed pomfret with beehoon, fishballs and fishcake. The dishes are cooked from recipes preserved since Day One.

Look around the tables and you see everyone tucking into the same dishes: Teochew style white beehoon, Hokkien mee, crispy fishcakes and a bowl of fishballs. The beehoon dish may look bland at first glance. Look closely and you will see it is fried with an assortment of goodies such as small crunchy dried prawns, lard bits, shallots, sliced white cabbage and sliced fishballs.

Enjoy the flaky wedding biscuits and yam mooncake with a cup of Chinese tea (left). Antique baskets once used to transport wedding biscuits for the matrimonial dowry (right)

Tiny green chili padi is also added to give the noodles a subtle heat.

The Hokkien mee may look out of place here but according to Ng, the noodle dish was introduced because people asked for it. What makes the dark noodles unique is Ng’s determination to make the noodles from scratch with no shortcuts just like the old days with a long bamboo rod.

The stand out Hokkien mee with its freshly made noodles (left). Comfort the tummy with a bowl of fishballs and fried fishcake (right)

Unlike the rounder, fatter strands used in Hokkien mee, these in-house made noodles have a flatter shape. Slurp down the noodles and you find they do not reek of alkaline (“kan sui”) since they are made daily. Even their fishballs and fishcakes are made in-house from saito or wolf herring fish.

As the city sleeps, the bakery above the restaurant starts work from 11pm to 5am churning out freshly baked goods for when the restaurant opens at 7am. Regulars flock here for the traditional biscuits including the ceremonial pink and yellow wedding biscuits marked with the double happiness Chinese characters, a must for a happy matrimony.

Biscuits are baked daily at the midnight bakery

With Mid-Autumn festival coming up on September 19, the bakery will be busy baking traditional Teochew mooncakes on a daily basis after the Hungry Ghost month is over. Don’t expect to find any lotus paste mooncakes here though as the Teochew version is like a biscuit with flaky layers and fillings such as preserved vegetables, mung and red beans.

One of their popular mooncakes is the yam paste mooncake with its crust of crispy swirls. Just like the restaurant, everything is handcrafted including their yam, mung and red bean paste. As time goes by, Ng admits that tweaks have been made along the way such as reducing sugar levels for the health conscious.

He tries to maintain the items as much as he can but sometimes the quality of the raw ingredients varies. Three days before the Mid-Autumn festival, Ng stops selling mooncakes. Any excess mooncakes are given to his workers who can reap their own monetary rewards by selling them.

Dine among portraits of 1930s’ Chinese actresses

Ng, who has an extensive family with four children and numerous grandchildren, is a man who believes strongly in family ties. Every Saturday, the extended family comes over to keep the family together and who knows, there may be a fifth generation Ng among his grandchildren who will keep the legacy alive for many more years.

Setapak Teochew Restaurant, 283 & 285, Jalan Pahang, Setapak, Kuala Lumpur. Tel:03-40238706. Open: 7am to 5pm. Closed on Sundays.

This story was first published in the print edition of The Malay Mail, August 16, 2013.

Look out for the distinct restaurant along the busy Jalan Pahang