PETALING JAYA, Aug 30 — When you're stuck at home, you find food in weird ways. A friend had raved about SBay Wantan Mee after her apartment's group buy introduced her to it.
I was extremely curious as a good wantan mee is incredibly hard to come by. Hence I did a takeaway and was blown away by how good the noodles were.
When it comes to wantan mee, it needs to tick three boxes. The first is the texture of the egg noodles. It needs to be smooth, springy and most importantly, the strands cannot stick to your teeth.
Even the sauce it is tossed with needs to have just the right balance of saltiness and the fragrance from lard. A bonus is when they serve it with crunchy lard fritters.
The next criteria is the char siu. It needs to be succulent with just the right stickiness. I also like my char siu to be cut in thick slices so it has a better bite.
Last but not least, the wantans need to be plump with a juicy pork filling and silky skins. I particularly love the distinct taste of dried flounder fish powder in my wantans.
However most stalls have omitted that taste for economic reasons. Moreover, some feel that the taste is too old school. So far, I've not found one in the Klang Valley that aced all three requirements.
With SBay Wantan Mee, you get springy noodles with not too thin strands. Each bite of the noodles was flavourful and yes, there were even crispy lard fritters. I was also impressed with how well the noodles tasted even later that night. I had bought an extra packet in the morning and had it for dinner. All it needed was to be heated up in the microwave.
Their char siu was the ace. You get about six pieces of thick cut char siu with caramelised bits. They're juicy with just the right amount of fat that melts in the mouth.
If you wish to add char siu, it's RM7 for an extra portion. The meat keeps well too and I had the extra pieces for dinner after heating it in the microwave.
Maybe I am ultra fussy but I felt they faltered just a little with the wantans. Even though they were plump morsels and the clear soup was sweet, I felt the wantans needed that dried flounder fish taste and slightly silkier skin.
Each portion of the noodles is served with three pieces of wantans. If you wish to get extra to enjoy, they sell 12 pieces of wantans for RM7.
However, I am willing to forgive the wantans and I will definitely return for more takeaways. What also impressed me was the pricing of the noodles as it's just RM7 for a generous portion of noodles, char siu, three wantans and the customary greens.
Apparently from what I read online, the stall only started operating at Restoran 111 Bee Fatt on July 17. Even though it has been open for one month or so, it has racked up many positive reviews on Google already.
The stall offers a dry as well as soup version of the noodles. You have a choice of char siu wantans or mushroom braised chicken feet wantan noodles. The braised chicken feet seems to run out quickly as the day I was there, it had sold out by 11am.
If you drop by to do a takeaway, be prepared to wait. I had to wait for maybe 30 minutes or so. Moreover they are also juggling orders for delivery as they are listed on food delivery sites like FoodPanda. Do note that prices on the delivery sites differ from at the stall.
SBay Wantan Mee, Restoran 111 Bee Fatt, 26, Jalan SS21/39, Damansara Utama (Uptown), Petaling Jaya. Tel: +6011-1616 2442. Open: 8.30am to 2pm or earlier depending on how fast they sell out. (Monday to Saturday). Closed on Sunday.
