KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 — The early bird gets to eat probably the best lor mai chee in the Klang Valley. That's how I ended up driving to Overseas Union Garden on Sunday morning before sunrise.
I had come across this stall from an Instagram friend. Since I was not keen to rub shoulders with the crowd of weekend shoppers, I popped over to the market before 7am.
It took me a few turns to locate the stall. Just look for a green and white striped umbrella stall located in front of Caring Pharmacy. You will spot a couple sitting there amidst various kuihs. If you get lost like me, just ask for the "cha guo" stall.
What's distinct is you can see the lady wrapping the lor mai chee at the stall. She is meticulously filling each glutinous rice ball with the ground, toasted peanuts and sugar. This makes a world of difference for the taste and texture of this kuih that reminds me of mochi.
As it's freshly made, the skin has a beautiful elasticity that hugs the abundant stuffing of peanuts. It's so soft that I couldn't even take a cross section picture of it as the second half of the kuih just flopped over.
I had kept one lor mai chee to eat much later in the day to experiment. By the evening, you can definitely taste the difference as the skin has dried out and hardened. It's still edible but just not as fluffy as the fresh ones.
A chat with the friendly couple whose surname is Chew revealed that they started this stall about two years ago as they stay in the vicinity. Previously they had a stall at Puchong Jaya's morning market. The lady who is better known as Ah Mei had picked up her kuih making skills from young as she grew up in a Hakka village even though she's Cantonese.
Her skills are really exceptional as the skin on all of the handmade kuihs are superb. For the Hakka kuih or soon pan filled with yam bean and carrots, the skin is thin and beautifully supple with just the right amount of elasticity.
However I felt the filling fell short as she had probably machine shredded the yam bean and carrots. This made it too fine and lacked the texture needed for the bite of the kuih. Its taste is good though with a distinct aroma of white pepper to balance out the sweet yam bean. Nevertheless, it's still one of the better Hakka kuihs I have sampled in the Klang Valley.
I preferred the dark green ramie leaf kuihs or chu yap ban. Shaped in a round that had flattened with steaming, the dark green skin is a little denser but I loved the distinct herbal aroma. Inside, the filling is coarsely chopped preserved radish or choy poh. This gave it a lovely, crunchy texture and a hit of savouriness that made you want more.
Expect to fork out RM1 per piece for these kuihs.
From Instagram, I also saw they sell woon chai koh or steamed rice cakes but I didn't spot that the other day. You also can pick up kuih angku and hee pan or steamed Hakka rice cakes at the stall but these are not made by them.
Do note that they only have a small portion of handmade kuihs since it is so labour intensive. They do take orders for larger quantities provided you give them two days notice.
Kuih stall in front of Caring Pharmacy, 21, Jalan Hujan Rahmat, Taman Overseas Union, Kuala Lumpur. Open: 6am to 11am (Saturday and Sunday). Tel:+6012-6759288
