PETALING JAYA, May 28 – Here’s a feeling we all know and love.

Rediscovering a lost favourite, whether it’s a song, movie or book that has always been caught at the tip of your tongue, is arguably as close as it gets to falling in love with something new for the first time.

With restaurants and especially hawkers, there are plenty that we lose to time itself, and there are few things in this world that can match the joy of a second chance with the one that got away (yes, I’m still talking about food).

I’m a big fan of chee cheong fun, whether it’s the delicate, ethereally thin and stuffed kind you find at the fanciest of dim sum restaurants or the various regional versions (both Penang and Ipoh styles come to mind) we enjoy here.

But as a child, I craved and adored one above all: curry chee cheong fun.

Some of my earliest memories revolve around gazing longingly over a plate of silky rice noodles swimming in a light, reddish-orange curry, with all kinds of fried yong tau foo stacked to the skies.

It was all prepared and served by Janet, who is just the sweetest, out of a stall in Restoran Golden Kim Wah in Damansara Kim.

Then suddenly one day it was no more.

Years passed, many inferior plates of curry chee cheong fun were had and still, nothing.

Enter Lighthouse Street Food in Damansara Utama.

Not sure if subtlety is what they were going for with the sign.
Not sure if subtlety is what they were going for with the sign.

As it turns out, she moved here and has been quite literally under my nose this entire time, still serving up the same delicious stuff, just like I remember.

Going up to her and picking out the various fried yong tau foo items, including sui kow that she makes herself, transported me back to being a child again.

When it arrived, the long-awaited plate of curry chee cheong fun didn’t disappoint.

The same light, thin curry fulfilled my hopes and dreams once again, not too spicy, and in fact a little sweet.

Some digging is required, but there are some silky smooth noodles underneath all the fried stuff.
Some digging is required, but there are some silky smooth noodles underneath all the fried stuff.

In my chopsticks were smooth strands of rice noodles, beancurd skin, stuffed tofu pok and sui kow all refried and crispy beyond compare, both stained a light orange by the curry.

Fried ‘fu chuk’ skin and ‘sui kow’ in curry go together like cookies and milk.
Fried ‘fu chuk’ skin and ‘sui kow’ in curry go together like cookies and milk.

Each spoonful of curry, dotted with sesame seeds, held a promise of fragrant and crispy fried shallots.

This was a reunion that didn’t disappoint.

Having picked out a pretty obscene portion, it came out to RM24, but in my defense, I literally hadn’t eaten it in years.

The breakdown of prices here.
The breakdown of prices here.

A full breakdown of prices relating to each item of yong tau foo and chee cheong fun per piece is available on the side of her stall when you order.

Fried fu chuk is RM2.20, fried sui kow is RM2 and chee cheong fun is RM1.50, to name a few.

The stall doesn’t have a name beyond what it sells: ‘chee cheong fun’ and ‘yong tau foo.’
The stall doesn’t have a name beyond what it sells: ‘chee cheong fun’ and ‘yong tau foo.’

I highly recommend coming here during off-peak hours, in the mid-morning between breakfast and lunch as there aren’t a lot of tables available.

She usually closes when she sells out, or after lunch, but calling ahead just to make sure won’t hurt.

If you’re lucky, you might catch a bit of her virtuosic Shanghai opera singing as she prepares the food.

Lighthouse Street Food

2, Jalan SS 21/58, Damansara Utama (Uptown), Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Open Monday to Sunday, 8am to 2pm

Tel: 010-2939641 (Janet)

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