KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 — Morning arrives gently at Taman Taynton View. Long before dawn breaks — more than a full hour — there is already activity at Shun Shun Restaurant, a longtime family-run coffee shop in Cheras.
Cups being set down, early customers easing themselves into plastic chairs, the hiss of the kettle as water is boiled for robust kopi.
We have returned to Shun Shun for their Bitter Gourd and Fish Paste Noodle Soup, as close to a signature dish as the kopitiam might offer. This is comfort food at its simplest and its best.
The first thing we reach for is not food, however, but a drink. In a kopitiam logic, coffee and tea set the tone. Expect the familiar options, from kopi O to teh C, prepared with a brisk assurance that comes from repetition.
Kopi or teh? Why not both? We order cham, as we often do.
Our cups arrive heady and creamy, with a deeply pleasing kaw kick. The balance between coffee and tea is grounding, reassuring — which is why this has become our ritual. (Regular readers know this habit of ours well, I suspect.)
While formidable, however, coffee and tea isn’t what sets Shun Shun apart from the other kopitiams in the neighbourhood. Residents drop by nearly on a daily basis for Shun Shun’s home-style noodles.
As a first-time, you might glean this from the fact every table has a bowl or two of noodles. More likely, it comes from the fact you are greeted at the shop entrance by the auntie at the noodle station.
Her movements are economical and unhurried. Those in a rush might bemoan the wait but we ask, Why the haste?
Good food comes to those who wait and isn’t a slow breakfast the greatest luxury of them all in this day and age?
Today our first bowl is Shun Shun’s Duck Wine Noodles, a dish that we rarely find elsewhere. The duck is braised until yielding, its gamey notes softened by the deep warmth of old ginger, which lingers without overwhelming.
To go with it: yellow mee, each strand coated in a dark, glossy soy sauce that clings just enough to enrich without heaviness. A small bowl of broth, dark and savoury, accompanies the noodles.
For those who prefer more commonplace choices, you can have wantan mee topped with char siew and siew yoke, curry mee or yong tau foo. The latter is particularly notable for its fried items, all prepared fresh in-house.
And yet, for all this range, most visits here eventually circle back to a single bowl. We never drop by without ordering their Bitter Gourd and Fish Paste Noodle Soup. (This, of course, is our second bowl; no prizes for guessing correctly.)
Pale slices of bitter gourd float gently in a clear broth. This soup is light, almost restrained, to allow the yee wat to shine.
Indeed, the fish paste is springy, gently marine, offering a natural sweetness. Beehoon is the de facto selection of noodles here — carrying flavour without drawing attention to itself.
A bowl of this, we agree without hesitation, is truly the ultimate comfort food.
There is another version worth noting: the seaweed fish paste noodles, where smooth clumps of yee wat meet slippery strands of Chinese seaweed. Both versions share the same strengths: bouncy fish paste, a light broth, minimalist noodles.
By the time we finish, the next wave of breakfast-goers have arrived looking for tables. Honestly, it’s still early. A morning at Shun Shun is a reminder that it can be nice to wake up early for a change, to enjoy a bowl or two of quietly comforting noodles.
Shun Shun Restaurant
75, Jalan Dato Haji Harun,
Taman Taynton View,
Cheras, KL.
Open daily (except Tue closed) 6:15am-3:30pm
Phone: 017-212 1863
* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.
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