Restoran Pan Heong @ Lorong Medan Batu Caves 2, Batu Caves

I must be one of those last ones who went and then blogged about this famous Pan Heong. The truth is that I didn't even know the existence of such a great place to eat if not for the Queen of DSLR's blog on Pan Heong in January this year. The sight of kau yuk mai fun and nam yue char yuk was too much for me to take. Jotting the name and address down in my little 555-like book, I made Pan Heong as my must-visit list for the longest time.

Sadly, the motivation ran out of steam after a while as I was busy with works and with the arrival of Sher Ryn in March... I totally forgot about it! That is.. until I read becky's blog and then Bangsar Babe's in June. Their description on the sang har hor fun re-ignited my fire once again!!! I'd tried Greenview's version of sang har mee but I thought that it was so so only, and while Soo Kee's version (Imbi) was good, full of wok hei but the prawn's size was pale in comparison with Pan Heong's!

However, I have not gone to non-air conditioned restaurants since the arrival of Sher Ryn. Jenn is very (and I mean... VERY!) particular when it comes to dining out with Sher Ryn along. Most of the time, we would only go to shopping malls or those with air-conds :( She wouldn't wanna risk making Sher Ryn sweat like her dad (what a pampered little princess) so I had been deprived of a lot of food and interesting places to eat. No wonder my must-visit lists are getting longer and longer lah... (Sorry dear! I'm not complaining here... I love Sher Ryn very much too)

Opportunity came one lovely Saturday morning... I had to attend Joe's BBQ party in Lakefield Sg Besi in the evening and therefore, I was free for the whole morning and afternoon! I managed to call one of my friend, Kim Seng, who agreed to go out for brunch with me. Picking him up from Cheras, we headed straight to this place as I want to beat the lunch crowd. Even though I pride myself with a good sense of direction, I gotta admit that I am not that familar with Batu Caves area but fret not... my trusted Garmin got me there in no time!

Parking is very hard to find even though we arrived shortly before 11am... it took me 10 min before finding one! Lucky for us, we managed to find ourselves a table shortly after arriving.

We looked around and noticed that almost every table has a plate of hor fun and porridge... of course, the choices are not limited to these 2 dishes only. We were recommended to try their mee mamak by the lady boss... but since there were only 2 of us, we couldn't order too many stuff to eat.

Newspaper cuttings, magazine reviews and pictures were seen hanging at one section of the restaurant's wall. Upon reading through it, I realised that the lady boss was MBA holder but decided to help her husband fulltime to operate this fledging business. What a waste to the professional qualification but I guess she might put her knowedge to good use in managing this business.

It didn't take a long time for our dishes to arrive - starting with Sang har hor fun which caught my attention at the first place. For those who has not been here before, the minimum order for this dish is 2 servings which translate to 2 freshwater prawns and hor fun enough for 2 pax. The egg gravy was by far one of the best (if not the best) that I'd ever tried in my life, and the flavour was further enhanced by the sweet prawn roe. The hor fun was full of wok hei while the prawns (quite big I mind you) were amazingly fresh and succulent! I instantly forgot about the cholesterol issue and the fact that I had crabbie in Seremban the previous evening :) and the plate was very clean and shiny after that, as the gravy was too good to be wasted!

Kau yuk mee hoon came next.. and this dish also has to be ordered minimum 2 servings. Again the meehoon retained its springy texture and full of wok hei. The sinful kau yuk which has a higher fat to lean meat ratio was like icing on the cake! Comparable to my mom's version :) even though both of us were quite stuffed by the time we finished the hor fun, we simply couldn't stop eating the meehoon + kau yuk!

Nam yue pork belly was another dish that we ordered. Nam yue is actually fermented red beancurd which is used to marinate the pork belly for at least one day (in order to give the dish full flavour) before deep fried. Crispy and crunchy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside are the best words to describe this dish. It is recommended to eat the dish while it's hot.

Leo's verdict - By the time we finished everything, a long queue were seen waiting outside for tables. They normally use numbering system whenever there's huge crowd. Parking is definitely hard to find.. try to come here during lunch time and you might have to spend some time to find one. Not to mention that the restaurant is located right next to chinese school. The second time I came, I had to park quite far from the restaurant as there was school activity that morning :( having said that, the food was superb and quite fast too! Price was reasonable and service was attentive!
YUP!! WE MANAGED TO FINISH ALL THE DISHES

Joe Wong Bak Kut Teh @ Batu Caves, KL

Normally I wouldn't eat bah kut teh 2 days in a row. I just had one of my favourite BKT in Kepong the night before and therefore, I would look for other stuff to eat. But when Gerald sent his Landcruiser to Batu Caves for servicing, he asked me to pick him up on our way down South. "Do you know any place to eat BKT?" he asked. This guy just won't get bored having the same stuff everyday, I thought. We just had BKT last night... sigh! Then I remember reading about a restaurant serving one of the best dry version of BKT nearby. Thank God I brought the food guide along too (thanks to Jenn for the wonderful gift) so I browsed to see if there's any restaurant nearby.

Nothing fancy from the outside, just a big sign with its name and pictures of their dishes. Sliding glass door separate the interior from outside. Even though it's indoor, sometimes you would see some inconsiderate patrons who smoked like chimneys inside... feel like going to their table, throw the ciggies onto the floor, step on them and shout "Tak Nak!" On the inside, everything was simple... plastic tables and chairs, cement floor. No fancy decoration or design whatsoever.

As there were only 2 of us, we could not order too many dishes to try. Almost every table had a pot of dry BKT and so it only made sense that I ordered one too. It turned out to be the best dry BKT that I ever had so far. The scrumptious dry BKT was prepared using the chef's specially-made soy sauce together with dried chilly & dried squid, and served piping hot in a claypot.. It only took one bite to win us over with its strong aroma of dried squid and spicy-ness of the dried chilly.

The other signature dish was Braised Pork with Nut & Chinese mushroom... a traditional Hokkien treat. The pork is marinated with liquorice, soy sauce, cassia and five spices and then wrapped in gauze with peanuts, chinese mushroom, chestnuts & lastly braised until the meat becomes tender and soft... using with just a piece of cloth! This dish tasted just like tung po meat (different version compared to the Cantonese style). The sinful meat with fat layer on top and lean meat at the bottom was covered in the rather sweet gravy. Good to go with rice~

Yaw Mak with garlic and oyster sauce.. another ordinary dish but we need the green to make us less guilty for having such a heavy breakfast :)

This is the second time I went back to Joe Wong's. This time I took Jenn along to try the dry BKT and she agreed that this was the best dry BKT she had ever tried in years. Apart from that, we also ordered normal BKT. Served in a claypot, the soup was nothing compared to the one I had at Ka Ka (Kepong) or Ah Sang (Sri Setia). Decent but not spectacular. However, they were quite generous with the meat and fu chuk despite ordering portion for one only.

The yaw char koay was chrunchy which I'm quite particular everytime I eat BKT. I hate those soft ones.

Leo's verdict - the dry bah kut teh definitely warrant a visit to this restaurant. I noticed that the steamed fish head was quite popular with the patrons as well. The other dish include HK style braised duck in claypot that I want to try.

Joe Wong Bah Kut Teh
No.8, Jalan SBC 4, Taman Seri Batu Caves, 68000 Selangor
Tel: 012-3442663
Time: 8am - 10pm