Waste not, want not is Fay Khoo’s mantra as she eats her way from top to tail.
Although we like to believe that we are inherently unique, complex beings, the real truth is that we are, like black and white, separated into two distinct groups on virtually everything. Think about it: there are those who eat to live and those who live to eat. Some say to-mah-to whilst yet others say to-may-to. One man’s meat is another’s poison, and even when it comes to domestic animals, we are either dog people or cat people. Which is why, on the subject of dining proclivities, there are those who love going the whole hog, while others are loathe to veer from the meaty trinity of the pig, the chicken and the cow. I’ve always tended to belong to the latter category. Although I firmly believe in trying everything at least once, I guess I’ve been genetically hardwired not to go gaga over fish eyeballs, cows’ tongues, or chicken feet, just as my mother – my own flesh and blood! – is the exact opposite. There’s just no accounting for taste.
El Cerdo celebrates the pig
For people like my mother however, KL is truly an Aladdin’s cave. There are eateries that serve not just everything that moves, but also what lurks inside their bodies; reassuring since in these times of sustainable living, there’s nothing worse than squandering parts of the animal only to eat the flesh. In that respect, El Cerdo’s Werner Kuhn deserves massive kudos because he was one of the first restaurateurs to serve every part of the pig, except maybe its squeal. A true exponent of top-to-tail cuisine, Mr Kuhn regards a pig’s snout, intestine and blood as equally important as its belly, chest and trotters. Which also explains why the menu at his flagship outlet El Cerdo pays delicious homage to every part of Babe’s ample body and includes such hearty mains as the pig tail stew, where the star ingredient is slow cooked in a rich concoction of garlic, onion and Mexican chilli. Apart from the tasty Teutonic proferrings of crispy pork knuckles, El Cerdo’s appetiser platter is also a must try. Replete with rillettes (a tantalisingly compelling reason why meat should regularly be slow cooked in fat), trotter pâté, pig liver pâté and salami, there’s also pig head jelly, which tastes substantially less sinister than it sounds.
Down the road in Pudu, the chee chap tong hawker may not be quite as industrious as Mr Kuhn in utilising the whole hog, but he’s done a pretty good job with its innards. Literally meaning (according to my bootleg interpretation of Cantonese, at least) ‘pig’s spare parts soup’, chee chap tong involves boiling a mammoth vat of pig’s innards with blood cubes, meat, liver chunks and salted vegetables. The result is a steaming bowl of nourishing soup that is particularly delicious with rice.
Across town, there is the famed wantan mee hawker at Sungai Besi. By day, the eatery is a car parts store and workshop, and at sunset it undergoes a meteoric Clark Kent-esque transformation into a heaving hawker that serves through to the early hours of the morning and affords for great entertainment (particularly when the ravers come for supper, but that’s another story). It serves not just wantan mee and a mean chilli, but also a satisfyingly rich, spicy wild boar curry. The meat is pleasingly tender and doesn’t reek of gaminess, thanks largely to the slow cooking process and due in part to the heavy-handed use of spices. It’s also perilously more-ish; perilous since the favoured hours for eating said dish is usually late at night, long after the metabolism has hit the sack. Less popular but worth a try is the sweet and sour pig’s leg dish, not least because it’s fairly meritorious, although if I had to choose between the two, I’d definitely opt for the former.
And lest I hear someone mumble that briyani tends to be pedestrian, Gam Putra Café Briyani serves not just ostrich and venison briyani but also horse briyani, although they all have to be pre-ordered two days in advance, which begs the question whether that gives the operators enough time to source said animals. While I don’t have the stomach to try the horse version – nightmares of Black Beauty and all that – the ostrich and venison varieties are delicious and have the added benefit of being significantly lower in fat than chicken or beef.
Speaking of beef, Soong Kee is veritably an institution of all things moo-ey. Maker of arguably the best beef balls in town, Soong Kee has been hard at it since the ’50s, giving them decades to hone their craft, a task at which they have excelled spectacularly. I have a particular fondness for their dried noodles; try it with the ngou chap (beef offal) with lashings of their wickedly good homemade chilli sauce. I’ll wager one bowl won’t suffice.
The Malay version – colloquially known as ‘sup gearbox’ (although, if I want to be pedantic, it refers strictly to the marrow and not the spare bits of the heifer) – is best tried at Raja Sup TTDI. The selfproclaimed king of soup serves not just ox tongue, intestines, tendons, tail, tripe and marrow, but also the enigmatically named torpedo which, yes, is code for bull’s penis. Because it’s all about power to the people at Raja, you pick the parts and vegetables before the aromatic beef broth is added, together with a clutch of spices. Depending on the bits you’ve selected, the boss will tweak the spices accordingly to ensure optimum flavour and minimum ponginess are achieved.
Gam Putra beef briyani
And if you want to satisfy both the urge to try something different whilst pleasing your doctor at the same time, ostrich meat has been touted as being the Next Big Thing. A red meat that’s similar in texture to beef, ostrich is low in fat, cholesterol and the rest of the bad things, but not in fun, especially when cooked right. May Chixuan seems to have taken a shine to ostrich, and the menu encompasses a good variety of dishes with this meat. If you have to choose, then try their ostrich sautéed with dried chilies. The tenderness of the meat is showcased skillfully, especially when paired with the just-right spicy sauce.
If, like me, you tend to fall into the rut of routine – I spent more than a decade dressed in black and white because I was too lazy to colour-coordinate – then perhaps this is the perfect time to shake off the culinary cobwebs and review your take on food afresh. I know I certainly will be taking my own advice pronto; I was getting bored of chicken in any case.
Chee chap tong stall Jalan Sayur, off Jalan Pudu, Pudu. Open daily, from 6pm. El Cerdo 43 & 45 Changkat Bukit Bintang, KL (03 2145 0511/www.elcerdokl.com). Open Sun – Fri, 12noon – 3pm; daily, 6.30pm to late.
Gam Putra Café Briyani 5 Jalan Puchong Lama, Putrajaya (012 676 8237). Open daily, 11am – 12midnight.
May Chixuan 21-1 Jalan PJU 8/5F, Damansara Perdana (012 753 7524). Open daily, 10.30am – 2.30pm, 5 – 10.30pm.
Raja Sup TTDI Located at the food court near Damansara Specialist, Jalan SS20/10 (019 243 2640).
Soong Kee 3 Jalan Tun Tan Siew Sin, KL (03 2078 1484). Open daily, 8am to late.
Sungai Besi wantan mee 190H Jalan 2½ Miles Sungai Besi (03 9222 8177). Open daily, 6pm to late.