Monday, November 16, 2009

Hutong Food Court @ Lower Ground Floor, Lot 10, Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur


Mo Sang Kor's bak kut teh

Pavilion may have first started the luxe version of food courts but snapping on their heels is the newly opened Hutong @ Lot 10. Part of their revamp exercise, the new food court has an arty look to it and will appeal to pork lovers, as it serves non halal food rarely seen in the halls of a food court - bak kut teh, lard laden Singapore Hokkien mee and our very own black lard-rich Hokkien mee.

digging deep into the bowl for my bak kut teh, see how worn that pot is

Touted as a food court that brings in well known hawkers with at least three generations, you'll find these older well known names mixed within more modern names to make up the 27 stalls here.

the crowd, seremban siu bao with curry!, chicken from Ipoh chicken rice

KL-lites will be familiar with names like Hon Kee porridge from Cecil Street, Hokkien mee from Kim Lian Kee, popiah from Campbell (stall is located @ the back of Yut Kee and fronts the small lane that sells KL-style char kuey teow, mee rebus and etc), lam mee from Lameeya (said to originate from PJ but honestly I've not heard abt them), char siu wantan noodles from Ho Weng Kee in PJ, beef noodles from Soong Kee, bak kut teh from Mo Sang Kor in Pandamaran, Ipoh chicken rice from Gasing, PJ and Mr. Siew Bao that is said to be from Seremban Siew Bao. Singaporeans will be happy to also discover Kong Tai, that reminds one of Thye Hong in Pavilion except here they don't serve their wetter Singapore Hokkien noodles with an opei leaf.

o chien from Kong Tai

They're mixed with others like Luk Yu Teahouse, Kluang Station, Thai Corner, P'tit Bouchon (that serves wine by the glass), Cheeky Doe, Berrylicious, Star Duck, Western Foodtrend, Georgetown that serves Penang styled food, yau char kuai and tau fu far from the I Love Yoo! people, italian food from Pomodoro, western food, Taiwanese food from Taiwan Recipe and etc. While the non-heritage Chinese stalls may not appeal to locals, they offer a variety to others especially children who often clamour for the Western styled foods.

lard-land @ Kong Tai, loads of oil goes into the o chien, wat shall I eat???

Just opened since November 10, the food court still has its hiccups (best you come early in the day as food tends to run out very quickly). I guess they're still trying to cope with the overwhelming response. Most of the stalls actually cook their food off site in central kitchens and bring it over hence this matching of supply with the huge demand issue.

fluffy mah kiok

Getting here late in the evening meant we had very slim pickings - the remnants of the pot from Mo Sang Kor bak kut teh (see how they're tilting the pot to get the remaining soup) and o chien cooked on the spot @ Kong Tai. Incidentally, Kong Tai was quite packed with people since they were still frying up noodles. Their version of Hokkien noodles is different from Thye Hong over at Pavilion - they use a softer thin noodle mixed with thin yellow noodles mixed in with fried lard pieces. It takes some time to get used to the texture of the noodles, as it is wetter and of course, pale as a Brit vs the blackened versions we are more used to. It is interesting to see that the Singapore version uses dried sole powder and lard, just like the Malaysian version.

smooth tau fu far

Tau fu fah and mah kiok (my favourite sprinkled with sesame seeds for a sweet and salty taste) was good. Loved the smooth taste of the beancurd but felt the mah kiok was average tasting (would have of course preferred the super fresh fried on the spot one from Jalan Bukit Bintang/Jalan Alor). Bak kut teh from Mo Sang Kor was very different - not much herb taste but a deep brown almost black colour that tasted good from the gelatinous parts of the pig being boiled together. Not cheap though - my bowl of pork knuckle was RM12 with rice and tea. While it was quite a big portion, most of it was bones and skin but then it was hard to gauge since I was just getting the scraps from the pot.

clear chairs, everything is labeled with hutong, love the sign of each stall (the Kong Tai one looks exactly like the owner who sports a hat and a bright flowered shirt everytime), Ho Weng Kee is definitely here

The poached chicken from Ipoh Chicken rice was average - nice and firm texture (not the soggy type that resembles antibiotic laden chooks). My last visit here, I had the Hon Kee porridge that was good - smooth and laden with sinful goodies like fried intestines and chee chap. Yums!

If you're planning to visit here, try and come early to get everything. If you're the kind who can wait, then give this place time to get it running on full steam ahead as it is still very much in the early days. Saw a number of tourists walking around the place looking a little lost (one even came with their full set of luggage!), hence I guess some pointers on the heritage significance for each stall should be explained, since they're clueless on what kind of food they serve. Alternatively, I guess tourists can be given a wider berth and be taken around by concierges that will explain to them the different food. If not, brochures will also help if bodies are too expensive to hire. Some warning signage on the place is also needed as some foreigners may be seeking for halal food. For more, see Eat Drink KL's blog post.

Lot 10 Hutong
Lower Ground Floor
Lot 10
Jalan Bukit Bintang

(Non Halal)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. This review is time sensitive; changes may occur to the place later on that can affect this opinion. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from this place for writing the review.

Tagged with:
+

21 comments:

UnkaLeong said...

I am so going there for lunch this Wednesday when I head down to SWP for work. Best let my colleagues know that Lot 10 is upping their game ;)

Unknown said...

I went yesterday for lunch... I ate so many different things... my insides must have been glowing a toxic fluorescent green. I love it tho... definitely going back.

Sean said...

ooh, u managed to get the bak kut teh! the lady was cleaning up the stall and leaving when we arrived!
didn't know the popiah is originally from near campbell. that's just 5 mins walk from the office where i've been working for the last 10 years! :D

Rebecca Saw said...

Wahh... a food court w pork! Yea to YTL!

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

so its opened? i thought u guys were twittering abt how its opened much later, time flies by so quick.

dad was saying we shud go n i even rebutted n say no la, nt open yet la..haha

looks like im wrong

Bangsar-bAbE said...

RM12 for bones and skin?? That's pricey! Was the oh chien good?

Unknown said...

wowzers even more thoroughly covered than sean's .. great job boo.. lots of info:)

boo_licious said...

unkaleong - high time they did something abt it. Think Lot 10 has been languishing there. Nxt one to look out for is KL Plaza, since they're also renovating.

Frat - LOL, doctor will be blinded if he looks at yr tummy. The variety is good but I was a little chuffed since both times I went, yielded such little choices for me.

Sean - yup, it's that stall near Yut Kee. They put chopped longbeans in their popiah. BKT was like going going gone, literally scrapping the bottom.

nomadgourmand - makes a change from the sterile food courts we usually get.

Joe - I thot it wasn't opened, hence I was confused also but since I was in Lot 10 ysterday for Rhythmic Roots, I popped downstairs and visited it.

Bsar babe - bit hard to judge and criticise since it was technically the remnants of the pot. I only had a bit of oh chien, my piece was ok only but not awesome.

agentcikay - am sure more reviews will slowly cover more and more. Lots to explore since so much variety.

email2me said...

Aiks .... you were at the launching ceremony? Then you got met the Chai Lan uncle? He was the one invited to open the food court.

thule a.k.a leo said...

fuuwahhh!!! You and Sean have already come here and I have just read about it last week in The Star!!!
This is the exact place that I can bring my baby to whenever I want to eat hawker-style food in air-cond environment next tine :)

Tummythoz said...

A public food court serving porky dishes, now that's 1Malaysia!

J2Kfm said...

yeah still rmbr in the article when he mentioned bout this popiah stall, since his childhood days or something.
though i've never heard of it myself.
the or chien and BKT should be good bets, the latter being the thicker, more authentic Klang favourites. but me favour the Teluk Pulai's claypot version, i'm sure you do too. :)

Ellen Whyte said...

Ooooh yum! I'll tell my friend Sue who works in Starhill. She loves pork!

Chaokar said...

I makes a great deal of difference ay, with this foodcourt.

I love it, just a good stroll around the stall is such an eye pleasing sight ! Hehe.

Love the porky concept, but dont really like the wierd geometric maze setup.

Thumbs up.

minchow said...

Hmmm wonder what ticked them off to go non-halal? It's a ridiculously novel idea, no? KL mall dishing up pork? I'm not complaining and I think it'll spark off some interesting debates. And set all the malls in KL scrambling to provide an alternate blueprint for food court fare.

boo_licious said...

email2me - u're a fan of his? Went for this last Sunday as I was around the area.

Leo - hmmm, good for babies since not as hot and dirty as other places.

tummythoz - don't think they're the first as I remember long ago they always went non halal, just that they now blare it across the papers.

j2kfm - yes, I do favour the more aromatic Teluk Pulai ones hence this one was so so for me.

Chaokar - yeah, the colours kinda glaze yr eyes all over after a while! Imagine if u're a tourist, foreign to all this food, it'll be even more super confusing.

550ml - I suspect it's based on Chai Lam, the HK food critic's successful Whampoa food court in HK. They also gathered all the famous stalls in one place, hence it became a tourist spot. See Precious Pea's food blog as she did cover quite a few outlets there in her HK trip.

WeeFishy said...

Went there today for lunch and was totally impressed. One thing that can be confusing for people who are not familiar with the hawkers and what they serve is that some of the menu's are not prominently displayed or explained.

BTW, love your review of the place.

Russell said...

"Singapore Hokkien mee"

Friend....Hokkien Mee is invented by Malaysian Hokkien people....not Singapore.....Everything also Singapore......Hainaness Chicken Rice has already been made as their famous cruisine....now you want them to take our Hokkien Mee also..............becareful with your words....

Julian Si said...

Droooooooooool ... I so wanna visit, but this recent trip back was "slightly busy" :-)

Thanks for the reminder why I miss KL so much!!

ps - I used to live in Berkeley / Taman Kenari, Klang, where the famous BKT here originates from , ah ... the shop has certainly grown up :-)

Unknown said...

wow, nice place to makan right? I have try some of the food there, all very nice but the Mo sang kor's bak kut teh very expensive la, But is it nice?

jade said...

This blog is so nice to me. I will keep on coming here again and again. Visit my link as well..
Los Angeles Catering

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...