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Sunday 14 March 2010

Fish Head Curry @Bangsar

Bangsar? Yes! Bangsar! It is just too addictive that I have to included it here. Just to clarify, our blog handles the travels, including the food found in KL/PJ, as work takes me to KL/PJ all the time. This entry is special, been putting if off for some time now, it is just too addictive to leave out. A must try!


Everyone knows the famous TMC Supermarket in Lucky Gardens, Bangsar and just behind it is a row of aged stalls featuring various types of food. One stands out - the nameless fish head curry stall - right at the end. You can't miss it, it is always packed and during peak, people are queuing up to be served. The multi-lingual bald headed owner I suspect was a stand up comedian in his previous life, listening to him communicate with his workers is like watching a Tamil comedy on TV. He is a comic and he keeps you entertained - its part and parcel of the deal here.

The food is nothing special, really. Fish Head Curry, cooked in huge pots with some ladies finger thrown in, not over done - just right. If you want vegetables, there is some simple boiled taugeh. Just queue up and serve yourself.
The basics here - rice with some fish curry. Then your choice comes: fried fish (small. normally when I don't take a fish head, this is my alternative), fried chicken, fried squid/sotong or if you have 2 or more in your group, you can choose to take a fish head. It comes in various sizes and a verity of fishes.

Since there was 2 other partners in crime this afternoon, decided to take a big fish head (it looked like Ikan Merah). As you can see here, it is just 'plonked' into the plate and served - no dressing up - crude raw stuff. Mind you, we were seated at a make-shift area by the road side, under the trees, placed with movable tables and chairs. The lucky ones were under the DBKL built stall, congested and hot, but no body complains.

Next up, fried chicken! Well marinated and just scooped out of the frying pan - its a must have, to go along with the curry. They keep frying and dishing it out, you can't resist. It has a nice home made taste to it. Very tasty.

Same goes for the fried squid/sotong - big ones, deep fried and served just out of the frying pan. Delicious! It is nice and crunchy (fresh) and goes well with the fish curry. Normally nice big ones, but today it was a bit smaller.

Now put the fish head curry, the chunks of rightly cooked flesh you scoop out of the head, the ladies fingers, the sotong and the fried chicken together, topped up with a dash of taugeh, it makes a perfect mouth watering lunch. I notice everyone stopped talking once food was served, busy eating.

We were seated on the road shoulder behind the stall and observing the people coming here (over the last few months, on previous visits), it ranges from the guy with a Porsche to the foreign workers from TMC. You can get a meal as cheap as RM3.50 or a lavish big fish head curry feast plus all the extras and 2 drinks each for RM60 (RM20 per person) - which in my books is very affordable.

Surgeon General Warning: Let me warn you about the addiction. I first tried this fish head curry about 6 months ago, soon after introduced it to a friend of mine, then another. All of us has since confessed, we get sudden unexplainable urge to drive up to Lucky Garden to have this fish head curry, sometimes eating alone. Why? I suspect some serious addiction to this fish head curry! Don't ask me what they put in the curry, I suspect it is something I can't write here about. We now have a regular once-a-month, Saturday afternoon outing to Bangsar to savour this fish head curry. It is one of a kind.
I'll say its similar to the once-upon-a-time Sentul Fish Head Curry and Hotel Istana's Fish Head Curry - which is just history today. So, rush out to Bangsar, before this becomes history. You won't regret it. Be prepared to queue up and sweat it out, during peak hours. Food is Halal, I term it as Malay-Indian type cooking and it is a typical ALL MALAYSIAN stall - all races. This is the real 1Malaysia Food!

5 comments:

  1. After hearing our episode at Bangsar, Puru of Ravi's corner has offered to cook us a storm - fish head curry, but he insist it must be a Jenahak fish head and his wife is going to cook it up for us. I am anxious to see how this turns out - who knows, maybe Kajang is ready for a fish head curry player!?

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  2. have you tried the one at Kampung Attap? that
    s good too!

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  3. Next on my list......I shall report back.

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  4. I used to work at the Kg Attap area about 15 years ago and the fish head curry place was there since that time. It was good, but not as good as the old Stadium fish head curry, which was our choice when we had the urge for fish head. The other choice was to 'ta pau' from a stall outside the Peking Hotel (not the famous Matthai stall which was inside the shop). They did not have fish head but their fish curry was great.

    Not sure if the Kg Attap place has improved but I see lots of cars parked by the road side when I pass during lunch time.

    Jon

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  5. Surprise surprise. I was listening to BFM yesterday and they had a list of the top 5 places for fish head curry in Klang Valley as voted by Friedchillies.com. None of the usual suspects like the Sentul Fish Head curry or Seri Gombak Fish Head Curry were even mentioned. The Kg Attap place come in at No 2 but the biggest surprise was that this place came in at No 1. So you got this spot-on. OK now I have to try it. Maybe ta'pau on Sunday ? :-)

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