Yunnan Kitchen Kepong: Unpretentious Yunnan Comfort Food

A Thoroughly Satisfying Bowl of Noodles!

I am a food wonderer! I wonder around looking for new things to eat all the time. With the recent long weekend, I was hunting around Kepong for some handmade ‘La Mian’ when I spied Yunnan Kitchen Kepong. Curious, I stopped to check out the menu and saw that they have noodles and several dishes plastered on their walls.

A no frill café featuring basic table and chairs with simple décor of the house dishes on their wall, the café was also open air with lots of fans providing the much needed air and coolness in the café.

I thought it was a new café but surprisingly the menu is quite worn out. There are quite a few dishes that had also been removed. My family and I quickly asked for recommendation and despite the language accent, we decided on simple fare of noodles and some small dishes to nibble.

As this is a Yunnan cuisine café, we ordered a Yunnan Pork Noodle (RM5). We ordered the dry version although we initially spied the soup version. No regrets as the noodles were fabulous!!! We were told the noodles are Yunnan ‘Meen Sin’ but we notice it’s thicker than our Malaysian ‘Meen Sin’. The noodles were cooked al dente and have a great QQ bite. What made the whole dish heavenly was the minced pork cooked with a hint of spice and bits of golden fried garlic! Mix this around and the noodles were simply comfort food at its best. A must-have and I already vow to return just for this noodle alone!!

The nagging sense of craving for some heat had me ordering Fried Meat with Spicy Chili (RM10). Expectation of ferocious heat somewhat subsided when I saw the dish. Simply some pork pieces stir fried with leeks and garlic, there was only a gently hint of heat to the dish.

Although not to my expectation, the dish tasted decent and quite aromatic. No faults as I had the wrong impression of the dish in the first place…  J

Never fear in cases of heat, asked for this Yunnan Dried Chili! Now this is what I call spicy… hehehe… or rather it’s almost lethal on the level of spiciness. After this discovery, I loaded the chili into almost everything we ordered… spicy craving satiated!

I also seemed to be craving for anything cooked with salted egg yolk so Pumpkin Fried with Egg Yolk (RM10) was a no-brainer. The dish looked very ordinary with big chunks of pumpkins coated in an orange sheen. What surprises me was how truly sinful it tasted in flavors! Super crunchy and ultra creamy soft and sweet pumpkin were lovingly flavored with the rich savory salted egg yolk. Despite it being big, the pumpkin flavors were spot on! Another essential order here.

I also did another boo boo and thought that my order or Spicy Sour Soup (RM10) was similar to the Szechuan sweet and sour soup. When it came, we were both curious as the soup looked nothing like what we order. When questioned, the server shrugged and said it is sour to us with a smile. Oh well, we tried the soup and found it quite good. It does have a hint of sourness and a very light spiciness to it while the small pieces of chicken contributed the essence to the soup. I detected onions, coriander roots, ginger slices and a dark-looking UFO item in the soup. The dark looking pieces is actually dried papaya according to the server and is apparently a very good source of health values especially for women! J

Being the ravenous foodies we are, we added on a Shao Hsing Yee Mee (RM5) towards the end of our meal. The noodles are quite basic with the regular egg yee mee cooked in a broth laced with Shao Hsing wine and topped with a soft egg. Nothing to shout about… skip this!

Overall, the café had some really awesome dishes that are worth a visit. The must-haves certainly outdo the don’ts so do check this out when you happen to be around the area in Kepong near the Carrefour hypermarket. Price wise is fairly reasonable against its portion. Total billed equaled RM48 with drinks and two bowls of rice in addition to the order.

My family and I agreed that we will be heading back to this café soon for that Scrumptious Yunnan Pork Noodle soon!!!

Yunnan Kitchen Kepong

20, Jalan Metro Perdana Timur 2,

Taman Usahawan

52100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 014 323 6331 / 03 6250 8288