I spent my adolescent years at my granny’s house which is smacked right by the side of the famous Cheras food street (wai sek kai) in Taman Muda. The stall that operated right in front of my granny’s house sold pan mee and lunches after school were often spent there (which probably explained the tubbiness that plagued most of my childhood hehe). In my late teens, the auntie who operated the stall closed down her business and since, I couldn’t find any pan mee that tasted quite like hers.
In recent years, a different kind of pan mee emerged and seemed to have taken a firm place in Klang Valley – the kind that’s served dry and eaten with generous amount of the condiment made of dried chillies. I never really took a liking to it and hence, my consumption of pan mee dwindled from moderate to almost zero.
Till I discovered this restaurant called Cha Cha Original Pan Mee near where my BF works. It took him a while to convince me to eat there as I was pretty sure a nice looking establishment such as Cha Cha would serve the kind of pan mee that I’ve been avoiding all these times.
# – Restoran Cha Cha Pan Mee Original.
I was relieved to see the picture of the pan mee on their menu. They indeed serve the original kind of pan mee, wheat noodles in clear soup with generous amount of minced pork, sliced mushroom and the distinctive vegetable, sweet leaf (cekur manis).
# – The menu.
I didn’t feel much like soup though, so I ordered the dry version with torn noodles instead of the flat/thin type. The soup came separately with deep fried tofu skins and one perfectly poached egg.
# – Dry pan mee.
The portion was generous and well worth the money paid. As for the taste? It was excellent! The noodles were silky smooth and the mushroom/minced pork sauce was flavourful and delicious. I really liked that the deep fried anchovies were served separately as well. The soup was naturally sweet, flavoured by sweet leaf and with no hints of any heavy handed MSG usage.
But best of all, they serve the kind of belacan chilli sauce that I’ve been missing since the stall in front of my granny’s closed down. The kind that was made with just lime juice, plenty of chillies and shrimp paste.
# – Perfectly deep fried anchovies that are crunchy, not hard and the simple belacan chilli sauce that I love!
As for the perfectly poached egg, runny egg lovers please brace yourself:
# – Just the sight of the yolk makes me want to cry.
# – And perfection unveiled… OMG hungry!
For those who like their dried chillies, Cha Cha of course serves it too.
# – If this rocks your boat, they’ve got it too.
Sorry for being too preoccupied with my little bowl of heaven that I’ve totally forgotten about the pan mee that my BF ordered. He had seafood curry pan mee which came in a bowl of creamy curry and abundant amount of clams and miscellaneous sea produce. It was quite nice really but I was totally bowled (OMG I punned!) over by my dry pan mee, hehe.
# – Seafood curry Pan Mee.
Last but not least, I discovered the one item that signified the beginning of a loyal relationship with Cha Cha Pan Mee Original.
# – The unassuming deep fried pork lard.
The bill for two including soft drinks came to less than RM20. One of my most satisfying lunches to date :)
Restoran Cha-Cha Pan Mee Original
K-G-1 & K-G-3, Jalan PJU 1/43
Aman Suria
47301 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 016-660 0971