Malaysian eatery Old Jim Kee is serving some of the tastiest food at Spice Alley right now. Try the char kway teow. It’s a massive serve of wok-tossed flat rice noodles tossed with slices of earthy, sweet and sour lap cheong sausage; whole, crunchy prawns; sheets of fish cake; crunchy bean sprouts and egg. It’s seriously smoky from the wok and the pork lard it’s cooked in, and is a lesson in umami.
If you want to be properly Malaysian then you’ll need to order a teh tarek on the side. It’s that strong, sweet Malaysian tea that is usually serve piping hot, poured from a height so that it’s ‘stretched’ (it aerates the tea – a little like decanting a wine – bringing out more flavour from the tea itself). Here it’s very strong, but is less sweet than the traditional version, and more bitter to boot. Aside a hulking plate of greasy noodles though, it is just the thing to keep you awake by the end of it.
