A time capsuled flavor from the past

Dude, am I at the wrong place to write this? Not exactly, I've been assigned to service clients in Banting area since 10 years ago, a place located at the southern of Selangor, which is very near to KLIA our international airport.

It used to be a long journey to get there from Kuala Lumpur due to the fact of it's remote location, and there is too much heavy transport vehicle hogging on a small country route, getting in and out of that area for leisure purpose usually stick to none. However, with the latest SKVE toll road, it's blessing to connect with this place. Note that the speed limit is only 90kph, so don't go over excited and get yourself some trouble.

At the city center of Banting, there's a side road opposite of the banking area. When you find this kind of remote route very close to the city center with a dodgy end, it usually means there's some treasure there. 10 years ago, I found this shop by the name of Jipun Char Kuey Teow. Jipun is a Romanized Chinese word for Japan. Char Kuey Teow is Romanized Chinese word for fried noodle. So, this is one significant fried noodle shop in Banting.

The shop is very simple and the environment does not make you "think" they're clean, but trust me they're not dirty. The wall looks yellowish they can't do anything about it because the cooking oil makes the entire shop become very sticky. But hey, it will be even more worrying if they paint the shop to black color and nobody will ever noticed how much grease were stuck on the wall anymore. Kitchen area were located right infront of the shop, reason for this opposite setup is to avoid cooking smell goes into the dining area. Brilliant for the customers who dine in? Bad for the customer's vehicle which parked infront of the shop. Regular customers would drive to the back lane, had their cars parked there and walk in from the backdoor yo!

This is their signature dish, fried flat noodle with cockles! I will come back to the food tasting part later, but now I wanted to cover the part how this Chinese fried noodle become Japan fried noodle? There's some rumour about the owner has been there cooking since world war 2, and the Japanese soldiers like it here and therefore named this place after Japan Fried Noodle. I beg to differ, as far as I know during WW2 every locals being tortured, executed. I don't see how the business owner able to continue operate a fried noodle stall here. I got myself a first hand story directly from the current owners(which co-owned by a pair of siblings right now). Apparently, Japan is referring to the current owners' father, for some reasons they think he looks like a Japanese with his unique feature. So, they have always been referring him as Japanese Guy, and then it was decided to name the shop as Jipun Char Kuey Teow.

If you're expecting something like Penang style fried noodle, you will not get what you want. It's a wet fried style, where the egg will be added at the final moment before the dish is ready. Cockles are half cooked, so the juice doesn't evaporate. You're allowed to eat with fork and spoon here, because this is a cross cultural place. Once again, it's a unique fried noodle style, do not expect it to be like any other style you've tried at any other place in Malaysia. Embrace it. This recipe was here even before the Jipun master was born. It was originally from the grandfather of the current owner, been passing down to the 3rd generation. The recipe is, no recipe. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, fry this for x amount of time, turn the pan this side, flip the switch over there, a little bit of water, a little bit of that again. Turn down the fire, add this, shake the pan, fold the egg, turn up the fire again, and done! Wow! This is what makes it unique, because there's no way anyone would ever able to steal their recipe unless the owner pass it over. The elder brother whom inherited the recipe is put in charge of frying noodle, and the younger brother you will never able to see him fry noodle for you, other than frying egg and preparing drinks. I knew the brothers already exchange secret, the younger brother can cook too, but you just don't feel the "originality" if not the elder brother cook for you.

The view from the shop, looking out is marvelous. It's a cross junction of an old school commercial area. right at the middle of this shot was a building used to be a cinema, and later converted to electrical house hold product showroom. And finally, it was abandoned for more than 10 years. There are still shops operating around these area doing traditional business. Note that there's a plant on the right side of the photograph, that looks a lot like the old Chinese comic illustration eh? LOL

Once again, the place is very quiet and I like the serene feel of this place. There is this "tall" building among the low houses, that was the County Electric Department building. Obviously, not anymore.

Not forgetting to mention the drinks prepared by the younger brother is barley drink, which was boiled for hours. It's very thick and lightly sweetened, goes down really with the heaty fried noodle.

Was it worth the trouble go all the way there for a plate of fried noodle? No I don't think so. But the toll road is there, and Banting is very near to Morib beach. On an occasion if you decided to have a short get away with family, you know where to find a good plate of fried noodle. Not from Japan, but the recipe is as old as world war two.

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Restaurant Information

Jipun Char Kuey Teow

112, Jalan Bandaran, Taman Delima, 42700 Banting, Selangor, Malaysia

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A time capsuled flavor from the past
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