Chu Char At Batu Lanchang Market (Greenlane)

For those living in Greenlane, Batu Lanchang is certainly a food paradise. While it is a housing estate, it's also home to a wet market, food court and a small shopping complex to serve the needs of the local residence. Since the wet market only starts in the afternoon, the food court only comes to live after 2pm. The food court offers a wide range of hawker food ,economy rice and tit bits so there are plenty of variety to choose from. The pasembur, nasi kandar and mee goreng are notably some of the hawker food that are recommended here. As evening sets and the activities of the hawker stalls wind down, one portion of the food court is transformed to a chu char place. While the food is good by most standards, most people aren't aware of this place.

We normally come here every Thursdays for dinner and usually in a big group. That's when all the relatives meet to catch up with the latest news. While I like the food here, I don't find this place comfortable at all mainly the fact that there's almost always 16 of us. Imagine cramping into 2 small tables like that because they like to 'lau juak'. It's not even shoulder to shoulder as I normally have to tilt my body to the side when I'm eating. I always joke to my wife that if there is record for the most people cramped in a specific sized table, we are probably the record holders. Does that mean we are entitled to a RM 1 million prize money and a pension of RM 5 k per month like Lee Chong Wei? Sadly, no.

Since there are always so many of us, we normally try to appease everyone by ordering their favourite dishes. The chicken fried in coffee is a must! All my wife's nieces and nephews love this and besides, chicken is the only thing they eat.

My FIL (father-in-law) loves anything with bean curd so we are oblige to order something with tofu. Ergo the stir fried bean curd with pork and prawns is now a regular item in the order.

The steamed egg in soy sauce is delicate, soft and tasteful and has won the votes from everyone. The same goes for the sweet and sour pork which unfortunately tends to come in smaller portions.

The stir fried long beans with shrimps and pork in thick black sauce made it to the standard ordering list too. So did the kachang botol in sambal with prawns. Both dishes are rather nice with the vegetables fresh and crunchy.

While prices here are quite standard for chu char, the portion of each dish has reduced to some extent due to higher cost of goods. Nontheless, for those with a curious mind (and stomach), the chu char is certainly worth trying.