Cottage Hakka Noodles

the Hakkas do it better

Most of the eateries that I have ever reviewed or recommended in this blog have been places that were recommended to me. But here's a place that Mae and I found on our very own. :) The few times we had passed by the place at night, we had found it a little too quiet. Almost too quiet to be serving up anything great anyway. How wrong we were!

Cottage Noodles Cafe sits in a quiet location along Jalan SS22/25 in Damansara Jaya. That's the road around Atria Shopping Centre, just around the corner from Domino's Pizza. Here, they serve one of the loveliest Hakka Noodles I have ever tasted. The signature dish here is a konlo (dry, non-soupy) noodle. It is a springy handmade Hakka noodle tossed in a generous helping of mince pork gravy served with crisp, thick beans sprouts and garnished with spring onions in a delectable concoction that will have you begging for more. The secret of this dish is definitely in the restaurant's special mince pork sauce. Sauteed in some aromatic secret ingredient, the sauce is the perfect accompaniment to Cottage's excellent handmade noodles. This simple, unpretentious yet superbly delicious dish is what makes us return time and time again.



The place also serves up a killer curry noodles. Now while curry noodles aren't exactly unique, Cottage Noodles Cafe makes up for it with a thick curry broth over it's very own flat-type, fettucini-like Hakka noodle. Side dishes include a good assortment of Yong Tow Foo. Mae and I always order the shop's Deep Fried Sui Kow - a meat, shrimp and chives dumpling that they fry to golden brown perfection. And believe me when I say this goes perfectly with the curry noodles.

We were here over the weekend. This time around, we noticed some additional items in the menu; namely the Stewed Duck/Lotus Tuber with Hakka Noodles; Stewed Mushrooms and Chicken Feet in Hakka Noodles; and finally, Stewed Swine Leg in Hakka Noodles. This would fall under the establishment's premium dishes, retailing at RM9 a pop. Otherwise, the food here is pretty affordable going for RM3.50 for the Hakka Noodles and RM5.00 for the Curry Noodles. We'll probably get around to these new dishes when we've had enough of our regular fix of Hakka Noodles. That could take awhile.

Finally, one of the best testament of the quality of the food in a restaurant is when the proprietor sits down to a hearty meal of his own stuff. On our way out we were pleasantly surprised to find Cottage Noodle Cafe's head honcho, Phillip, pigging at his Stewed Duck. I snapped a shot of him and explained that I would be blogging about it. So if you head on over to Cottage, don't forget to look up Phillip and get him to give you a discount - or maybe a couple of Deep Fried Sui Kows on the house. Hehehh!

Here's a little trivia for you. The Hakkas are a bunch of people originally from Northern China. While I can't say that I know very much about them I have heard that Hakka women are a fierce and fiesty lot, known to beat up their husband at the slightest whim. Hahahaha! Maybe that's why their noodles pack a punch! I have heard people say that you should never marry a Hakka woman, unless you have a deathwish. But what do I know? I'm a Hainanese. Our people are supposed to be crazy. Oh well. :)