Try something new in Pudu: Rice wine buns, handmade dim sum and more

Wong Siew Ming has chalked up many years making dim sum in his career with various hotels and restaurants. — Pictures by Miera ZulyanaKUALA LUMPUR, April 15 — What an interesting idea. Put the classic Hakka rice wine chicken in a bun. That’s what Wong Siew Ming did.

The 62-year-old has worked as a dim sum chef in the city’s top Chinese restaurants at Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the Oriental Group, Palace of the Golden Horses and even the grande dame, Tai Thong.

Break open these soft, fluffy buns to discover the unusual, tasty rice wine chicken filling.The stall also serves light, crunchy yam puffs filled with chicken (left). The lor mai kai served here has an old school taste with the use of lard coating the glutinous rice grains (right).After his retirement, he became a dim sum consultant and even a lecturer at a cooking association. In January this year, he opened his own stall in ICC Pudu. Here, he brings back the old taste of dim sum, where everything is handmade, preservative-free and made fresh daily.

These one-of-the-kind buns are his bestsellers. Devised by him, each soft, pillow-like bun has a mildly aromatic diced chicken filling with crunchy wood ear fungus and young ginger strips. Be careful. Before you know it, you may finish a whole tray of buns!

Occasionally, they make siu mai at the stall when there’s time.

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Do not pass over his lau sar pau though. Break open the orange bun for an oozing, creamy filling of salted egg yolk custard. I totally dig that decadent filling with its savoury notes rather than sweet, thanks to the salted egg yolks.

Wong tells us that it took a couple of tweaks to adjust its sweetness to suit his customers’ tastebuds. We reckon he has nailed it.