Jalan Alor, Ferntree Gully

In Malaysia, Jalan Alor translates to Flow Street. I'm not sure why it's called that, but this street is famous for being a foodie's street because of the number of food stalls and restaurants there. The hustle and bustle on this street escalates to a cacophony of traffic sounds, people's voices and stall owners' cooking sounds at night.

While Jalan Alor restaurant in Ferntree Gully does not have the same busy ambience, it does serve some authentic Malaysian tai chau / zi char (street food). The sar hor fun ($15.50) has plenty of wok hei (breath of the wok), so much so that a quarter of the wok peeled off and was served along with the noodles. I am not joking, there were many bits of black soot in the dish. 

There were perfect pairs of almost everything - a pair of prawns, a couple of fish cake slices, two pieces of calamari, one leaf of bok choy cut in half.. if I were to assemble the little pieces of bbq pork in the dish I would not be surprised if there were exactly two regular slices of bbq pork. There were lots of noodles which were silky smooth with lots of breath of wok and pieces of wok and egg gravy though.

The braised pork knuckle on rice ($15.50) is a new item on their menu, so I ordered to try. I miss the real braised whole pork knuckle from new Centro in Box Hill. They serve a true Cantonese style braised WHOLE pork knuckle with rice for a ridiculously cheap price. I am not sure if they survived Covid, but it was a memorable dish that I crave once in a while. Normally, whole braised pork knuckle is a dish served during festive occasions only because of the work involved. The knuckle has to be deboned but still leaving the meat attached to the skin and braised till tender. 

It was interesting that the weekend specials were not advertised, nor were we informed at the time of order. But when another customer striked up a conversation with the waitress and asked about other dishes on the menu, she offered the information that there were special priced dishes available. It was a total savings of $8 off the regular prices. They are generous with information just as they are with the amount of protein in their dishes.

I think I will stick to the zi char dishes when I dine here like sar hor fun, and char kuey teow, but not for another long while because while I loved the wok hei, I didn't want pieces of wok in my dishes! 

Update 2024: 

Jalan Alor introduced a range of $10 dishes last year and we have been going now and then to try. Although the meals are priced competitively, the portions, amount of protein and flavour are all on par with other restaurants. I found myself wanting to patronise this restaurant more often to offer our support. Despite the reasonably priced meals, the place is usually only half full at best on most days. 

We have tried the lor bak ($10). It is a little mushy inside because of the introduction of white radish as an ingredient. It is not the type of lorbak I am used to, which uses only meat and five spice rolled in beancurd skin.

Nasi lemak with curry chicken ($10) is good value and comes with a whole egg! The peanut and fried anchovies were spot on in taste and flavour. The rice is fluffy and has a nice coconut aroma and taste.

Hainanese chicken rice ($10) has a good amount of silky chicken. It is cooked well because although tender, it is not bloody. The rice has a good chicken stock flavour but a tad mushy.

The other $10 dishes are chee cheong fun, kolo mee, sarawak laksa, pork noodles (also another of our favourite), spring rolls.