A stone's throw away from my uncle's house, one of Petaling Jaya's popular eating destination is O&S restaurant. King of the coffee shops, all of the best Malaysian food is available at this hawker lot. It's a loud, noisy and busy place, hot and crowded, you'll find yourself squishing past people, boiling vats of water and naked wok flames in order to grab a plastic chair and table. On Sunday mornings especially, be prepared to camp beside tables and wait for seats to come available. On that note I think it's important to remind you that just as you sat waiting for spots, others will do the same - maybe scare them off with some serious slurping?
Barely any of the foods are priced over 4.50RM ($1.60) per bowl and drinks come to about 2RM. Food takes no longer than three minutes to arrive at your table (the very definition of fast food) and each stall has a set colour of cutlery. If you've ordered from the yong tau fu stall you'll get a green plate and chopsticks. Ordered from the beef noodle stall? Blue for you! When ordering pu er tea, don't forget to rinse the cups and utensils in a separate bowl. If you find yourself regularly visiting O&S, the drink staff will remember your order from the previous days and will serve it to you almost immediately.
O&S is large and you can see them preparing the food right in front of you. The locals know the owners of each stall, as most stalls are passed down through the family. The char kway teow recipe has stayed the same for years - they're the same smooth and delicious noodles, paired with chilli, belachan, bean sprouts, egg, chives and flat rice noodles. Wok hei (breath of the wok) is strong and the dish itself is so good that I don't even mind eating the cockles. It's one of my favourites and I actually find it quite hard to order anything else for breakfast or lunch.
However, I do tear myself away from the kway teow every now and then. The assam laksa stall is famous for its curry mee and the waiting time is about fifteen to twenty minutes. If you're ridiculous you can also order Western food from the stall but why would you when you could choose from popiah, hokkien mee, kaya toast, penang goreng, bbq pork buns as big as your hand... the list goes on. Don't forget to bring a packet of tissues - what else are you going to wipe that glorious prawn soup laksa off your chin with?
No. 39, Jalan 20/14
Paramount Garden
463000 Petaling Jaya
Selangor