SGV: Fishballs at Little Malaysia

 

I have talked for years about my favorite fishballs and those are at Little Malaysia, a small restaurant located in a strip mall in El Monte. I’ve been going there for a couple of decades now and yet have never written about them. I find Malaysian food an interesting mix of Southeast Asian flavors borrowing from Chinese, Indian and other influences.

Little Malaysia has a couple of fishball soups on the menu. I always get the hok chow which has 3 fishballs; which features pork stuffed into large the fishballs. The other soup has five fishballs and I assume are just fishballs. Being a pork lover, I always get the hok chow. It’s a light broth with plenty of greens.

 

If I’m eating in, I also almost always order the nonya pietee, little fried cups filled with shredded jicama. It’s delightful, fresh and very tasty.

 

One of my standards of excellence for Malaysian food is rendang beef. The curry features tender beef short ribs. I’ve had this up and down California and I tend to like it spicier but I enjoy Little Malaysia’s version as well. Maybe one day I’ll try other dishes like Hainanese chicken or their various soup noodles.

 

 

We did get a noodle stir fry. I was eyeing the Singapore noodles (Little Malaysia serves lots other other well-loved South Asian classics) but I let my friend pick out the nooodles. The tai lok mee are tossed in a sauce of dark soy and is topped with fish cake, shrimp and imitation crab. I wasn’t a big fan preferring a drier noodle when I get stir-fried noodles but these are very filling. We had plenty of leftovers to take home.

 

Little Malaysia

3944 Peck Rd., El Monte, CA 91732  — (626) 401-3188

 

© The Minty 2016