Three enterprising individuals have put together a noodle-centric eatery that shines a spotlight on Malaysian Chinese flavours. — Photos: ABIRAMI DURAI/The Star
Perched at the end of a row of shop lots in the impossible-to-find-parking area of Sea Park in Petaling Jaya is Fifty Tales.
The eatery is over four years old but in those four years, it has become something of a cult hit, carving out a niche in the market for handmade noodles paired with uniquely Malaysian Chinese nuances.
The restaurant is the brainchild of Aaron Phua who had long hankered after the familiar springiness of the noodles he remembered eating on trips to Hong Kong. Phua initially opened Fifty Tales in 2020 with his entire family as well as business partner Bimmy Soh.
In 2021, talented chef Aaron Khor joined Fifty Tales and the triumvirate moved its premises to its current location. Khor now helms the kitchen while Phua leads the beverage team; Soh handles the operations and management of the restaurant.
So what was the impetus for opening a noodle-based restaurant with a Malaysian Chinese narrative? After all, the Klang Valley is pock-marked with noodle stalls aplenty. Is there really a need for one more? Can it be any different?
Well, the honest truth is – it can and it is. And as the restaurant’s steady fan base has proven, there is a need for a restaurant like theirs.
“There are noodle dishes in kopitiams and in high-end restaurants and all those other Chinese restaurants that are known for Chinese banquet-style cooking. There are restaurants that are in the lower range and those in the higher range, but few in the mid-range market.
“The other thing that inspired us to be more focused on noodles is because there is an influx of Japanese ramen shops. And a lot of Malaysians love Japanese food because it’s food we can relate to. But (then we asked ourselves) ‘Why is there no Malaysian restaurant that focuses on noodles as a craft medium?’
“That’s why we felt it was a market gap for us to enter, to really push on and say ‘Okay, we want to give value to this’. I think it’s also important to give credit to our own local cuisine,” says the impassioned Khor.
(Clockwise from left) Soh, Phua and Khor make up the core team behind Fifty Tales, which is charging a new path for craft noodles with a Malaysian Chinese soul. — Fifty Tales
For Phua, part of the reason for opening Fifty Tales was the fact that he grew up with simple home-made meals that he felt were gradually being faded out of the local culinary tapestry. It was this hunger for a taste of nostalgia that drove the birth of the Malaysian Chinese flavours that the eatery has become so acclaimed for.
“It started off just because I love to eat noodles that are a bit more springy. And I felt that Malaysians are always eating very soft noodles.
“On the other hand, people love pastas here. And they like the noodles al dente. So I thought it would be nice to make the noodles the way I like them, and also to start a space as a way to preserve certain traditions or flavours I had when I was young that are harder to find now. Things that are as simple as noodles with pork lard and soy sauce,” says Phua
At Fifty Tales, noodles are the superstars of the show and Phua and Khor have perfected their recipe down to a fine art. The noodles are made using egg yolks and egg whites and without alkaline. Dubbed Ren Li Mian, which means “human strength”, the making of these springy long strands requires a lot of kneading and physical labour – hence its baptism-of-fire name.
An Asian taken on pesto, the Emerald Green is a green wonder with plenty of heart and soul.
A meal at Fifty Tales is wildly different depending on whether you’re here for lunch or dinner. Lunch features a series of a la carte single noodle dish options while the Cincai dinner, which Khor introduced, offers a range of dishes designed for sharing.
I was here for lunch and got to try some of the eatery’s stand-out noodle offerings. Like the OG Style Noodles with Beer Braised Pork Belly (RM26). Here, you’ll get to taste the noodles in all its unadorned glory – truly epitomising the appreciation for “natural beauty”.
The noodles are divine, silken and slurp-worthy with a bounce and spring in its step and a firm quality in its bite. This is basically the sort of noodles that will spring up (see what we did there?) in the gustatory edition of your dreams night after night.
The other cast members in this dish also work hard to gain your affections and are slow charmers that end up winning hard-fought smiles and oohs and aahs of pleasure – from the crackle and hedonism of the pork lard to the acerbic quality of the pickled cucumbers and the jammy eggs drenched in Shaoxing wine to the scene-stealing pork belly, which offers rich porcine overtures and a gentle alcoholic underbelly.
Khor’s Nyonya laksa is spectacularly good and makes for the best sort of comfort food. — Photos: ABIRAMI DURAI/The Star
Next, try the 50 Tales Nyonya Laksa with Poached Chicken Slices (RM26). This is Khor’s family recipe that has been tweaked and given new life, courtesy of the vegetable trimmings which are used to reduce wastage and flavour the thick broth.
Here, the rich coconut gravy that pools around the bowl is aromatic and flavourful and packed with a slightly fiery tropical overcoat. It is also deeply nostalgic and evocative of the best kinds of home-cooked comfort foods.
Try the Emerald Dragon with Beer Braised Pork Belly (RM26) too, which is essentially an Asian version of pesto. Here, spring onions and garlic are blended together and tossed with the noodles. This is served alongside pickled shimeiji mushrooms and braised preserved kai choi (mustard greens).
The pork and fish dumplings are plump and contrast extremely well with the black vinegar sauce. — ABIRAMI DURAI/The Star
The over-arching sensation here is of freshness and greenness. It’s a wholesome, clean meal that pits all the ingredients together in a harmonious co-mingling that draws on the strengths of all parties, without endeavouring to outshine each other. Ultimately, this is a meal that reflects a team that cheers each other on.
Fifty Tales’ lunch offerings also include a small selection of side dishes. Of what’s on offer, you would do well to try the XO Pork & Fish Dumplings (RM18) with black vinegar and spring onions. The dumplings are fat, voluptuous little parcels that have puckered outer skins that – once pried open – reveal insides filled with pork and mackerel fish.
Pork and fish make for unusual bedfellows but this meal reveals that opposites do attract, especially if they have another party giving them a leg-up. In this case, this enigmatic figure is the black vinegar sauce with spring onions – which is sweet, astringent and highly addictive.
Eggplant, prawns and lychee are coated in smoked guava vinaigrette, which gives the dish a rich, peaty quality.
Another un-missable side dish is the Steamed Eggplant with Prawns & Lychee (RM20). Served with a smoky guava vinaigrette, this is one of the most revelatory meals to come out of the restaurant.
The eggplant has been steamed perfectly and retains a luscious quality and this is accentuated by the sweetness of the lychees and the natural plumpness and freshness of the prawns. All of this would be pleasant on its own, but the vinaigrette is what takes it from ordinary to extraordinary, imbuing the entire meal with an effervescent smokiness that permeates throughout.
The sweet potato ice cream sandwich is a lovely ending to a meal here.
End your meal with the Sweet Potato Ais Krim Sandwich (RM18). This homely treat is a nod to yesteryear and life’s simpler pleasures and marks a wonderful denouement to an equally wonderful meal.
Ultimately, a meal at Fifty Tales conveys so much through the conduit of noodles. These are meals that take notes from the past while staying rooted in the present and forging a path for the future. In many ways, it is the ultimate love letter to the Malaysian Chinese culinary narrative.
