From Ipoh To Section 17, PJ — He Came To Sell Curry Mee, The Duck Got Famous First
A Malaysian who learned curry noodles from his aunt in Bercham, Ipoh, opened a roast meat shop in Section 17, Petaling Jaya, because the whole row had no chicken rice — and the duck is what the table remembers.
- Alex Liew, 42, opened Fragrant Town Restaurant in Section 17, PJ in June 2025, spotting a gap in the local market.
- The curry mee, built from his aunt's Bercham, Ipoh recipe, is Liew's main offering — sourish, spiced, and deeply personal.
- The roast duck stole the spotlight first, but the curry mee, priced between RM10 and RM15, is the real reason to visit.
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Alex Liew wakes at 7 am every morning to roast the pork himself.
Not because he has to.
Because he does not trust anyone else to do it at that hour — and at 42, after a lifetime in food, he knows exactly what happens when someone does.
Liew opened 香城烧腊 (Fragrant Town Restaurant) in June 2025 at 58, Jalan 17/1A, Section 17, Petaling Jaya — a row of flats in an old neighbourhood where rents run low enough that RM3,000 gets a full shopfront rather than a booth.
A friend who worked at a nearby Jaya One office told him the entire row had no chicken rice, and Liew took that as sufficient market research.
Speaking to TRP, Liew said he has been in food since he was 15 or 16.
His family is from Sungai Siput — the Perak town best known as the parliamentary constituency former MIC president Tun Samy Vellu held for over 30 years.
His parents worked in food and beverage, though at other restaurants.
His aunt sold curry mee in Bercham, Ipoh — a specific neighbourhood with its own culinary identity — and Liew learned the recipe from her after finishing his SPM.
He used to cycle from Simei to work; life, he said, was very tough.
The Menu He Built
Fragrant Town’s main product is curry mee — Ipoh-style, using a Bercham recipe, with fresh cockles shelled in-house, Ipoh bean sprouts, and a broth described as sourish and spicy.
The soup base follows the recipe Liew absorbed in his aunt’s kitchen in Bercham decades ago.
The roast meats counter runs alongside it.
Liew roasts the pork and duck himself each morning — the char siu and siu yuk prepared in-house, the duck noted by regulars for its juiciness.
A whole roast duck is available daily. A whole roast goose is available by advance booking only — a rare offering for a shophouse row where a standard plate runs under RM20.
At night, the kitchen pivots.
The steamed fish menu offers five preparations: asam, spicy bean paste, Nyonya, soy sauce, and the house signature — ginger paste steam.
The coffee is Hainan-style, charcoal-roasted; regulars mention it unprompted.
Liew also runs on GrabFood.
He describes his foreign staff as disciplined — a detail he flags as luck.
What Works, What Doesn’t
The roast duck arrives juicy enough that the cutting board pools.
Every piece holds liquid — a savoury, herb-seasoned run that soaks into the rice before the chopsticks reach it.
The skin doesn’t always shatter, but not a single bite is dry.
Wantan noodles are springy in the way that matters — enough resistance to carry the weight of the meat without going slack.
They work.
Hainan kopi is the quiet surprise; charcoal-roasted, sourced from Klang, it finishes with a sourish fragrance that lingers past the cup.
Neighbourhood regulars mention it without being asked.
The char siu and siew yoke are competent; they are not the reason to come.
The Duck Gets The Attention, The Curry Mee Earns It
The curry mee — the product Liew identifies as his main offering, the one built from his aunt’s Bercham recipe, the dish he has carried since he was a teenager cycling to work in Ipoh — arrives last, almost as an afterthought.
What carries it is the broth; sourish, spiced, and layered in a way that only makes sense if someone spent years standing next to the person who built it.
Cockles are shelled in-house.
Bean sprouts are Ipoh — thinner, crisper, the kind that collapse the moment they hit inferior heat.
This is the bowl Liew came to Section 17 to sell.
The menu lists six versions — pork skin, signature, white chicken, roasted pork, fried wantan, and one more — each built around the same broth, each priced between RM10 and RM15.
The rice is oiled and fragrant, while the chicken is slippery and moist, as Hainanese preparation demands.
The roast duck runs from RM23 for an upper quarter to RM80 for a whole bird; the roast goose, available by advance booking, is RM268.
On a row where most plates clear under RM20, that number is a statement.
All photos by the writer.
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