Wa i chiak Hokkien Mee!
According to Wikipedia there are 3 kinds of Hokkien Mee. My favourite is the Penang version.
Hokkien hae mee (prawn noodles) |
Hokkien char mee (fried noodles) |
---|---|
Refers to either the Penang prawn noodle or Singapore prawn noodle | Refers to the Kuala Lumpur Hokkien noodle |
Soup based (Penang) and stir fried (Singapore) | Stir fried |
Egg noodles and rice noodles | Fat yellow noodles |
No dark soya sauce used | Dark soya sauce is used |
Prawn is the main ingredient with slices of chicken or pork, squid and fish cake. Kang Kong (water spinach) is common in the Penang version |
Slices of chicken or pork, squid and cabbage |
◊◊◊◊◊◊
Together with Penang Assam Laksa and Char Koay Teow, Penang Hokkien Mee is one of the signature dishes of the state and more precisely of the island [Pulau] of Penang. The soup is a ‘sourish’ and ‘shrimpy’ tasting seafood broth using fresh prawns, dried shrimps and pork meat. It’s served with egg and rice noodles, small prawns, sometimes with thin slices of pork and a half hard boiled egg. Served with a spoon of chilli paste for an extra kick aiming at your taste buds. I’ve eaten Penang Hokkien Mee at different kopitiam and hawker stalls and here I’m trying to get a few of them in some kind of ranking with my personal rating.
Kedai Kopi Kwai Lock is one of the bigger coffee shops in Pulau Tikus. It is located at the corner of Jalan Burma and Solok Moulmein.
Rating: 13/20.
Good balance between the sourish broth and noodles, little prawns. A decent but average plate. Good spicy chilli. It’s a big coffee shop and very busy in the morning.
Kedai Kopi Swee Kong is situated just opposite Kwai Lock, also on the junction of Jalan Burma with Moulmein. Opens very early in the morning till about 9:30. Reopens afterwards for lunch.
Rating: 15/20
Comes without the egg but it’s very tasty. If I recall correctly there are also some small clams mixed in the broth. Worth a try but do come early, you might have to wait a while as the place can be very crowded.
Kafe Khoon Hiang – Jalan Dato Keramat at the corner with Jalan Dunlop.
Rating: 9/20
When I ordered the dish was looking very promising. Alas, at the first tasting it turned out to be a disappointment. The secret of a good typical prawn broth was definitely not mastered by this cook. Way to sweet and even adding lots of chilli paste was not able to improve the taste. A pity.
Bee Hooi Coffee Garden– on Kimberly road is a big cafe. We were strolling through the neighbourhood and decided to have some refreshments at the outside terrace. Then my eyes made contact with a Hokkien Mee stall in full schwung. Of course,I had to order a bowl> Mind you, only for analysing and rating purposes [grin].
Rating: 15/20
Very good balanced broth with many prawns and added hard boiled egg.
Kedai Kopi Classic – Address: 126, Jln Perak, opposite Padang Brown food court. It has the reputation of being one of the best Hokkien Mee stalls on the island and yes, the stall lives up to that reputation!
Rating: 18/20. Simply superb.
Sungai Samagagah-Kuala Jalan Bahru. Fishing village near Balik Pulau at the Kampung Jalan Baru. Private houses that open their kitchen for guests only during the weekends. This one is famous for both Hokkien Mee and Penang Assam Laksa. The Hokkien Mee was very good and served in a rich broth with plenty of sliced prawns and pork meat. Yummy.
Rating: 17/20. Excellent, full of rich flavours. Quality ingredients.
My apologies for only reviewing a small number of outlets. I’m sure there are many more excellent Hokkien Mee sellers. It would take a life time job to review them all. When returning and testing more places I’ll update this post.
Regarding the Kedai Kopi Classic Hokkien Mee: I personally think the soup is too sweet and too chilli hot at the same time, it virtually covered over the aroma of the prawn. However there are still a lot of patrons queeing up at 7:30am before the stall opens. My resonance is that these patrons have climatised their taste bud to this particular HKM, I’m sure there are loads of other stalls where local patrons claim to be ‘No. 1 in Penang’. I’d give the Classic stall HKM 12/20.
The HKM at Sungai Samagagah is definitely good since they can get the freshest prawn on a daily basis. The soup is very aromatic with the prawn’s ‘har kor’ flavour. Once in a while is OK travelling there, not every afternoon.
Thanks for that comment, S Lim. Next time I’ll check more thoroughly as till now I never found the soup too sweet, to begin with.
Agreed about the hot chilli but that’s how I like it, really. Anyway, there is enough variety on offer in Penang. We all will find the one(s) we prefer. And… I like most of the HKM on offer in the different coffee shops of George Town and the rest of the island.
Cheers.
JP
JP – if you’re a Belgic gwailoh, my salute to you for able to take such high acidic content; though I’m from Penang I must admit I can no longer endure the too hot / sour / sweet / coconut-ish taste bud of Penang hawker food, especially my beloved char koay teow where I used to have 3-4 plates per week when I was younger. I tend to stick to the steam popiah and nyonya cakes nowadays, must be the bloody English weather.
Anyway next time you’re in Pg do go to Jelutong market in the morning, you will be surprised by the good quality hawker food there; obviously there’s a few below than average stall but overall they still retain that old charm flavour I remember when I was a kid, for instance the Curry mee and koay teow thng with pig’s intestine, liver etc, all at a reasonable $2.50 – $3.
Deen’s nasi kandar next to the overhead bridge is one of the best in town, and I ensure I had one meal each time I’m back knowing fully my anus will have to pay the fiery price the following morning, but it’s worth it. In the afternoon starting 12 there’s a Mee goreng stall next to the junction road cafe, it taste very good since the guy can control the fire intensity well.
I heard the Sister’s char koay teow charged $6 – $9 for a plate over the CNY – SIAOW LIAO! There’s two stall of char koay teow at Jelutong market (women chef) who can produce the same quality at $3 FYI.
BTW I’m a big fan of Asterix and Obelix, have half of the collection to date (old edition), yeah I know they are French.
SL
By the way the best way to compare and extract the true flavour of Hokkien Mee is to:
1) Buy in separate noodle and soup packs
2) Take it home
3) Let it cool down to room temperature
4) Taste the soup at room temperature, one single sip at a time.
When you eat at the stall obviously the whole experience is hyped up since it’s piping hot, crowded, and you’re extremely hungry.