Monday, April 9, 2018

Kuching-style Char Kueh Tiaw

Kueh Tiaw. Kway Teow. I'm not sure how to spell it in English, actually. But Fried Kueh Tiaw or Char Kueh Tiaw has many variations, and is well-loved by many. In Kuching, I do think it's not easy to find a good plate of Char Kueh Tiaw. So what constitues a good plate of Char Kueh Tiaw? To me, the noodles must be well-fried yet moist, with a smoky aroma imbued, and taste rich of garlic and lard. To achieve all these is no easy feat, and a single missing component would result in a less-than-perfect platter.

The ingredients accompanying the noodles vary, from place to place, from vendor to vendor. If a stall markets theirs as Penang Char Kueh Tiaw, I would expect cockles, prawns, Chinese sausage, egg, chives and beansprouts to say the least. Anything less and I'd call them fakes.

Kuching-style Char Kueh Tiaw is slightly different from the Penang-style Char Kueh Tiaw. The noodles come out drier, smokier - sometimes even a tad bitter, aromatic of course, and the ingredients need to include pork slices for flavour and texture, char siew to add a little sweetness to the dish, egg for the aroma, beansprouts and mustard greens for crunch. Some vendors would add fishcake slices to it. And one must eat it with pickled red chillies for the tang, and to neutralise the flavour of the lard and grease. Anything less and they're not authentic.

So these three plates here, eaten at different locations in Kuching, certainly did not meet my criteria and certainly isn't authentic Kuching-style Char Kueh Tiaw. And for sure, they could not satisfy my palate totally.

Not dry - this one is moist
Smoky, not bitter
Aroma of garlic
No pork slices
No char siew
Has egg
Beansprouts
Mustard greens
Cut chillies in soy sauce instead of pickled red chillies 

 Not dry, moist
Smoky, not bitter
No pork slices
No char siew
Has egg
Beansprouts
Crinkled mustard instead of mustard greens
Cut chillies in soy sauce instead of pickled red chillies 

Not too moist
 Bitter
Not aromatic at all
Has pork slices
No char siew
Has egg
Beansprouts
Crinkled mustard stems? Instead of mustard greens
Chilli sauce (OMG!! Atrocious!!) instead of pickled red chillies 

HOWEVER, a better plate would be this :

Moist
Aromatic
Has pork slices and chinese sausages
No char siew
Has egg
Beansprouts
Mustard greens
Cut chilli in soy sauce instead of pickle chilli 

This was from Lee Coffeeshop at Ban Hock Road. Highly recommended if you are at the vicinity. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Revisiting Miri

I went back to Miri for the first time in 7 years and 10 months.  Miri Waterfront I left Miri in 2014, and years have passed in a blink of a...