RM 16 bowl of Heng Hua Spicy Assam Tom Yam Fish Noodles

henghua assam tom yam noodles

There are a lot of fish and prawn noodles in town but none quite like this. The most (in)famous one would be the RM 35 bowl of fish noodles from Min Kwong. There’s also a RM 15 bowl of prawn noodles in the small and hilariously named town of Jakar. However, the closest tasting one would be the justifiably popular RM 14 bowl of Asam Tom Yam Big Prawn Noodles in Glory Cafe, Sarikei.

It was my dad who suggested this place for dinner. He’s a Heng Hua and this is a Heng Hua owned coffee shop, and since it’s a small community, we might be somewhat related. smirk

sieng hing cafe

The first question the lady asked me when I ordered this RM 16 bowl of goodness is whether I can eat spicy food. I replied in the affirmative, taking pride in my cast iron stomach (and tongue) and the chilli flakes in the broth gave me the sniffles and nearly drove me to tears…in a good way.

I asked why they use a thick kind of rice vermicelli noodles called hung ang in the local dialect and it’s coz that’s the best pairing for the dish. The thick but short noodles doesn’t clump together and unlike wheat based noodles, the rice vermicelli noodles is the perfect vehicle for *transporting the broth* to your palate.

henghua assam rice vermicelli

There’s a lot of space between the rice vermicelli – you can’t really pick them up with chopsticks without large gaps – so the spicy asam tom yam broth gets into the crevices and it allows the full flavor impact to hit you.

cat
Resident cat approves of this nomz!

The fish is a mixture of tapah and patin and there’s easily 3-4 times the amount in the regular Foochow twice cooked noodles I had for RM 14 at Y2K Cafe. There’s also generous amounts of lemongrass, egg, tomatoes, chilli flakes, baby corn, fungus and a special type of pickled salted vegetable in the asam tom yam soup.

assam tom yam noodles

It left me sweating but very satisfied when I finished the dish. They also sell a large prawn version for RM 26. The generous amounts of fish and the ultra spicy broth made the Sieng Hing Cafe fish noodles one of the best gastronomic finds in Sibu. It’s perfect if you have a blocked nose since the spice will clear up your sinuses in no time! πŸ™‚

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

20 thoughts on “RM 16 bowl of Heng Hua Spicy Assam Tom Yam Fish Noodles”

  1. Spicy? Oooo…I’d like that, and my missus too. Looks good…though I can’t say that I do know where this place is. Never mind, I can always look for it – Sibu is very small – can’t miss it when I see it.

    Sure is cheaper(er) too – I would boycott those ridiculously-priced ones to teach them a lesson – just can’t understand why people would let themselves be victimised. That astronomical price for just 1 and half prawns and the shop is not even presentable, much less and classy…plus it’s just Foochow mee soup with the prawns added. RM35 can get a kilo of the crustaceans at the market and one would be able to eat till kingdom come! Tsk! Tsk! Everyone should just stop going and see if they will lower the price or not…or wrap up their business.

    Incidentally, Glory has jacked up their prices too – not much less than Min Kong’s, RM30 now. Jakar’s a little cheaper but it’s getting there – around RM20.

    Reply
    • It’s just behind Methodist Secondary School! πŸ™‚

      When you drive to Y2K Cafe (on the left) – there’s no way to turn right at the T junction but that’s where the coffee shop is. It’s quite popular at night, same row as Ruby Restaurant but mush further down.

      Haha! Yeah, that RM 35 Min Kwong prawn noodles are just too expensive. I just ate it for fun coz I told my better half about it. It’s more of an experience than anything. I like Glory Cafe’s assam prawn noodles too, drove down several times when I was working here just to eat there.

      BTW, Sieng Hing Cafe also has traditional hung ang with preserved vegetables (not the same kind as in my dish) but it’s pretty good an a lot of people go there for that too.

      Reply
  2. *Slurp* I love fish (meat/slice) noodles, and this tomyam version is something different from the normal milky ones (with evaporated milk added).. The bowl of soup looks so rich and creamy in your first picture, but I know it’s very spicy.. Anything hot (with soup), anything asam (with soup), anything chilli (with soup), sure will make you sweat a lot while eating it, hehe..

    Reply
    • Yeah, it’s super spicy! πŸ™‚

      Haha! I did sweat a lot (and cried a bit too) but it was really nice! It might cause gastric though, if you’re prone to that coz of the acidity + spiciness.

      Reply
  3. If she asked me, I would answer “no” . I cant take very spicy food. Mild ones are okay.

    too bad can’t seems to find this “hung Ang’ noodles over here

    Reply
    • Yeah, I’ve never seen hung ang in KL too! πŸ™‚

      It’s just a bigger type of rice vermicelli. However, we don’t get the KL style kueh tiaw over here too (we call that a different name).

      You want anything from Sibu? I can ask my dear to pass to you when I fly back!

      Reply
  4. Looks like laksa. Maybe because they are using the rice vercimelli noodles. I hope you are enjoying the dish. Too bad, I cannot take spicy food. So… no drooling for it. Lol

    Reply
    • Haha! I used to be able to eat a lot of spicy food! πŸ™‚

      The mamak I used to go to would chop up about 8-10 chilli padi (no joke) when I order Maggi goreng each night coz I always said “tak cukup pedas” so I suspect one day they got sick of me and put TONS of chilli inside as a prank but I loved it and they’ve cooked it that way for me for almost a year before I moved.

      Reply
  5. At RM16, it’s quite pricey, but as long as the vendor’s generous in the ingredients, I think it should be okay. Looks like a tasty dish! =)

    I can’t handle spicy dishes, unfortunately. But hopefully, you didn’t have issues in the loo (I’m inferring to something here….)

    Reply
    • It’s actually quite reasonable! πŸ™‚

      A lot of places sells it for a lot more, when it comes to patin fish. Prawn noodles are even higher up on the price scale. I realize that sometimes our food is more expensive than in KL where sang har mee is around RM 20.

      Haha! It came out fine, no problems at all. πŸ˜‰

      Reply
  6. Ohhh prawn noodles! i was looking forward for that in ur post, but the pic of fish noodles is good as well. Lol. Was last there in Jakar last Raya but the shop was closed. πŸ™ Maybe next time.

    Reply
    • The Sarikei Glory Cafe one is my favorite! πŸ™‚

      It’s a bit far though, but I told everyone how good it was after I first had it (a friend of mine who lives in Sarikei told me about it and I drove down) and I persuaded a lot of people to drive down and one time the auntie there gave me a bowl for free when she realized I had written about them coz she told me people from Sibu drove down and said they found out from my blog (which was reposted at a popular Chinese forum).

      Jakar one is not bad too, depends on whether you want regular or tom yam style. Yeah, maybe next time!

      Reply
    • It’s quite reasonable in Sibu though! πŸ™‚

      A lot of places sells it for more expensive – tapah fish is a popular fish and if caught wild, can sell at a very high price. I realize that our prawn noodles are much more expensive than KL’s sang har mee too!

      It’s delicious though – this one has a mixture of tapah and patin fish, and the broth is very nice and spicy.

      Reply
    • Hey, that’s great! πŸ™‚

      Let me know if you’re coming over just in case I’m here. You gotta try this if you like asam tom yam or we can drive to Sarikei for Glory Cafe’s one, will bring my better half together too coz I’m not celebrating CNY this year due to my late mom’s passing.

      Reply

Leave a Comment