offal

3 uniquely Sibu dishes

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I’m back in my hometown, eating delicious food you can really only get here – at least, if you want the authentic stuff! 🙂

1. Char Kueh Tiaw Omelet

CKT omelet

Yeah, that’s what I’m calling it! It has been around for over 40 years (no kidding) and this particular way of cooking it is a Sibu institution. I first ate it as a kid in Kwok Ching Coffee Shop (now defunct) and this is the son carrying on the legacy, cooking it the exact same way.

How do you get char kueh tiaw into an omelet? The CKT is cooked first and even though it’s a simple dish – spring onion and bean sprouts are the only ingredients – it tastes superb in its simplicity.

kueh tiaw omelet

The CKT is dropped on a cracked egg on a hot wok, flipped and served. This technique has been copied by many other cooks in Sibu but there is only one heir of the original and he does it best! This stall is located at Aloha Cafe and it’s only RM 3.30.

2. Twice Cooked Tapah Fish Noodles

foochow fish noodles

There are RM 35 bowls of this stuff out there. I had that with my better half when we came back last time at Min Kwong. I can’t justify eating that all the time so this is an equally good (if not better) version from Y2K Cafe. It’s RM 12 and is cooked in the traditional Foochow style – the noodles are first *fried* before being *stewed* in a hearty soup.

tapah fish

That means you get both the Maillard reaction and caramelization on the noodles from frying in the fiery hot wok, making it taste wonderful, before it’s softened in the rich seafood broth. Infinitely satisfying, and a local classic. You can drink the wonderfully tasty soup after you’ve finished your noodles too – it’s full of flavor!

3. Kampua Mee with Pork Tripe and Pig Liver Soup

kampua noodles

Yup, this is our famous kampua noodles. I always like to add a bowl of pig liver soup to my order (RM 4) coz it makes the noodles taste even better with that rich, mineral-y taste that liver has. I also like pork tripe soup (RM 5) coz of the chewy texture and the acidic dipping sauce it comes in.

pork liver soup

It’s a perfect side dish(es) for kampua noodles – the offal works very well with the slices of BBQ pork in the noodle dish and I always love drinking the soup after I’m done – alternating between the clear pork tripe soup and the dark iron-y pig liver soup with tendrils of liver. It’s always the *first* thing I eat when I come back and this one was at Yum Yum Cafe.

Great lou shu fun @ Restaurant Yi Poh, Seremban

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seremban

I’m typing in the dark at Philea Resort & Spa in Melaka while my girlfriend is sleeping. We’re waiting for breakfast in bed at 10 am. I woke up early and decided to blog about this awesome lou shu fun that we had in Seremban.

yi poh noodles

I read about these wonderful lou shu fun from Melissa’s blog and told Ling about it. She likes lou shu fun and Seremban is on the way to Melaka so we decided to swing into the town to have this for lunch. It’s just a 10 minute detour from the PLUS highway and worth the side trip!

lou shi fun

Restaurant Yi Poh seems to be really famous for their lou shu fun – everyone we saw was eating this very dish! The menu is brevity distilled – there’s just a couple of noodle dishes with Yi Poh Noodles featuring as the flagship dish.

That’s the lou shu fun (literally translated as rat noodles).

Yi Poh Noodles (RM 3.80 / RM 4.50)

seremban lou shu fun

There are two sizes and the smaller one is the better sized portion. I had the large one and the lou shu fun comes with minced pork, char siew and a dark sauce that you mix into the noodles. It’s a dry dish with a side of soup.

Ling: This doesn’t look like lou shu fun.
(after eating it)
Ling: It tastes like lou shu fun though…
Me: Maybe it’s the Seremban version of lou shu fun?

The interesting thing about Yi Poh Noodles is that the lou shu fun is not the same as the ones you get in KL or Sarawak – it’s long noodles but with exactly the same taste and texture as regular lou shu fun.

special chilli sauce

One of the kind waitresses also presented me with a small saucer of chilli sauce, telling me it’s “special chilli sauce” (different from the ones on the table) and it’s very spicy.

Ling: How come she didn’t give it to me?
Me: I don’t know, maybe she likes me more. 😉

The chilli sauce is really spicy! I strongly approve! It improves the taste of the lou shu fun exponentially! It’s so spicy you want to put more than one exclamation mark! smirk

(seriously, it’s very good, ask for it if they don’t give it to you)

pork balls

We asked what else is good and the waitress recommended pork balls and pork tendons. It’s RM 1.20 for two and we ordered two of each – the pork tendon balls also comes in the shape of a cylinder. Not too bad, and made in-house

pork intestine soup

I also had a portion of mixed pork intestine soup (RM 5) which has “smelly vegetable” inside and makes for a good peppery soup. It was the main soup we drank from.

yi poh seremban

We both enjoyed the Yi Poh loh shu fun noodles. It’s really good, especially with the chilli sauce and worth a detour to Seremban if you’re heading down south. Restaurant Yi Poh is listed on Google Maps and GPS too so you won’t have a problem finding it – the huge store front sign helps too. 😉

Stewed pig’s tongue

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cooking pig tongue

I figured a pig’s tongue would be rather long, considering the size of the greedy animal, but I was still surprised by the sheer length of it. It prompted me to do the Gene Simmons pose – reckon this pig’s tongue beats his anytime. 😉

pigs tongue

Well, since pig’s tongue is considered offal – it’s pretty cheap. I got it for RM 3.90 for the entire muscle. Tongue used to be a common food in England but they use ox tongue instead of our porcine friend. I don’t know how to cook it, but I figured I might as well give it a shot and see how it turns out.

slicing pig tongue

I have worked with pig’s heart (both sliced in soup and with the entire organ in pasta), pig’s tail and even pig’s ears (which is quite delicious but missing from my archives due to a catastrophic category mishap). I’m not quite sure what to do with pig’s tongue but that’s never stopped me before. Heh!

pig tongue

I settled on slicing up the muscle into bite sized pieces after it has been defrosted. Give it a tongue lashing. Discipline it with your knife! It’s all muscle so I decided to marinate it first before stewing it.

pigs tongue muscle

You will need:

  • Pig’s tongue
  • A sharp knife (seriously)
  • Soy sauce (dark and light)
  • McCormick’s Season-All Salt
  • McCormick’s Italian Herbs
  • Ground black pepper (coarse)

pig tongue marinated

I mixed everything into the sliced pig’s tongue and gently massaged the condiments into it. I don’t know if it makes a difference, I just felt like doing it. This is left for about 2 hours before the cooking process started.

frying pigs tongue

Stewing pig’s tongue is easy – you just need to dump the marinated muscle into a pan and cook it slowly on low heat. Whenever you see the gravy evaporating, just add more soy sauce. I left it for about an hour, turning it over once in a while. You can still see the papillae and taste buds of the pig on the tongue! Amazing!

stewed pigs tongue

The finished dish tasted rather good to be honest. It’s not as tender as I’ll like it to be, but I reckon that can be remedied by smashing it with a hammer (or using meat tenderizer). It has a nice texture to it – it’s yielding, but firm. The chewy stewed pig’s tongue goes very well with steamed rice.

…and besides, there’s just something about introducing another animal’s tongue to your own that’s very appealing in itself. 🙂

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