Penamg Hokkien Mee

Hokkien mee is a dish in Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine that has its origins in the cuisine of China's Fujian (Hokkien) province. In its most common form, the dish consists of egg noodles and rice noodles stir-fried with egg, slices of pork, prawns and squid, and served and garnished with vegetables, small pieces of lard, sambalsauce and lime (for adding the lime juice to the dish).

Penamg Hokkien Mee

Durian

Penang Durian is tasty and cheap.

Red Bean Soup

China

In China, red bean soup (紅豆汤, pinyin: hóng dòu tāng) is a popular dish. The soup is commonly thinner than the Japanese oshiruko version. It is categorized as a tang shui糖水, (pinyin: táng shǔi) (literally translated as sugar water), or sweet soup. It is often served cold during the summer, and hot in the winter. Leftover red bean soup can also be frozen to make ice pops and is a popular dessert.
In Cantonese cuisine, a red bean soup made from rock sugar, sun-dried tangerine peels, and lotus seeds is commonly served as a dessert at the end of a restaurant or banquet meal. Common variations include the addition of ingredients such as sago (西米, pinyin: xī mi), tapioca, coconut milk, ice cream, glutinous rice balls, or purple rice. The two types of sugar used interchangeably are rock sugar and sliced sugar (片糖).^[1]

Japan

Shiruko (汁粉^?), or oshiruko (お汁粉^?) with the honorific "o" (お), is a traditional Japanese dessert.^[2] It is a sweet porridge of azuki beans boiled and crushed, served in a bowl with mochi.^[2][3] There are different styles of shiruko, such as shiruko with chestnuts, or with glutinous rice flour dumplings instead of mochi.
There are two types of shiruko based on different methods of cooking azuki beans. Azuki beans may be turned into paste, crushed without keeping their original shape, or a mix of paste and roughly crushed beans.^[3] There is a similar dish, zenzai (善哉、ぜんざい^?), which is made from condensed paste with heat and is less watery than shiruko, like making jam or marmalade. In Western Japan, Zenzai refers to a type of shiruko made from a mixture of paste and crushed beans.^[3] In Okinawa Prefecture, the term "zenzai" commonly refers to this bean soup served over shaved ice with "mochi". Other toppings, such as sweetened condensed milk, are occasionally added for flavor.
It is loved by many Japanese, especially during the winter.^[3] The half-melted sticky mochi and the sweet, warm azuki bean porridge is thought by many to be an absolute delight. Shiruko is frequently served with a side dish of something sour or salty, such as umeboshi or shiokombu to refresh the palate as shiruko is so sweet that the taste may cloy after a while.

 

 

Char Koay Teow

As the dish has become increasingly popular, many cooks have come up with their own interpretations of the same basic main ingredient of ricecake strips/flat rice noodles fried with anything from eggs (chicken or duck), onions, garlic, prawns, cockles, Chinese sausage, chives, etc.
In the past, it was usual to stir-fry char kway teow in pork fat without eggs (which were, however, available on request). More recently, ordinary cooking oil is commonly used for health or religious reasons, and eggs have become a standard ingredient in the dish.
Versions of char koay teow prepared by Muslims in Malaysia will exclude pork fat and may include extra soy sauces and spices and the use of broader-width flat rice noodles. There are also vegetarian varieties that may or may not include eggs.
There are also "gourmet" versions of char kway teow, commonly found in Ipoh and Penang, where the dish may be prepared with more seafood, with crab meat and with duck eggs.
Char kway teow is also popular at takeaways in Australia and New Zealand.
In Myanmar, a variety called the Beik Kut kyae kaik (the Beik Scissor Cut) exists. It is popular in the southern coastal regions around the town of Myeik ("Baik" is the Burmese pronunciation) and in Yangon, the largest city in the country. It uses more pepper and seafood compared to the kway teow of Singapore and Malaysia. The rice noodles are slightly thinner and are stir-fried with boiled yellow peas, bean sprouts, squid and prawns, spring onions and dark sweet soy sauce. After being stir-fried, the noodles are cut with scissors (kut kyae in Burmese), thus its name. In many Asian fusion restaurants in America, such as the popular Cafe Asia chain, this dish is offered under the name Gway Tiao.
Many Southeast Asian restaurants in Hong Kong offer char kway teow as a Malay speciality although it is of Southeast Asian Chinese origin. The char kway teow served in Hong Kong is an entirely different dish: stir-fried Chinese-style flat rice noodles with prawns, char siu, onions, and bean sprouts, seasoned with curry and bright yellow in colour. In some places this is known as Fried "Good Dale", a transliteration of the characters "炒貴刁".
In Indonesia, there is a similar dish known as kwetiau goreng (Indonesian: fried flat rice noodles) and is served in Chinese restaurants, street side tent warung, and by traveling street hawkers' carts. This Indonesian version tastes mildly sweet with generous addition of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), has spicier and stronger flavor with addition of sambal condiment, less oily, mostly halal which means uses no lard or pork, and normally incorporates beef or chicken to cater to the majority Indonesian Muslim population. However, some Chinese restaurants in Indonesia that mainly serve non-Muslim customers might use pork and pork fat.
In Vietnamese cuisine, a similar stir-fried noodle dish is called hủ tiếu xào. Thai cuisine has its own version called phat si-io.
In Singapore, some of best 'old school' char kway teow can be found in hawker centres.^{[citation needed]} There are also healthier versions with more vegetables and less oil. Furthermore, the greens and bean sprouts gives off a fresh, crunchy texture that makes the dish taste even more unique from other dishes of the cuisine.This version is also common in Perth, Western Australia, which has a large expatriate Singaporean population.

Penang Laksa

One dish that every tourist must try out when visiting Penang is the Penang Asam Laksa. It is available at many hawker stalls and eateries all throughout the island. Though all of them tout their asam laksa dish as the best, the most famous asam laksa stall in Penang is the one operating at the Air Itam market. Some believe that the dish may have originally been a fisherman's fare, as the main ingredient used are small and less favoured types of fishes.

The ingredients used in creating this tantalizing dish are simple and can be found almost anywhere. Garlic, lemongrass, fresh turmeric, shallots, chilli paste and belacan are all grounded into a paste before starting on the broth. Tamarind paste is then mixed with warm water, squeezed and sieved into a stock pot and brought to a boil. Vietnamese mint leaves, sugar, dried tamarind slices or locally known as asam keping, slices of torch ginger bud or bunga kantan and the ground paste of spices are added into the boiling broth. Cleaned whole mackerel fish is then added into the stock and boiled until cooked. The fish is then removed, set to cool before cleaning off the bones and flaking its meat. The broth is simmered to reduce and intensify the flavours. The mint leaves and dried tamarind slices are removed before putting in the flaked fish meat. It is usually served with thick rice noodles garnished with sliced cucumber, pineapples, onions, mint leaves and a spoonful of thick prawn paste.

Though the whole combination of the taste of gravy, noodles and its condiments blends very well together, it is the soup that most people love. So much so that there are certain places in Penang where fried spring rolls are sold together with the soup only, so that the consumers may dip the crispy spring rolls into the soup before it is eaten. It is not surprising to find that some of these dishes can also be found in these other states albeit a slight twist to the recipe. For instance, the laksa that is popular in Ipoh is very similar to the one in Penang except that the Ipoh laksa is slightly more sour and contains prawn paste in their gravy. Laksa Johor has only one thing in common with Penang Asam Laksa – the type of fish used, but differs in everything else.

It is apparent that the consumers do not mind what kind of noodles are used in a bowl of asam laksa so long as it is tasty. The fragrant aroma of the gravy that wafts to their nostrils, the anticipation of biting into that spoonful of noodles and finally slurping it all down with a huge dose of the tasty asam laksa is magical enough to transport them to another state of mind where nothing can come between them and their little bowl of heaven.