Hokkien Char Mee is perhaps one of the most beloved street food in Kuala Lumpur …the city which is listed in NY Times top 31 places to Go in 2010 (which triggered off a tsunami of emails and Facebook postings from proud Malaysians).   AKA Hokkien Noodle, Fukien Chow or Black Mee, one can get into a lively and animated conversation with any non-halal, food loving KL-ites about which is the best hawker stall for the noodle dish.  I grew up with the “dancing master” in old town PJ – a big tall fella who does a jiggle of a dance everytime he does the stir fry, especially when he throws some meat into the hot wok and creates a huge fire flare which goes up 10 feet high.  I also recall fondly the newspaper-wrapped pyramid bundle of fukien chow that uses a banana leaf liner instead of plastic that my parents brought home for supper on their way back from an evening of tombola.  I have never been to the stall in Jalan Tun Perak, but I can sure smell the fragrant of that noodle even now.  Eatingasia has some pretty great pictures and writings on some Hokkien mee hawker stalls, if you’d like to get the full experience online.

Chef’s tip: The most critical ingredient to recreate the street flavor of Hokkien char mee is the pork cracklings and lard.  Without it, it’s just a regular noodle!  Thanks to David Chang, eating pork fat is now cool.  To find pork fat, you will need to go to an Asian or Mexican butcher and ask them specifically for it, and they may be able to slice off some fat for you.  Not a usual item, since they typically throw it out or process the fat into lard.  We need the whole piece of fat, not those that is already in a tub.

Another tip is to use fish sauce.  Some folks swear that if you add some dried “crooked mouth fish” flakes into the dish, you will get the authentic hokkien mee flavor.  Frankly, I don’t exactly know what’s the fish’s name is in English, I just asked for the crooked mouth fish in those dried seafood shops near the Central Market in KL.  So, back in San Francisco, I decided to add a dash of fish sauce.

Lastly, the ubiquitous dark soy sauce is critical.  The Malaysian version is thick and of the consistency of blackstrap molasses.  I looked at the label of my precious dark soy sauce my mom brought me from KL, and lo and behold, it doesn’t have soy in it.  Just caramel, salt and flavoring.  It’s a Malaysian version of molasses, I guess.  Use the Indonesian kicap manis, which is really sweeter than we need, but we can balance it with salt and soy sauce.

Sambal:
10 red Fresno chiles
2 Tablespoons roasted belachan
2 limes, cut into wedges

Sauce:
6 Tablespoons dark soy sauce
3 Tablespoons light soy sauce
1 Tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon blackstrap molasses
6 cups chicken stock

Pork marinade:
1 lb pork tenderloin, sliced
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil

½ lb pork fat, cut into medium dice

10 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lb medium-sized shrimps, deveined, shelled
1 lb squid, cleaned, cut into ¼ inch rings
1 lb Chinese mustard “choy sum”, cut into 2 inch length

4 lb fresh thick yellow egg noodles (Shanghai style, udon-thickness)

Preparing the ingredients

1.     To prepare the sambal condiment, grind chile with a food processor till fine paste.  Add belachan and mix well.  Set aside with the lime wedges.
2.     Whisk sauce ingredients together in a bowl.   Set aside
3.     Marinade the pork tenderloin with the cornstarch, soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil.   Set aside.
4.     In a wok, render the pork fat till crackling forms.  Remove the cracklings and reserve.  Ladle out and reserve the lard.
5.     Bring a pot of hot water to boil.  Drop noodles into the boiling water, stir to separate the noodles and boil for 2 minutes or until noodles are cooked but not soft.  Remove and drain.
6.     Place the remaining ingredients mise-en-place, and roughly divide each ingredient into 4 portions

Cooking the dish – 2 servings at a time

7.     Heat wok on high heat with 1 Tablespoon lard.   Add 1 teaspoon garlic and a portion of shrimp and squid and saute until shrimp turns pink. Remove from wok and set aside.
8.     Add 1 Tablespoon lard and 1 teaspoon of garlic and 1 portion of the pork.  Sauté 1 minute until pork is browned, then add the sauce mixture and bring to a boil.
9.     Next, add the vegetable and noodles. Toss till noodles are well coated.  Cover to simmer on medium heat for 2 minutes or until all the sauce is absorbed.
10.  Uncover, turn back heat to high, add back the shrimp, squid and pork cracklings and toss to combine.
11.  Drizzle on a tablespoon of lard to finish.  Serve immediately with sambal and lime.

Repeat for each serving.  It is very important that the dish is cooked no more than 2 servings at a time for maximum “wok hay” (wok’s breath)

Serves: 8

Tags: Malaysian, noodles, street foods.

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, I used to sell toothpaste in China. We were introducing the Colgate Red into China and I was tasked with the “smaller” markets — those cities with less than 5 million population.  On our launch into Chongqing, I remember walking the slopes of the city (it’s as hilly as San Francisco), supposedly to check out the toothpaste market, but I was mesmerized by the spice markets.  Mounds and mounds of chili and peppers — bright red, dark red, fiery red everywhere.  The air was even spicy! Then we came across this street peddler who was dishing out Liang Fen.  Using a hand grater, he “grated” noodles out of a basin of rice jello, and ladled on a red spicy sauce on top.   That was totally ingenious the way he made the noodles.

Liang Fen is a great starter dish and my favorite Sichuan dish.  Slippery, cool and slightly springy, it’s the canvas for the fiery and numbing sauce.  Sichuan or more commonly misspelt Szechuan cuisine is distinctly unique for its use of hot, numbing spices and lots of fresh vegetables as the province is the vegetable bowl for China.  The Sichuan peppercorn is really a prickly ash, not at all related to regular black pepper.  It has a floral and woody aroma, but its most outstanding feature is how it gives a numbing feeling to your mouth.  One may wonder why in the world would you want that feeling in your food, I find it hard to explain or describe but it does give a nice kick, and an addictive one indeed.  Once banned from the United States, you can now easily find the spice even in your local Wholefoods, or at least local to the Bay Area, thanks to a fusion foods fad a couple of years ago pushing the spice to a ranking in the top 10 must try for the year by Bon Appetit or one of those magazines.

Chef’s tip: Mung bean starch has good nutritional value.  You can easily find it at Korean grocery stores.  To cook it, make sure you stir continuously till it become translucent, otherwise, it will still be raw.  I prefer to use the Sichuan peppercorn oil, too.  It gives the same effect without the coarseness of the peppercorn.  You can omit the tahini for a cleaner tasting sauce.

Noodles

4 cups + 2 tablespoons water

¾ cup mung bean starch*

Sauce

3 tablespoons tahini + 3 tablespoons water (more if tahini is thick)

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon Chinkiang vinegar

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground toasted Sichuan peppercorn, or Sichuan peppercorn oil

1 teaspoon ginger juice

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tablespoon Asian chili oil

½ tablespoon sesame oil

1 stalk green onions, green parts only, julienned into 1 inch strips

Finishing oil:

1 teaspoon Asian chili oil

½ teaspoon sesame oil

Preparing the noodle

1. Mix starch with 1 ½ cups of water till starch is fully dissolved.  Mix in remaining water.
2. Bring to boil, stirring constantly till the mixture thickens.  It’s easiest to stir from the center out. Stir until the mixture is clear and translucent.  About 4 minutes total.
3. Immediately pour mixture into a wet, glass or ceramic dish, about 9X12 inch, making a thin 3/8 inch layer.
4. Leave to cool for 45 minutes in the fridge or 2 hours at room temperature.
5. When set, cut noodles 6 X ½ X ¼ inch strips

Preparing the sauce

1. Mix together the sauce ingredients in a bowl.

Assembly:

1. Pour sauce over the noodles and toss to coat.  Finish with a little chili oil and sesame oil.  Garnish with green onions.

Serves: 6

Note: To make your own chili oil, use the recipe below:

Chili oil with chili flakes

½ cup of dried chili flakes

2 cups of peanut oil

1. Put chili flakes in a glass preserving jar (or pyrex)
2. Heat the oil until smoking hot
3. Allow to cool 5 mins
4. Pour into the jar

* Can be found in Asian stores

Tags: Chinese, noodles, Sichuanese, Spices, vegan, Vegetarian.

I read in this month’s Saveur that Penang is having its international food festival this week where the celebration is Penang’s foodways.  First of all, in food-obssessed Penang, every day is a celebration of food.  In the same blurb, it described the local specialty, Assam Laksa, as aromatic, tamarind-based fish noodle soup.  Hard to imagine with such a description what the dish really is – except for those in the know.  My mouth starts to water at the thought of the tang, sour, saltiness and spicyness of the beloved noodle dish.

Chef’s tip: You can find fresh tamarind in the pods at Asian, Indian, Latin markets and Whole Foods.  To prepare tamarind, peel off the tough outer skin of the tamarind pod.  Place the flesh, seeds and veins in a bowl and add some warm water.  Using your hands, gently massage the tamarind to dissolve it.  Sieve.  You can also find tamarind in the block at Asian markets, which is essentially the peeled version.  Tamraind concentrate in the bottle is a lot more sour than fresh tamarind, so start with half the amount.

Ingredients:

1 lb bluefish (Traditionally mackerel, otherwise, any oily flaky fish)

Spice Paste:
6 dried Japanese chilies or 3 fresh red jalapeno
2 pieces of lemongrass
5 shallots
1 tablespoon roasted belachan
¼ cup of canola oil for frying

Soup:
1/2 cup tamarind pulp (including seeds) + 1 cup warm water
6 cups water or fish stock (use fish bouillon if necessary)
5 pieces of dried tamarind slices
4 stalks laksa leaves
Salt to taste (at least a few pinchfuls of salt)
2 teaspoons sugar

Toppings:
1 cup of shredded English cucumber
1 red jalapeno
½ red onion
1 cup of fresh pineapples
1 cup of mint leaves, whole
2 tablespoons laksa leaves, finely minced

12 oz thick fresh rice noodles (lai fun) or 6 oz dried rice vermicelli

1 lime, preferably calamansi
2 Tablespoon haeko

Preparing the fish
1.    Steam the fish until opaque and cooked through, about 10 minutes. Reserve fish stock.
2.    When cooled, remove bones and skin, coarsely flake the fish with a fork.
Preparing the spice paste
3.    Grind together spice paste ingredients in a food processor until smooth.  Set aside.
Preparing the laksa soup base
4.    Peel tamarind.  Mash tamarind flesh in 1 cup of warm water.  Remove solids, reserve juice.
5.    Heat oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat until just hot.  Stir in spice paste. Cook, stirring constantly, until the red oil separates from the spice paste about 8 to 10 minutes.
6.    Lower the heat, slowly add tamarind paste, water, fish stock, tamarind slices and laksa leaves and bring to a slow simmer, stirring constantly.  Simmer for at 20-30 minutes.  Add salt and sugar to taste.  Remove tamarind slices and laksa leaves. Just before serving, add the flaked fish.
Preparing the vegetables
7.    Finely julienne cucumber, jalapeno, slice the red onion and cut pineapples into small wedges.
8.    Mince the laksa leaves.
Preparing the noodles
9.    Bring a pot of water to boil.  Add salt and oil.  Blanch rice vermicelli quickly – a few seconds.
Assembly
10.    In a small bowl, mix hae-ko shrimp paste with 2 tablespoon warm water
11.    Place a serving of noodles and vegetables in bowls and ladle laksa broth over.
12.    Serve with halved limes and a dollop of hae-ko.

Tags: Malaysian, noodles, street foods.