Tuesday, April 20, 2010

"The Strange But Wonderful Food Of Kuching 1" Tomato Kway Teow 茄汁粿條,


I am back from my self imposed exile and now I must get back to my blog that has given me so much joy. I will also be able to start reading all your blogs again. ...
During my 3 year stay in Kuching, Sarawak; not only did I have to adjust to a small town lifestyle, language barrier (everyone speaks Hokkien which I learnt after a few weeks) and worst of all the strangely unfamiliar food. This is an example of such strange dishes, yes it might look just like a plate of hawker style fried noodle but the difference lies in the sauce which is flavoured with tomato puree and ketchup. It didn't take me too long before becoming a convert to this peculiar dish and I will start introducing other strange but wonderful dishes of Kuching over the coming weeks, so stay tuned. If you have been to Sarawak, have you tried this dish?
P.S Again I learnt this by standing behind a hot blazing wok in Kuching. Crispy egg noodles or rice vermicelli can be prepared the same way.






recipe per serve
you'll need;
200 g of rice noodle, loosen and mix with a dash of dark soy
100 g of choysum
6 prawns
a handful of chicken slices or meat of your choice
chopped garlic
1 cup of chicken stock
1 tbs of tomato puree
1 tbs of tomato ketchup
dash of soy
dash of oyster sauce
white pepper to taste
corn flour solution

Char noodles in a hot wok, do not move the noodles too much. Set aside and keep warm.




Saute garlic with a little oil then add prawns and chicken slices, cook for a minute.




Add choysum and seasonings and continue to cook on high heat for 30 seconds.

Add stock and thicken with a little corn solution, check for seasonings.

Serve hot with cut chillies and soy.

45 comments:

  1. I was just wondering why there were no new posts for such a long time...This is indeed a new dish to me!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another amazing dish to add to the repertoire ... reminds me of konlow mee which has tomato sauce in the singapore version (and I always preferred mee pok to mee kia ... and yet I don't like fettucine .. go figure)!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't find it strange at all. Wonderful, yes. I like the look of the gravy :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes I tried the crispy noodle version :) A little strange at first but I can see how you became a convert soon after. Thanks for the post, I have almost forgotten about this dish!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Welcome back!! This looks like a really delicious dish, can't wait for other 'strange' dishes from Kuching!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. looks delicous, never tried before

    ReplyDelete
  7. mmmmm...looks so yummy! I really miss this!

    ReplyDelete
  8. This looks good, i must cook this one day when my husband is not at home, he is a strange guy who does not like dish with tomato, hehehe..

    ReplyDelete
  9. That looks good. Reminds me a dish that my grandma used to make

    ReplyDelete
  10. Never heard of this dish, but it sure looks great. The only Sarawak dish I know is ... Sarawak kolo mee, which I miss a lot :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I like the idea of using tomato puree and ketchup in the sauce! Must try!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Awesome colorful dish. Don't know what a choysum is..but everything looks good on that plate!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Have been away without internet for a while, can't wait to catch up with what I have missed! This interesting dish looks good, I am looking forward to other dishes from Kuching.

    ReplyDelete
  14. How interesting! I've been to Kuching a couple of times but don't remember the hawker food. I think I would have been a bit taken aback at first with this dish too, but hey, it's tomato sauce, so it should taste pretty good :) Thanks for sharing, looking forward to more

    ReplyDelete
  15. A very yummy bowl of noodles!

    ReplyDelete
  16. 阿ta,
    Thank you very much!

    KL girl in MELB ,
    Haha it is hard to keep a blog going lol. Hope you will try it.

    Temasek,
    I am glad you think is amazing :) I certainly need to start cooking some Singaporean hawker food too!

    noobcook ,
    Thank you very much! :)

    Bo,
    Thank you! :)

    rosa ,
    Thank you! I am glad someone actually have tasted this dish.

    darren,
    Thank you! I will try to do it once a week!

    HAMSINI ,
    Thank you! Do try it though.

    Anncoo,
    Thank you!

    Emma ,
    Thank you very much!

    Angie',
    Thank you! So you have tasted this too?

    Sonia,
    Haha thank you! Please do and let me know!

    penny ,
    Thank you! Where is she from?

    foodwink,
    Haha I'll try kolo mee next week.

    shanshan,
    Please do!

    Cool Lassi(e),
    Thank you! choysum is flowering Chinese cabbage. Try usind bok choy if you can't find it.

    LMH,
    Thank you and welcome back! I will try one dish/week.

    Shaz,
    Hawker food over in Sarawak is really not that exciting compare to what we are able to get over on the peninsula :) Do try and let me know what you think!

    5 star foodie,
    Thank you very much! :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. looks great! Interesting sauce, I would try it in a heartbeat! Can't wait for more different dishes!

    ReplyDelete
  18. This looks great!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. la sauce doit être divine, j'aime beaucoup
    bonne journée

    ReplyDelete
  20. Harriet from CarltonApril 21, 2010 at 12:18 AM

    This looks really interesting! I love tomato in everything so I'm bookmarking this!

    ReplyDelete
  21. The only food from Kuching that I do remember is Sarawak laksa and a dry egg noodle dish with char siew . I would love this with crispy noodle!

    ReplyDelete
  22. hi 3 hungry tummies!makcik dah beli semua bahan-bahan untuk goreng kuey tiaw for breakfast tomorrow morning.hopefully dapat wake up early dari biasa:)

    ReplyDelete
  23. 很有新鮮感呀!我明天就試!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Looks and sounds fantastic!
    I've always loved sauces, that one looks great!
    B xxxxxxx

    ReplyDelete
  25. I love the colors of this dish and the speed with which it can be made. It is nice to have you back. I hope you are having a wonderful day. Blessings...Mary

    ReplyDelete
  26. Great post. I know nothing of Kuching or Sarawak so am looking forward to your mini-season of recipes from there!

    ReplyDelete
  27. never had asian noodle with tomato sauce... this looks amazing!!!

    ReplyDelete
  28. hey.welcome back! looks great..and by the way I feature one of your recipes on my blog today :)

    ReplyDelete
  29. oh that is funny to use ketchup but looks yummy

    ReplyDelete
  30. never tred such dishes. Let's see how this works.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Pl make one of your noodles dishes for dinner, if we ever meet..lol..too good they are

    ReplyDelete
  32. I feel like an exotic traveller when I visit your blog. All is so scrumptious.

    ReplyDelete
  33. My mum used to tell me about the time when she had tomato ketchup wan tan mee.. *shudder* when she was living in Kuching before I was born =P

    ReplyDelete
  34. Lyndsey,
    Thank you! I'll make sure there are going to be stranger :)

    Michael,
    Thank you!

    Fimère,
    Merci beaucoup!

    Harriet,
    Thank you! Let me know if you like it!

    Yasmin,
    Yeah I will feature the other soon :)

    makcikmanggis,
    Kuey tiaw apa yang makcik masak? Pasti enak! :)

    大肥 ,
    真的嗎?:)試了要跟我說一說喔!

    Betty ,
    Thank you very much! xxx

    Mary,
    Thank you! It is an ultimate fast food :)

    Mr Noodles ,
    Thank you very much! It will only get stranger :)

    Chubby Chinese Girl ,
    Haha you must try this! :)

    Jhonny walker,
    Thank you very much! :) I will have a look! :)

    Rebecca,
    Haha it is! Taste good though :)

    Abhilash Pillai ,
    Haha you figure it out yet!?

    Gulmohar,
    Absolutely! You can choose any at all :)

    Claudia ,
    Thank you very much :) I am glad you feel that way!

    msihua,
    Oh they do like their food red :) Is she a Sarawakian?

    ReplyDelete
  35. This sounds very interesting and so simple too so it is another must try.
    I have been trying out a lot of your Malaysian dishes. Made a large batch of the fried sambal, the boys put it on everything!

    ReplyDelete
  36. You are talking about the food of my land. Of course it's my favourite! :D Great that you are back.

    ReplyDelete
  37. I am very excited about your series on Kuching food as I have visited Sarawak a few times. My friends would normally take me to the open air market for this dish. Looks very authentic!

    ReplyDelete
  38. No she's not.. she just happened to be based there for teaching when she was younger =)

    ReplyDelete
  39. Hello , how are you ? I've not been blogging for almost 3 months now due to many reasons but hopefully will be able to blog again soon , take care

    ReplyDelete
  40. Looks great! Reminds of a dish I have at a local Chinese eatery- Tomato pork chop on Tomato rice. The sauce is equally tart and sweet. Droool!

    ReplyDelete
  41. This is going straight into our noodles cookbook buddy!

    ReplyDelete

Please leave a note. I love to know what you think!

press me

3 hungry tummies

My photo
melbourne, victoria, Australia

linkwithin