Down and Out in Melacca

[Chris]

Steph and I were headed down the coast for Johor Bahru, stopping of at Melacca which seemed to be the hot-bed and source for many of our amazing tastes in Malaysia. I was on a hunt for the last two dishes on my list: Char Kway Teow and Bak Kut The. Our old guest house let us navigate the old city on their bikes for the first two days. Steph directed us to the Christmas lights and fireworks in the Portuguese quarter, and then to the English and colonial Dutch settlements the next morning.

I was feeling a bit under the weather on the second day and got out of bed for a second time in the evening only to complete our mission. I think a severe case of Christmas homesickness was also sinking in for both of us. then a friendly women who sold me some flip flops pointed us towards a good hawker centre where we could find our food demands all in one place.

Today you can even buy sachets of Bak Kut The in medicinal shops. It is typically served with a cup of tea that also helps bring out the flavor and dissolve the fats from the soup.

So that evening the first order of the day was a pork-rib breakfast soup known for it’s medicinal properties. Bak kut the (pork rib tea in Hokkien) was prescribed to Chinese patients and made with over 20 herbs and spices, including cinnamon, cloves and pepper. The soup has healing properties to help with blood circulation, reducing toxins and strengthening the liver.

After being revived, I did another round of the centres many seafood stands (mostly cockles) and was told that the man all the way on the end would make a good Char Kway Teow, which his son then brought over to our table.

Char Kway Teow - these fisherman noodles were originally served on palm leaf plates to add fragrence and retain moisture, or palm leaf ’to-go’ packets tied in twine. Today it runs for about 5 ringgit on the street.

Char Kway Teow translates to fired flat noodles. It was originally sold by fishermen who moonlighted as street food vendors. The noodles are stir-fried over a high flame in lard, soy sauces, garlic. The lard was a cheap source of energy and popular anoung laborers. Then it’s up to you to decide if you want clams, shrimp, fish cakes or chinese sausage. Today the healthier green Char Kway Teow is fried without lard and vegetables are added as shown here. .