Kuching Hawker Food - Kueh Chap
Kueh Chap is the Chinese version of "nose to tail" eating. In the early days, it was made mostly with the offals and other less premium cuts of a pig - e.g. the nose, ears, cheeks, tails, skin, etc. Nowadays, kueh chap like most other frugal food of the old days have become popular hawker fare, and usually elevated to more premium levels. A Kueh Chap Special will easily set you back RM 5.00 or more, which is a large sum for hawker food.
The pig parts including meat, offals, skin, etc. are cooked in a soy-sauce based broth with light Chinese herbs and spices. You can detect hints of star anise and five-spice powder. When properly prepared and cooked, there is totally no foul ammonia taste from the offals. The best parts are the big and small intestines. All these different parts give this dish it's unusual variety of textures.
A good Kueh Chap will have a broth which has a savoury sweetness, with very little visible oil in the soup. It is served with rice noodles, but cut into large triangles instead of the more usual strips.
The new Yeow Kee Kopitiam at 101 Commercial Centre serves a good version of this popular dish.
The pig parts including meat, offals, skin, etc. are cooked in a soy-sauce based broth with light Chinese herbs and spices. You can detect hints of star anise and five-spice powder. When properly prepared and cooked, there is totally no foul ammonia taste from the offals. The best parts are the big and small intestines. All these different parts give this dish it's unusual variety of textures.
A good Kueh Chap will have a broth which has a savoury sweetness, with very little visible oil in the soup. It is served with rice noodles, but cut into large triangles instead of the more usual strips.
The new Yeow Kee Kopitiam at 101 Commercial Centre serves a good version of this popular dish.
Yeow Kee is one of the new generation of coffeeshops where the decoration is a bit better then the regular coffeeshop. It's also clean and bright.
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