Good morning everyone. Rise and shine! Let's go to Bukit Mertajam to try out their breakfast's special today...DRY Hokkien mee!
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| No joke! Dry Hokkien mee is real...see photo above:) |
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| Sri Sentosa Cafe. This is where the dry Hokkien mee can be found. There are other food stalls selling nice foods too (eg. pan mee) but their not 'special', hehe. |
Just to set the record straight, Hokkien mee in Penang is usually referred to prawn mee while in other states, it's refered to 'tai luk meen'/ big sized noodles. Thus, Penang Hokkien mee consists of noodles with prawn broths/soup, prawns and other additions (siew yuk/ roasted pork, pai kut/ pork ribs, yee peng/ fish cake). Nowhere else besides Penang can you find great Hokkien mee wherever you go.
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| The dry Hokkien mee stall. The boss taking a quick nap while preparing the noodles |
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| The stall signage, 'Hok Kien Ta'/ Dry Hokkien Mee. No price? Hm, suspicious. It's always prudent to ask first the price before ordering. Anyway, I can assure you that the food here is not expensive at all. |
So, when my friend told me there's a 'dry' variant of Penang Hokkien mee in Bukit Mertajam, I just have to try it out! The stall is situated at a corner food court along Jalan Maju, Bukit Mertajam. I ordered a bowl of dry hokkien mee with 'everything' in it and a bottle of homemade soya bean drink.
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| Breakfast's special: Dry Hokkien Mee (RM5), plus homemade soya bean drink. To be honest, I was surprise to see that the dry Hokkien mee is just normal 'ko lo'/ dry noodle only. I was expecting some concentrated 'prawn paste' on top/ below my noodle, just like dry curry mee having a layer of concentrated sauce on it. I can't taste any 'prawn' essence in it and I don't think they can justify calling it dry Hokkien mee here, IMHO. |
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| Close up photo of the 'liews'. Seen here are a few thin slices of char siews and a few tiny little prawns. The char siew was okay but nothing special, just meat (not the sweet, juicy, succulent that I expected...too high expectation). The prawns are utter disappointment. The prawns were so small and tasteless that even dried shrimps/prawns out-taste and out-size them! |
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| Pai kut/ pork ribs. Just two. However, I must state here that the meat was nicely cook until tender, juicy and tasty. As an added bonus, the pork ribs that they gave me consist of cartilage instead of bones, meant that I can eat it as a whole (cartilage can be eaten, hehe). |
Hok Kien Ta
1 Jalan Maju, 14000 Bukit Mertajam,
Pulau Pinang
Open daily: Morning till finish
Tasty Or Not:
Rating: 5/10. It started as something new and special but I ended up feeling utterly disappointed and totally misled. Anyway, the noodle itself is nice to eat along with the pai kut/ pork ribs, minus the negligible taste from the char siew and prawns. Perhaps, they should call it pai kut mee instead, right?
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