Beautiful Bing

Spend a bit of time eating Chinese food in Kuala Lumpur and you'll come to know how woefully inspecific the term 'Chinese food' is.

With a modicum of effort and a bit of time spent sitting in KL's legendary traffic one could eat her way around China without venturing beyond the city limits. To say that KL-resident Chinese food fans are blessed is an understatement; when we get the urge we have Hakka, Teochew, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Sichuanese, Hokkien, Hainanese, and - thanks to the most recent wave of immigrants from China - Dongbei, Xinjiang, and Guizhou cuisine to choose from. Taiwanese too.

Which means there's always foods unfamiliar to sniff out. Thanks to a friend's tip we recently found ourselves at a spot called Taste of Foochow (Foochow - or Fuzhou in Mandarin - is capital of China's southeastern Hokkien - or Fujian - province). Open since July, the shop is run by the family that owned Jalan Pudu's now-defunct Hup Yick Restaurant. 

We went for the Fuzhou bing (Fuzhou 'cakes' or 'dumplings') and stayed for the mee suah (rice vermicelli in chicken and rice wine soup).

First things first: the Fuzhou bing are worth a trip in and of themselves. A hand-lettered sign hanging over the shoulder of the shop's owner, who crafts his Fuzhou bing on a covered porch to one side of the dining area, can be roughly translated as 'Most beautiful flavor, leads you to think of it endlessly.' Not an exaggeration.

The bing's wrapper is not a dough but a thin, soupy batter. The shop owner starts spooning batter into a shallow ladle. He then adds a stuffing that includes chopped pork, seaweed, Chinese chives, chopped prawn, and - when he can get them at the market - oysters.

After spooning more batter on top of the filling, he lowers the cake into a wok of lightly bubbling oil and slides it gently off the ladle. Cooked for a few minutes on each side, the cake emerges mottled brown and gold, with a slightly nubby skin.

The cakes boast an exquisite texture. Their thin-walled, nearly grease-free wrappers are crispy without, soft and chewy within. Inside, the filling - having melded with the batter - is lightened light and fluffy, leavened by air pockets. While the chives are a major player in the flavor profile, they somehow avoid overwhelming the delicate flavors of seafood and seaweed. And amazingly, these bing stand the test of time; our fresh-from-fryer specimens were only marginally crispier than our parting bing duo, which had been draining and cooling for at least five minutes.

Equally worthy of a visit to Taste of Foochow is the mee suah. The rice vermicelli, imported from China, evinces a body and wholesome rice-y flavor not often found in a rice noodle. For the soup, meaty chunks of chicken are stewed in a broth made with ginger, glutinous rice wine, and a generous amount of fuzhou hong zao, the dregs from the wine's fermenation.

The word that comes to mind is 'restorative'. One just can't help but feel better after downing these hearty, comfortingly smooth noodles floating in a full-flavored, thickish, slightly sweet, chicken-y broth with a hint of liquor. Diners who aren't driving might wish to request that an extra spoonful or two of the family's homemade wine be added to their serving. Choose from 'new' or the more right-between-the-eyes aged (ate least one year) hooch.

Though it will be hard to get beyond the Fuzhou bing on our next visit, there's much more to sample at the Taste of Foochow: fishballs, 'Yanpi dumplings' with a wrapper made from pounded pork, tapioca flour, and glutinous rice, and ding bian hu, a special porridge which has to be ordered ahead, among other items.

Taste of Foochow, 14 Jalan Gajah (off Jalan Yew), Pudu, Kuala Lumpur. Tel. 03-9281-8788. 830a-5p.

Comments

[bayi]

The broth in the mee suah is red because of the red wine. I think it is this "redness" that causes many other Chinese to shudder at the look of the dish. Appreciation of this dish is a cultivated taste. Those who love it sing its praises to no end. Those who are unable to cross even the first obstacle of the red color stay away from the dish with no regrets.

[Nate 2.0]

Robyn

Thanks for this. You really got me salivating. Are you planning on doing a whole series of the different Chinese cuisines available right in KL?

[Robyn]

Hi Bayi - Actually the broth's color (and 'texture' - there are small red rice-y bits in it) is from the hong zao, the dregs from making the rice wine. I neglected to mention that Taste of Foochow sells containers of this flourescent red hong zao behind the counter, should you care to recreate the mee suah at home. The rice wine, which the owner was kind enough to allow us to taste, is really more brownish.

I can see how this dish might be an acquired taste. The amount of wine TOF adds is just enough to sweeten the broth and give only a hint of liquor -- but the rice wine which we tasted was so smooth and lovely, I'll certainly ask for an extra spoonful or two when we return (Dave will be driving). ;-)

Hi Nate - Hadn't thought of it, actually. Good idea, though. I have done various Chinese cuisines here and there, but never thought to pull it into a series. It could take months! But would be a delicious project....

[Kevin]

As always - looks fantastic. I read quite a few blogs, and yours is right up at the top for 'drool while reading'.

[teckiee]

I love 'ang cio mee sua'... that's how I call it in Hokkien. I never got my friend to try though.... all of them chicken out when they see the red soup.

[Rasa Malaysia]

I didn't know that the food in KL has gotten so much more Chinese-diversified. You have to take me out to sample out the good fares if I go to KL at all. I love that in China, you can try out sooooo many different regional cuisines. And I had been to Fuzhou and oh my, I really love the food in that region and had the best Steamed Turbot fish there.

[DW]

"Fuzhou bing" is a generic term that covers a wide variety of Fuzhou style goodies cooked a number of ways - deep fried, baked, steamed, etc.

It looks like the bing you sampled is called "die biang" in Fuzhounese (sounds like "deer behind", but "behind" said really quickly so the two syllables merge into one).

By the wonders of migration, the "die biang" and other treats I grew up eating in a small town in Malaysia can just as easily be found a short drive from where I now live - in East Broadway, New York City - possibly the biggest Fuzhou enclave in the Western Hemisphere.

[Y Sawan]

Great posting. I like the pictures and they make me love my Foochow roots and food even more.

thanks.

[Katy]

Re DW's comments - "die biang" is pork cake. die is pig in Fuzhounese.