Prior to moving to Shah Alam (closer to Klang), I was under the impression that Klang has great bak kut teh, some excellent seafood, and that’s about it.
Little did I know Klang actually does offer some unique hawker fare, some of which aren’t found anywhere else. My favorite is the Klang style “Red Wine Mee Suah“. A quotation mark is warranted cos the wine is actually “yellow wine” if you can read in Chinese.. but for some reasons the dish is called red wine mee suah instead.
mee suah, minced pork, “yellow” wine, ginger, flour
Not to be confused with fuchow red wine mee suah that uses red yeast rice wine (红槽) and chicken, the Klang style uses another type of Chinese rice wine that’s often called “yellow wine” (黃酒), which carries a much higher alcohol content, in the case of my version – 28%.
I couldn’t find a recipe for this dish online, so the next best thing is to just to “reverse engineer” it, so here’s my version that I thought turned out pretty well. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
1-2 inches of ginger (old is better)
minced meat – enough to make 4-5 meat balls per bowl
Chinese “yellow” wine (same as those used to make yellow wine chicken), roughly 28% alcohol content
meesuah
soup stock, or water + chicken cube
poached or sous vide onsen egg (optional)
some cooking oil
salt & pepper
cornstarch
Klang style red wine (or yellow wine?) mee suah
Cooking Instructions:
cut ginger into thin slices & fry them until crispy, set aside
mix cornstarch, salt & pepper to minced meat & make into balls
boil soup stock & cook meatballs for 2 minutes
add meesuah for 30-45 seconds
remove from pot & put in bowl
add 2 caps of rice wine to each serving
add fried ginger & eggs to finish up the dish
If you don’t eat pork, other meat substitute can be used as well. Enjoy!
Whenever anyone spoke of Klang & food in the same sentence, it is almost always about bak kut teh, and while it is true that the best BKTs in the land can be found right at Klang, the district also offers one other dish that’s unique to this area which I absolutely love – the Klang style red wine mee suah.
Eng Ann Coffee Shop, Klang
Not to be confused with fuchow red wine mee suah that is actually red in color (such as this one at Sentul), the Klang red wine mee suah uses a different concoction of wine that is actually yellowish in color. Additionally, while fuchow mee suah comes with chicken, Klang style is served with pork slices (or minced pork), poached egg, and finely chopped fried ginger.
Klang style red wine mee suah
The bowl you see on the above picture is a typical serving of Klang red wine mee suah, with the exception of having vegetable. They are usually served without, but often you can get the stall owner to add some if you prefer some greens in your breakfast.
As for taste, it usually carries a pretty strong rice wine taste with a slightly sour note in the soup base, with poach egg and those fried ginger providing balance and complexity to the dish. It is one of the better comfort food if you’re looking for something soupy and rejuvenating in the a.m.
a poached egg with semi runny yolk on the mee suah
A typical bowl of Klang red wine mee suah runs anywhere from RM 6.50 – RM 7.50, you do pay slightly more than other hawker dishes in the area due to (I presume) the cost of alcohol used.
If you find yourself at Klang next time, give this under-represented dish a try, you may just like it! They’re available at majority of the kopitiam in Klang.
Address: Eng Ann Coffee Shop 2, Lorong Kasawari 4, Taman Eng Ann, 41150 Klang, Selangor GPS: 3.056437, 101.459347
After discovering the red wine mee suah dish at Jalan Ipoh, I started asking around about this dish and got a recommendation from a friend Chris that I should check out Old Fuzhou Restaurant at Damansara Kim, so I did.
Update 19/2/2018: This place has since closed.
Old Fuzhou restaurant at Damansara Kim
Old Fuzhou is located at the side of Super Tanker at Damansara Kim. A corner restaurant with less than a dozen marbled table and classic wooden chairs. It has a bit of the old school Chinese charm, but also equipped with air conditioning for your comfort. Pretty neat.
Menu isn’t very extensive, but you have a selection of noodle & rice dishes, with some dinner sets and ala carte as well.
red wine mee suah, one of my favorite foochow dishes
Of course, I went for the signature dish – red wine mee suah (RM 9.90). It is simple and unpretentious, with chunks of chicken, some ginger, black fungus, and of course, mee suah. I do like the soup base a bit more than the version at Sentul as it is thicker and more flavorful. For the price, it’s definitely a dish to recommend.
Haze & KY, red wine fried rice, soya bean curd
Haze tried the pretty unique red wine fried rice (similar price) which is probably a bit of an acquired taste. Similar ingredients but in the form of rice, you do get some green peas though. I gave it a try and thought it’s pretty delicious as well.
Most individual noodle dishes at Old Fuzhou are priced below RM 10, other htan mee suah, there’s loh mee, wantan mee, minced pork noodle, and even Hakka stew pork noodle. I’ll certainly be back to try some of their other stuff after I’m bored with red wine mee suah (which may not be so soon).
Address: Old Fuzhou Restaurant 81, Jalan SS 20/11, Damansara Kim, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor GPS: 3.134693, 101.629096 Tel: 03-7725 5527
I first got to know about red wine mee suah from having a bowl at Suan’s sister’s place, with her mom being the cook. I was intrigued by this simple yet unique dish. From then on, I was hooked… and didn’t know where I could find them outside of Foochow strongholds like Sibu & Sitiawan.
Chin Heng Restaurant, Off Jalan Ipoh
Then one day after one of my dental visit for invisalign check up at Mydentist.my at Jalan Ipoh, I somehow ended up at Chin Heng kopitiam while looking for a quick lunch.
Looking at the big menu plastered on the wall, I found it! Red wine mee suah! I gotta have it, so I did.
Foo Chow style red wine mee suah
The red wine mee suah (RM 9) here comes with plenty of ginger with stripes of mushroom and chunks of chicken. The soup isn’t as thick as I wanted, but according to the operator (2nd generation foochow from China) you can always ask to have less soup and they’ll prepare it to be thicker. It is a pretty good version nonetheless.
Restaurant Chin Heng also serves lamb chop, chicken chop, pork chop, and quite a variety of noodle/kuih teow. It is pretty popular with the office crowd nearby, but I think it is a place to check out even if you don’t work nearby.
Address: Chin Heng kopitiam Jalan Selvadurai, Sentul, 51200 Kuala Lumpur GPS: 3.177289, 101.682162 Hours: Mon-Sat 7 am to 4 pm
