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MFF Sarawak – Hoongan Chau Chai

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This is my FAVOURITE noodle dish to eat when I get home. Not so much mee suah or laksa or kolo mee. ‘Hoongan‘, ‘kampua’, ‘cha chu mien’ and ‘kueh chap’ are what I look forward to. This noodle is mainly SOUR and sour to the max from the preserved vege (chau chai). As if that isn’t enough, we add tomatoes to make it more sour. I don’t know if this is true but women in general love sour stuff (without it being relevant to being preggers and all) and men don’t really get into it. My hubster tolerates sourness to a certain level but not MY level, my dad too. So I wonder if this is a guy thing.

The magic ingredient is this preserved vege. It looks kinda gnarly but this ingredient is common in Asian cuisines. To give the soup that extra sour boost, you want to use more of the stems and not so much the leaves, but don’t worry. I will show you what you can do with the leaves later. Or you can just use everything if you’re making a big batch. This vege comes in different brands and packaging but this was the one we used (below).

I could eat bowls and bowls of this every night for supper and not get tired of it. Coffee shops will have their own style of assembly but we normally like to eat with some prawns and pork balls. My favourite way of eating it after it’s done is to add some spicy heat from ground chilli, sprinkled with some fried shallots and scallions. Delish! Like Foochow instant noodles.

The noodles used for this dish, we just call it ‘hoongan’. It is white, rice noodles and the texture and size is almost similar to al-dente spaghetti.

Print Recipe

Hoongan Chau Chai

This is my FAVOURITE noodle dish to eat when I get home. Not so much mee suah or laksa or kolo mee. 'Hoongan', 'kampua', 'cha chu mien' and 'kueh chap' are what I look forward to. This noodle is mainly SOUR and sour to the max from the preserved vege.
Cuisine: local
Keyword: bihun, noodles, preserved vege, salty, sour

Ingredients

  • Chau Chai preserved sour vege, chopped rather finely
  • Rice noodles
  • 2 cloves garlic chopped
  • Chicken Stock
  • 1 tomato cut to wedges
  • Pork balls optional
  • Prawns peeled and de-veined
  • Light Soy sauce
  • White pepper
  • Scallions
  • Fried shallots
  • Chilli dipping sauce optional
  • Sunflower oil

Instructions

  • Soak the dried rice noodles in water till they're soft and stringy. Chop the chau chai rather finely or you can use the food processor to do this. Use more of the stem for extra sour kick!
  • In a hot wok, stir fry the garlic and then add the chopped chau chai. Stir fry till it's fragrant. Add tomatoes.
  • Add chicken stock till you cover all the ingredients. Let it come to a boil.
  • Season with light soy sauce and white pepper.
  • Let it simmer for 15 - 20 mins and then taste. See if the sourness is to your liking, if you want more sour, add more tomatoes.
  • My mother cooked the pork balls separately because it was frozen and she didn't want that thawed taste to seep into the soup. But if your pork balls are room temp, it's fine to just toss it into the soup.
  • Add your fresh prawns at the last second and adjust any seasoning necessary.
  • This is how we like to do it; we take a few scoops of the soup into a separate pot and heat it up. Add a handful of noodles into the soup for 5 seconds. Dish it out into a bowl.
  • Add more soup to your liking along with the pork balls, tomatoes and prawns. Top with scallions, fried shallots and chilli.

Notes

There is no hard and fast rule what you put as fillings. The important thing is to get the soup right. You can use sliced chicken or pork or even fish. Fishballs or fishcakes work well too.
Enjoy!

I am submitting this dish to Malaysian Food Fest,
Sarawak Month hosted by Sharon of Feats of Feasts

Check out my other MFF Submissions;

Kachangma

Stir-Fried Midin

Cha Zhu Mien 


Reader Interactions

Comments

    • I have to keep a lookout for shops in KL whether or not they sell this type of noodles….never really paid attention before. Will let you know if i find it. 🙂

    • Hi Stephanie, chau chai is like ham choi, no it is not only available in kuching, ham choi got many types so i won’t give a brand and some are sold in wet markets by weight. You just need to look for the sour type and not so much the salty types.

    • Loh shu fan? Hmmm….my understanding of loh shu fan is short, stumpy and fat. 😛 No…don’t think so…these noodles are thinner and longer, just that in the final photos the noodles looked like they all broke half way, right? 😛 The best i can describe the taste, look and length is like a slightly undercooked spaghetti. When loh shu fan is cooked, it looks a bit translucent right? Well, these noodles are not.

  6. Yum yum yum!!! I LOVE all sorts of sour soup. I think it’s a girl thing too. If my bowl isn’t sour enough sometimes I’d add some extra vinegar too! Yours looks particularly decadent!

  7. Hi Sharon,

    Ya i know sour type but somehow or rather the taste is different if compared to the real chau chai used. Coz from what i know the chau chai is fermented with the red rice thingy from the ang chau. Mind to tell me where you got yours from?

    I miss chau chai beehoon and yours make me salivate even more! haha! Thanks for the post!

    • Hi again Stephanie…i don’t really buy my chau chai here because everytime i go back my mom would give me several packets to bring to KL. Haha…and since it’s preserved, they can last rather long. Yes, the sour type has to be the ones fermented in the ang chau, i shud think it’s quite common here too. Would keep my eyes peeled when i go pantry shopping next time and let you know if i do spot one. 🙂

  10. I remember this Chau Chai, my siser-in-law’s brought us this special Chau Chai from Sibu and she taught me to cook into soup. I remember the Chau Chai already chopped very finely and have cooked it with wine and some seasonings. I have to ask my SIL to bring me some next time, nice one!

    • chopped dy? Hmmm….i have never personally come across chopped ones dy, always have to chop myself which i quite lazy to do, hehehe. Good for you!

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