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Tham Jiak: Chee Cheong Fun: The Breakdown
Tham Jiak means in some way "love to eat" in Hokkien. I am a Malaysian Hokkien and truly love to eat.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Chee Cheong Fun: The Breakdown

My friend L has once again came up with new findings. This time she outdid herself by going all over Malaysia (almost) in search of all types of chee cheong fun. I had talked about this particular special noodle before, and the one I showed was the fried style. This one is the true way chee cheong fun is served, but of course in also its many varieties. Let’s see what L had come up with, after a series of searching, tasting, analyzing and documenting (now I sound like I studied too much).
Chee Cheong Fun: The Breakdown

When I was growing up, ‘chee cheong fun’ was one of the foods I grew up eating. It is basically steamed flat rice noodles (about a finger’s diameter), cut up into little pieces and then served with a dash of sesame seed and sauce. Now, I can’t tell you what kind of sauce in particular because as the years go by, and when I began to venture out of my humble old town, I realized to my delight, that ‘chee cheong fun’ comes in different variations in different regions.

In my old town Taiping, ‘chee cheong fun’ comes with a rich dose of sesame and fried onions and a type of red sauce which is pretty sweet. The makers would usually add some chilli sauce alongside, to enrich its taste. Sweet is pretty blunt for a Chinese cuisine, you see.

There’s another type of ‘chee cheong fun’ found here and pretty much everywhere else, called the Hong Kong ‘chee cheong fun’. Steam flour noodles, with shelled prawns and pork embedded in between. It usually comes with soy sauce as its gravy, topped with fried onions and again, sesame seed.

Then, found in central Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur’s ‘chee cheong fun’ is actually my favorite among all. Again, the signature steam flour noodles and sesame seed, the version here allows you to choose from a choice or steam or fried ‘yong tau fu’ to accompany your noodles. Garnished with fried onions as well, it is a great alternative to rice.

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Way up north in the gourmet island of Penang, the ‘chee cheong fun’ here, is of sweet taste. Thanks to its sauce which is made up of chilli, rojak paste and peanut paste. Again, it comes served with sesame seed.


I hope you enjoy my ‘chee cheong fun’ review found here in Malaysia. If I missed out any version, please drop your comments and till then, happy eating!

*Food, glorious food* - Ice Age 2

27 comments:

jadepearl said...

I love Chee Cheong Fun!!!
Thanks for the review!!!

Unknown said...

Sedap nye!!!!!

Anonymous said...

The Hong Kong style "chee cheong fun" is my favorite. Not much care for the sweet ones.
You were born in Taiping? That's where I came from. I'm now living in the US.

AhBoy said...

Taiping chee cheong fun is rare breed! Must try someday.

rokh said...

jadepearl, glad you like it

puspha, couldn't agree more!

ydavis, but i had developed a liking for the Taiping sweet one. you're from Taiping too? great!

deliriouslybored, now you mentioned it, i remembered i tried it before, from SS2 market, i will try to get a picture of it and post it here for completeness

ahboy, yea it's rare! i only found one quite similiar at seapark

whistler said...

what a great review/research on Chee Cheong Fun. The Taiping CCF is something I never try of.. mind to tell which part of seapark have ur hometown CCF?

Just discover ur blog and I enjoy it. I tag you.

rokh said...

whistler, thanks for dropping by. as for the shop in seapark, i'm not too sure the name. will find out and get back to you

Tazz said...

Chee Cheong Fun must be hot,soft and smooth. Sometimes when the hawker's business was poor and I got the stale CCF which was a little hard, felt like throwing the whole pkt away after the first bite. But, still forced half the pkt down the throat when I thought of the hungry souls in other part of the world.

-_-"

FooDcrazEE said...

check out the curry version in Boo's blog

rokh said...

tazz, yea, chee cheong fun gotta be springy!

foodcrazee, thanks for da tip

Unknown said...

There's another version from anson, perak..I had the same chee cheong fun as you as I came from Ipoh..Hehe..Love the sweet sauce and pickle green chillies..

sHar0n said...

Oh my God....my favourite food while I was young. I love Penang chee cheong fun, especially the rolled ones, where I can unroll them myself one by one and mix it all fully with sauce. Ah...sweet childhood memories!

Stephanie said...

Ah, thanks for clearing it up! I think the Hong Kong ones are my faves.

dropshot said...

Thanks for the introduction! I love Penang chee cheong fun hehe =D

irenekay said...

yo.....my roots are from Taiping too and i actually live there my 1st 8 years of my life.....

and i don't have any destiny with 'taiping' chee cheong fun(the one with red sauce which happen to be something i've been craving for almost my life) it seems it has been taken over by HK chee cheong fun...;(
... appparently the only place i heard which sold it would be in the market....you know any place that serve during lunch?
thanks!!!

irenekay said...

wait,...... i read the comment...u said u tried a similar one in seapark....which shop?

Audrey Cooks said...

wow! that's a lot of chee cheong fun! my fav is the one at O&S coffeeshop in Paramount. It tastes almost like the ones I like from Penang. Yum!

rokh said...

irenekay, read the after post

audrey, i must try the one in paramount out!

wmw said...

Stumbled upon this post when I did a search after my own post of my fave Chee Cheong Fun stall in Taman Cheras. Yay! It's really one of my fave food, all styles!

Anonymous said...

im stuck in aussie...miss those 'fan cheong' so much!!!

Anonymous said...

good review. may i ask how much is the price of one plate of chee cheong fun generally?

rokh said...

wmw, one of my favourite too!

anonymous 1, aww make some for yourselves?

anonymous 2, it's hard to give a price as it ranges quite especially for the hong kong style with pork/prawn and the KL style of various 'yong tau fu'. but generally it is from as low as rm2 to rm5.

Anonymous said...

Chee cheong fun central!! Section17 Market area.

In the wet market they have those with foo chok / tau foo / fishball and sweet sauce. (Curry also but the curry not so good).

Near the bus stand there is a corner coffee shop (next to newspaper shop) with chee cheong fun and thin curry sauce.

Down that road of shophouse (next row) nearest corner shop, there is another type of chee cheong fun (with spring onions and dried pranws) with a thick curry sause.

drooling already!!

rokh said...

anonymous, thanks for the recommendation! i shall go try it out! :)

Anonymous said...

There is a place you can try out your Chee Cheong Fun in various styles, namely; Ipoh, Penang or KL. Type of "fun" include; plain flat, shrimp flat, round, etc. Located at Money's Corner Food & Beverage Station, it is across the Jln Tun Sambathan (Jln Brickfields) from Plaza Sentral. Check this out at http://hgvc.blogspot.com/2009/03/chee-cheong-fun-in-kuala-lumpur.html

Extreme Power said...

The Taiping at Tupai breakfast and Pokok Assam (not sure still there), still da best. So many macam2 food nice to eat.

Anonymous said...

my distant aunt in
taiping selling it when i was very young back in 80's. the best sauce ever. now in live in the states, i missed the sauce the most.
she had her stall somewhere along the street from the firestation by the open fair ground.
forgot names of streets it is in central of down near the lake area.

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