I have visited all the states in the Peninsula Malaysia and had also traveled to Sabah and Sarawak. Never have I come across any koay teow th’ng like those we have in Penang. Sure, there are some really delicious koay teow like the famous Ipoh koay teow which has a very rich soup made of shrimps. But there is nothing like the exotic and sometimes icky (to some) stuffs in our Penang Koay Teow Thng.
Koay teow is the flat, white, rice noodles. Th’ng in Hokkien Penang means soup. We have many varieties of koay teow thng here in Penang, understood only by us Penangites.
We have sai toe fish ball koay teow (sai toe is a type of fish), instant cook koay teow (i.e. fresh minced meat and stuffs added to make the soup), Chinese opera koay teow thng (these are stalls that follow the Chinese opera troupe, dry koay teow usually on the mainland of Penang and duck meat koay teow. What’s duck meat? Usually, they use old ducks to boil for a long time to make the stock.
Duck Meat Koay Teow Thng is usually packed with a lot of stuffs that you either like or find disgusting. The above bowl of duck meat koay teow is from the Cecil Road market, available in the afternoon. What you see are coagulated duck’s blood. You can tell duck’s blood from pig’s blood by the jelly-like of duck’s blood. There are pig’s intestines, lard, duck’s meat and fish balls.
Cut red chillies and tiny cili padi with sauce is a must when eating koay teow thng. I have the bad habit of dumping all the chillies and soya sauce into my bowl of koay teow before I even check if it is too salty. Just a ritual 🙂
So….do you have the stomach and courage to try a bowl of Penang Duck Meat Koay Teow Thng? Complete with pork’s intestine full of ‘flour’. We call that hoon-cheong. Not sure what are those floury stuffs in the intestine though.
