Nothing left for me…

Dianpianngu is a Foochow delicacy…

…the favourite of many going all the way back to my teenage days when I used to loiter around the town at night on weekends and at around 8.00 p.m. before going home, we would drop by here for a bowl. If I remember correctly, it was only 20 cents a bowl then.

Dian refers to the wok/kuali, or t’nia in Hokkien and pian means to turn into something or to change while ngu is the gooey stuff made from the powder/flour obtained by grinding rice grains. They made those white sheets…

…in the dish by spreading the ngu thinly in the dian to cook it.

Despite the fact that many come from far and wide to eat it, it is not really my favourite. The last time I had it was in 2017 when I heard that the son of the guy at the original place in town had opened a shop/branch so I simply had to go there and try. It was decent, good enough, I thought but no, it did not get me going back for more.

So what made me stop by here…

…for a bowl that morning, you may ask? The one here is the cousin or something of the aforementioned guy at the original shop – you can actually see the resemblance when you see him!

I did mention in my previous posts that these days, I am staying away from red meats so that more or less rules out everything as most everything would have meat in them, even in a bowl of dianpianngu. However, when I ordered a bowl that morning…

…I told the guy that I did not want any meat in it so I guess it was all right for me to eat that.

Other than that, I am also staying away from noodles as I should avoid too much of anything made from processed wheat flour and since this dianpianngu is not made from that and is derived from grinding rice into powder/flour, it is one of the few things around that I can eat and enjoy with a clear conscience.

It is now RM5.50 a bowl…

…and what I liked best about it was the very sweet and refreshing clear soup with a very light hint of ikan bilis (dried anchovies) stock. I sure loved that! The dianpianngu was well-made and I was fine with the black fungus but I did not think much of the fish balls – it was quite obvious that they were not made from mackerel (bay kar/tenggiri) so they were rather bland, quite tasteless.

I did not like the meng ngee either, the dried cuttlefish. I could hardly taste it, not sweet at all which did not come as a surprise as it is so very expensive these days. Just one small piece, the size of your palm, of the ones imported from China will cost over RM10.00 and even though it looks rather dirty and is covered with white spots (say phoo), it will bring the taste of whatever soup you are cooking to a whole new level, so very fragrant, so very sweet, absolutely delicious. If I am not mistaken, these not nice ones are from the Philippines – I did buy some from the Filipino market in Kota Kinabalu once so of course, I never bought any ever again!

On the whole, I did enjoy what most of the other customers at the coffee shop…

*the dianpianngu stall is the chu char (cook & fry) one, right at the back of the shop*

…and I had that morning and I guess I should be grateful that though they may be few and far between, there are things that I can eat…still.

GRACE CAFE (2.310551, 111.830952) is located among the shops in the Dewan Suarah area, a stone’s throw away from the wet market( 2.310376, 111.830804) there.