I used to frequent this lady’s stall when she was at her original location and then, for reasons unknown, she wrapped up her business and disappeared. Eventually, after so many years, I heard that she was here so of course, I wasted no time in making my way there to enjoy her out-of-this-world Penang prawn mee…
Not long after that, an ex-student of mine sent me a photograph of this coffee shop and informed me that she had moved here…
…and was no longer at the previous location. I did mention in an earlier post that she had moved here but I did not drop by at the time so I did not have the photographs to show.
Her stall is right in front, on the left hand side…
…while the kampua mee stall is on the right.
There were a lot of customers at the coffee shop but their orders came from different stalls – it did not look like there was a crowd puller but three old men at the next table next to mine had the lakia mee, what they call mee mamak here, and it did look very nice.
The Penang prawn mee had gone up by RM1.00 – it was RM9.00 at the previous place but I did not feel like having it that morning. Instead, I was looking for something clear and refreshing and asked for the mee sua (RM8.00)…
…instead.
Yes, it was very good, very strong on the ginger or what we call in Hokkien, very hiam and the traditional Foochow red wine was very fragrant too. It was not red in colour and that is a good thing. The ones that are very red are usually not well-filtered so there is a lot of the residue of the ang chao/hóng zhāo (红昭), the red glutinous rice wine lees that will give the soup the coveted red colour but unfortunately, it lacks the very nice and pleasant fragrance of the wine.
I do know for a fact that at some places, they actually add ang chao to make the soup and everything else in it look so very red as many unsuspecting customers actually think that this is very nice and is what they should go for. The best quality traditional Foochow red wine is clear and orange in colour, not exactly red like the cheaper, diluted and not-so-fragrant ones.
I would say that I enjoyed the mee sua…
…a lot but it was not as nice as the one I liked a lot here which, unfortunately, is no longer available as the fat lady has called it quits and of course, my favourite is still this one here.
388 CAFE (2.307505, 111.848612) is located along Lorong Sena 8, in the area of shops opposite SMK Deshon.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
The mee sua looks good although I’m not a fan of it. RM10 for penang prawn mee now? Yikes!
Considering that you get so many BIG prawns plus all the other ingredients, RM10 is a steal. Anything with prawns here is expensive even if the prawns are some miserably tiny ones. Well, it’s your money – you can choose not to eat it…and go and eat something else…like Taiwanese beef noodles at RM36.00 a bowl, for instance.
I super love mee sua now. My Foochow DIL cooks pretty nice mee sua with Foochow rice wine from Sarikei. Once she cook tu kar mee sua and the tu kar is very tender. Drooling..😋🤤First time I eat tu kar mee sua.
Here, we have too kha pek ting eyok (eight treasures) at the stalls and some have too kho char bee lau (fragrant root) with meng ngee (dried cuttlefish). I prefer the latter – both are served with mee sua. We never ate those at home so at first, I was not so used to the colour of the pig skin. We only ate it phak lor (braised) too kha with soy sauce.
The picture of the prawn mee very nice. I see that there is a hard boiled egg and shiitake mushrooms in the mee sua wine soup. Now, I must go buy chicken and cook mee sua wine soup. Long time haven’t cook this. I usually add wood fungus to the soup.
Here, black fungus is added to the big bihun (they call it hung ngang) in that same traditional Foochow red wine and ginger chicken soup, also a Foochow dish. Kim chiam (golden needles) is also added, knotted. The mothers will cook a lot and distribute to all in the family when a daughter gives birth – red eggs are given too if a boy, eggs, not coloured, if a girl.
https://suituapui.wordpress.com/2020/02/10/reminded/
Hard boiled egg and shitake mushroom are usually added to the soup in Foochow mee sua. These days, some people will also add wolfberries and red dates for extra sweetness.
I quite enjoy the strong flavour of ginger, especially when it’s a little spicy.
In my case, it depends on the dish. Generally, I’m not into it that much.