Chefs flown in from China to prepare Hin Hua traditional dish

SIBU: The Hin Hua community here is cooking up a world of authentic flavours at the ongoing Borneo Cultural Festival with their traditional food prepared by three chefs specially invited from China.

Led by Li Wenbo, master cooks from Putian Prefecture city in Fujian Province, the ancestral home of the Hin Hua community, are introducing a few cultural dishes the community is famed for worldwide.

They are here on the invitation of Sibu Hin Hua Pou Sen Clan Association which operates a stall serving traditional Hin Hua food at the BCF.

One of the most impressive dishes introduced by Li is Hin Hua bee hoon (rice vermicelli), which locals cook differently.

Li said: “We are bringing in a different taste rooted in our culture. I found something interesting. The Hin Hua community in Sibu, though having left their original village for more than a century, has passed on the traditional dish to the new generation.”

Apart from its great taste, Li has a story of the bee hoon to tell and how a simple dish has evolved through the centuries to become a taste of the world.

“The Hin Hua bee hoon is the earliest form of instant noodles which originated from an imperial official when he was building a dam across Mulan River in Putian.

“The Hin Hua bee hoon is an original family dish of this imperial official, who, under the order of the emperor, was building the dam. To feed his workers, the official brought the dried noodles to the work site for convenience, because all he needed was to dip the noodles in hot soup for consumption,” he related.

A quick Google search showed this dam built over eight centuries ago is still standing and operational, and so is the Putian bee hoon.

Li said the dish fascinated the workers who introduced it to their families.

After that, the dish became popular among the community so much so that students going to Peking (now Beijing) to take their exams would bring the instant noodles with them.

“Hin Hua bee hoon is not like other types of bee hoon that one finds in the market. It is handmade – not machine-made. Its special characteristic is, it is made purely of rice and dried in the sun – not machine-dried.”

He said because it is made of rice, Hin Hua bee hoon is “white as snow and fine as silk threads”.

So popular is the dish now that it has become a common feature during Chinese New Year and other grand occasions, he added.

To ensure locals get a taste of the original bee hoon, the chefs brought with them home-made instant rice noodles from China.

Preparing the snow-white bee hoon involves simple steps, said the master chef.

“Dip it in hot stock added with ingredients and toss it so that it will mix well. Never fry it. I find the locals stir-fry it. This will make the bee hoon brittle and spoil its look.”

What makes the dish special is its rich and aromatic stock of chicken which is stewed for six hours without monosodium glutamate, he pointed out.

Li uses more than 10 ingredients for the stock including Chinese cabbage, bok choy, red onions, dried shrimps, meat, Chinese mushrooms, scallops, prawns, dried tofu and celery.

The dried shrimps and red onions are grounded while the rest cut into bite-sized pieces which are added to the stock, after which it is then poured into a wok.

After that, the dried bee hoon is soaked in the stock before serving.

Hin Hua bee hoon is springy, soft and delicious, making it a hit with regulars who enjoy the light flavours of this traditional cuisine handed down from the Northern Song Dynasty.

Hin Hua bee hoon is selling like hot cakes at the Chinese cultural street of the festival.