Dian Bian Gu (鼎边糊)

"Dian Bian Gu"(鼎边糊)(Pronounce it in foochow if you can)


Another Foochow speciality dish. And thus, found in area where there are Foochow around. Don't ask me what this is called in English. I only know it's foochow and later it's chinese name. LOL. My dad can cook a very good bowl of Dian Bian Gu. I really do need to learn this from him.

History behind this dish:

Foozhou being at the coastal side of China is prone to pirate attack. During the Ming Dynasty, there are soldiers who will go fight off these pirates. There is this troop led by 戚继光 who is greated respected by the people. So whenever he passed by, the people will give him food to eat.

One day 戚继光 came to this town in Foochow and the people cooked lots of food for them to eat. After they left, another troop came. But they have no more food. With some quick thinking, they came up with this recipe where they make some rice flour into paste, cmake soup with shredded meat, dried oyster, dried lilies, black fungues, dried shrimp, and dried scallop. While the soup is boiling in the center of the wok, they pour the rice flour paste over the edge of the wok to cook to save time. When the paste is cooked, they scrapped it down to the soup and viola, a new dish is discovered.

I hope my translation is right.

Nowaday, the ingredient is less. A bowl of Dian Bian Gu consist of dried cuttlefish, black fungus, fish balls, thinly sliced pork, chopped spring onion, fried onion, and MSG. Usually, pepper and vinegar are added to the DING BIAN HU before eating.

This is usually eaten during breakfast or late night supper.

Recently, I made a trip to Sibu. And I found out that you can't readily find this dish. You have to go to certain food center to find this.

This lead me to wonder:
Does this mean that this dish is no longer popular?
Does this mean that like all things, this dish may just disappear one day and goes into history?
What is the recipe for this dish? I would definately like to learn to cook this.

Kolo Mee

Sibu has it's Kam Pua Mee. Kuching has it's Kolo Mee. These 2 noodle dishes are exclusive to these 2 towns in Sarawak. Due to migration from town to town, you can find Kam Pua Mee readily in Kuching now. However, it's still difficult to find Kolo Mee in Sibu.



Kolo mee is noodle blanched in boiling water, mixed with lard, MSG and fried shallot/garlic oil and topped with minced meat and barbequed pork. The difference with wantan mee is that they do not use dark soy sauce and gravy is not added to the noodles when served.

Kam Pua vs Kolo Mee

To me there are only 3 differences. One is the sauce. A different sort of light soya sauce. The other the usage of minced meat. There is no minced meat in Kam Pua Mee. Finally, it's the noodle used. The noodle used in Kolo Mee is more curly, cruchier and firmer. See the difference in the picture below:


Kam Pua Mee


Kolo Mee

With lots of Sarawakians moving overseas to work, here in Singapore, a Sarawak Kolo Mee open it's store sometimes last year in Chinatown. My personal opinion is if you want authentic kolo mee, go to the original store. Not those branches. I haven't been back for months because the kolo mee in their branches are not up to standard.

Kam Buak Mien

Sibu is a town in Sarawak, East Malaysia. The place where I was born. I left when I was 10 years old and never been back for 15 years until I married a man from Sibu whom I met overseas (talk about fate). The population is dominated by Fuzhou Chinese and as well as indigenous Melanau, Malay, and Iban. And yes, I am a Fuzhou who can speaks the dialect, though it's quite tedious to speak a full sentence of fuzhou with no mixture of other language with the elders.


This picture is taken from wikipedia. Yap. Sad to say, I don't have any picture on Sibu. Maybe I should take some the next time I visit.

So what is so special about the food from my hometown?

Sibu is known for its delicious and affordable local cuisine. I am going to start with a special noodle.

"Kam Buak Mien" noodles (光拌面)(you have to pronounce these name in fuzhou)



Kam pua which means dry plate in Foochow is a Foochow delicacy that has become the iconic dish of Sibu. It costs about RM$1.80.

The noodles are cooked in hot water till they are cooked and then dipped briefly in cold water to prevent the strands from sticking to each other. They are then drained and mixed in plate of filled with lard, oil, soya sauce, spring onions, shallots, MSG & salt. Char Siew slices are used as garnish.

Other versions are:
Kam pua with no meat
That's what my parents will bring when they come visiting us in Singapore because we can't bring any form of meat into Singapore.

Kam pua with chili sauce
I like my kam pua with lots of chili sauce, but not when they are mixing it. I like it mixed by myself. It just doesn't taste the same when the cook mix it. Maybe the few seconds it takes from the stove to my table makes the difference.

Kam pua with soy sauce


Some like it black. I never tried this before. Still prefer the white version.

Kam pua is always served with a bowl of clear pork soup with MSG is served with it. However, I noticed this is only available in Sibu. The soup is not served in Kuching.



Kam pua is sinful food. It's filled with lard and MSG. Without this 2 ingredient, it's just not the same.

Although Kam pua mien is famous in sibu, I have seen Food show where the Foochow in Taiwan also serve a similar noodle dish. It's also called Kam Pua Mien. I wonder if it taste the same.

Food for Thoughts

A friend has recently started a food journal and it got me thinking. I don't cook very well. Neither do I bake. I have no recipe to share. And I always forget to take picture of food that I eat in restaurant, food court. But I love to eat and people who has seen me will know why. LOL.

I have a blog that I talk nothing but neopet. An online game that I play every waking hours of my life for the past 3 years. (blush) So what am I doing creating another blog? Hmmm... this one is created for me to fill it with my thoughts.

So here's to Food for Thoughts.