Breakfast on a wet Sunday morning at Bukit Mertajam’s latest Michelin Bib Gourmand entrant, Taman Bukit Curry Mee.
Penang-style curried noodles, called “curry mee”, usually consists of a mixture of yellow Hokkien wheat noodles and thin rice noodles (called “bee hoon” in local Hokkien dialect) in a fairly liquid coconut milk-infused curried soup, with blanched beansprouts, prawns, blood cockles, tofu puffs, cuttlefish and the all-important pig’s blood pudding, cut into cubes.
The slight difference between “curry mee” on Penang island and the ones on mainland Penang is the addition of long beans for the latter version.
Similar to Singapore’s Nyonya laksa, Penang curry mee’s basic spice paste consisted of ground dried shrimps, together with chilies, lemongrass, shallots, garlic, coriander seeds and toasted “belacan” (fermented shrimp paste).
Taman Bukit Curry Mee is a 40-year-old family-run business which sees a never-ending queue of customers, mainly local Mainland Penangites, even before it was listed in the Michelin Guide. The stall opens at 6am, and this queue was at 7am on Sunday morning:
We were here at 6.30am, and didn’t have to queue nor wait very long for our order to be served:
The textures of the noodles were perfect, and the soup was piquant, highly aromatic and intensely-flavoured. MYR6.50 or US$1.40 for a satisfying bowl of noodles - perhaps one of the cheapest Bib Gourmand eatery in the world.
Address
Taman Bukit Curry Mee
Jalan Bukit Kecil, Taman Bukit, 14000 Bukit Mertajam, Penang, Malaysia
Tel: +6012-486 1852
Opening hours: 6am to 11am, Tue to Sun. Closed on Mondays.
