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Hokkien Mee + Hainanese Chicken Rice = ?

One evening over dinner...

Son: Mummy, what was it? The language that you use to talk to grandma on the phone? 
Me: That's Hokkien. It's a kind of dialect spoken by those of the Min ancestry called the Hokkiens. 
Son: What? Hokkien Mee? (He started laughing) 
Me: Not Hokkien Mee. It's people of the Min ancestry. 

And since my son related my ancestry to food, I continued my answer by saying...

Me: You know, if you say I am Hokkien Mee, then your dad is Hainanese Chicken Rice. 
Son: Hainanese Chicken Rice? That's so funny!

So, this led to some ancestry and heritage talk with my kids.

If you are a Malaysian, I am sure you know what Hainanese Chicken Rice and Hokkien Mee are. 

When we talk about the Hainanese Chicken Rice it is poached chicken served with seasoned rice. It is a complete meal by itself, served with a special chilli sauce, ginger sauce, fresh slices of cucumber, coriander and a bowl of soup. It is sometimes served with braised eggs and tofu too. In the state of Malacca, the rice is sometimes rolled in the shape of a ball and it would be called the Hainanese Chicken Rice Balls. 

This dish was created by the Hainan immigrants and have become very popular in the country. 

The Hokkien Mee, on the other hand, is a little more complicated. There are two popular versions namely the Kuala Lumpur Hokkien Mee and the Penang Hokkien Mee.

This is the Kuala Lumpur Hokkien Mee, which is also one of my favourite food. 

The first one is the one we were familiar with. Fat yellow noodles cooked with dark soy sauce. Other main ingredients include prawn, chicken or pork, cabbage and sometimes squid, cooked under charcoal fire. It is served with sambal (chilli paste) and calamansi.

This dish was created and developed in Klang Valley, Kuala Lumpur, hence the name.

The second one is commonly found in almost all coffeeshops in Penang. It is also known as prawn mee (but famously known as Hokkien Mee in Penang). The main ingredients of this noodles soup are prawn, slices of chicken or pork, squid, fish cakes, kangkung, hard-boiled eggs and sambal. 

My children did not know much knowledge about dialects and ancestries so I tried to tell them that the Chinese here were of different ancestries so we spoke different dialects. 

It was an interesting talk with the kids on ancestry, heritage and food. 

And then they asked me: 

Mummy, so what are we? 

I am not sure how much they understood what I told them but now they know that they are 50% Hainanese Chicken Rice and 50% Hokkien Mee. 

NOTE: Haven't found nice Penang Hokkien Mee and Hainanese Chicken Rice around my area, thus no pictures yet. Will upload as soon as I am able to get some good ones. 




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