TANGKAK: Denizens of Klang Valley typically consider themselves as blessed relating to culinary issues as a result of they’ve inside simple attain meals from throughout Malaysia in addition to from a lot of the remainder of the world.
However it have to be stated that there stay sure native delicacies that they’ll get provided that they enterprise away from Klang Valley.
Certainly one of these is mee siput, a snack that’s not often seen past the borders of Johor.
The identify interprets to “snail noodle”, and you may’t blame anybody who thinks it’s one thing a Frenchman would gorge on. However mee siput accommodates no escargot. It obtained its identify from its form, which is spirally just like the shell of a snail.
It’s typically referred to as mee siput Muar as a result of it’s thought of a trademark of Johor’s royal city.
Mee siput is usually served with a touch of sambal and is appropriate to be eaten at any time of the day.
With so many retailers claiming their mee siput to be one of the best, you could be left questioning whom to purchase it from.
Fear not and simply drive out to Tangkak, which is near Muar and the place a bit of home based business has been churning out mee siput of fine high quality for greater than a decade.
Based in 2012 by Shahir Meskon, Mee Siput Kak Chik is alleged to serve a number of the finest mee siput obtainable available on the market.
Shahir was within the navy for 22 years earlier than ending his service honourably. “After that, I helped to make and preserve gear for a relative who made and bought mee siput,” he stated.
When well being points compelled the relative to retire, Shahir determined to have a go at making the mee siput himself and arrange Mee Siput Kak Chik.
On a current journey to Johor, an FMT Life-style staff had the chance to go to Shahir’s factory-cum-residence to see how the basic Johorean delicacy is made.
“Again after we began,” Shahir stated, “we may make 10 to 20kg of mee siput per day. Now, we will do as much as 50kg on common.”
Mee siput is made utilizing a mixture of water, flour and salt and a contact of sodium. It does remind one in all murukku, the Indian snack.
Mee siput begins its life in a machine that mixes as much as 15kg of uncooked substances and churns the mix into a tough dough.
“We hold our substances easy,” stated Shahir. “You actually don’t need to be left with a chemical style in your mouth.”
After ample churning, clumps of the dough are extracted from the blending bowl and flattened into slabs.
These slabs are sliced into strands which are then boiled for as much as six minutes, throughout which they seem fairly just like rice noodles.
Afterwards, they’re positioned in moulds and disregarded to dry within the solar. On a typical day, 1,500 items of mee siput will obtain this therapy.
“We go away the mee siput to dry for as much as two days,” Shahir stated. “If we don’t, they could flip mouldy, and nobody needs that.
“If it rains, it’s going to take twice as lengthy.”
After the drying, trays of mee siput are wheeled on trolleys into the manufacturing space the place they’re baked in Shahir’s oven, which he constructed together with his personal palms. It’s not an electrical industrial oven, however it does the job nonetheless, with easy fuel heaters positioned in entrance of huge followers.
The doorways are sealed to make sure the baking is fast and environment friendly.
As soon as the mee siput is completely golden, batches of it go right into a packaging machine and are readied for cargo to the market.
For all the trouble he places in, Shahir sells his mee siput at moderately low costs. A bit prices RM1.50 and 400g of the snack is bought for RM6.
The mee siput can also be bought alongside containers of sambal tumis cooked by Shahir’s spouse, Azizah Ahmad.
“Should you don’t open the packaging, the mee siput can last as long as six months,” stated Shahir, including that it will final longest in a cool, dry place.
Regardless of being a small kampung enterprise, Mee Siput Kak Chik has garnered substantial consideration, with worldwide vacationers typically dropping by.
“Singaporeans come right here quite a bit,” stated Shahir. “And now we have additionally had vacationers who got here all the way in which from Germany and Australia.”
As for future plans, Shahir simply stated: “An even bigger manufacturing facility could be good, or someplace to place a much bigger oven.”
Mee Siput Kak Chik
Jalan Kampung Baru
Kampung Sungai Ekor
84700 Gerisek
Johor
Enterprise hours:
9am-6.30pm
8.30am-7pm on Saturdays
Contact: 019-627 6570
