Hawker fare, king’s ransom
By LO TERN CHERN
- NATION
- Wednesday, 21 Sep 2022
Ready to serve: Chew offering a plate of his char koay teow with extra cockles that costs RM19.50 at his stall in Bagan Lalang, Butterworth. — LIM BENG TATT/The Star
BUTTERWORTH: Are you prepared to pay RM16.50 to RM26 for a plate of char koay teow with a sumptuous heap of half-cooked, fat blood cockles piled high along with large shrimps and fried eggs?
Blood cockles are so rare and pricey now that if you want lots of them for the perfect char koay teow, be ready to fork out a king’s ransom for this dish.
Michael Chew, 40, sells his char koay teow in a kampung in Bagan Lalang here with those big, juicy bivalves. His prices prove how costly shellfish is now.
“I source them from two local fishermen who send them to me twice daily, in the morning and noon, to ensure freshness,” said Chew, adding that he started his hawker stall in February.
Despite the steep prices, Chew said eight out of every 10 customers want his premium plates.
A “normal” plate of his char koay teow costs only RM6.
Patrons craving his cockle-laden plates can be seen jamming the parking spaces around his kampung house, especially on weekends.
Diner JY Shen, 50, from Melaka, dropped by to try the dish with friends for the first time on Sunday. They paid almost RM100 for five plates.
“The blood of half-cooked cockles makes char koay teow perfect.
“He serves big ones, and they look like they will be as expensive as oysters someday. Today, cockles in char koay teow elsewhere are the size of peas,” Shen said.
https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2022/09/21/hawker-fare-kings-ransom
