Ah Popiah, one of my favourite little Malaysian snacks, that I have actually yet to come across in Melbourne. Which is a shame. But at the same time, a bonus as I then have a perfectly good excuse and feel no shame shoveling them down my throat when I am back in Malaysia.
It is typically a street food, but obviously in the city which is now dominated by malls, someone will naturally come along, pick it up, put it in a fancy suit and put it in a place them office workers might find it.
My mum and my aunt stumbled upon this first and were surprised that I hadn't seen it yet! So after lunch and a bit of shopping in Pavilion, we descended in to the 'Food Republic' food court and bought some to take home.
Mmm, free samples! Basically what popiah is, is a thin crepe-like wrapper, which is filled with a sweet sauce (usually a bean sauce, sometimes hoisin or a shrimp paste), sometimes a hot chilli sauce, finely grated and steamed turnip and a variety of other ingredients, which tend to change from store to store. It's pretty much the healthiest Malaysian street food you'll probably come across!
My popiah has the classic mixes, but of course, being fresh and funky, they've got some 'fusion' and fancier flavours in there as well.
We opted to get the 'crunchy' which has a very very generous sprinkling of dried shallots, along with the radish, some cucumber and peanuts and the 'seaweed' where they put in a few strips of dried seaweed.
I love that it's freshly made on the spot, these ones hold together pretty well and are just delicious, I get mine with the spicy chilli sauce as I love the that spicy bite! The crunchy popiah was exceptionally delicious from all the dried onion/shallots and the mix of textures between the soft steamed radish and the ultra crunchy (they're seriously not kidding) shallots.
Some pictures of the process!
Mmmm, sweet sauce....
A dash of peanuts....or more than that....
Bit of cucumber and more condiments...
Nearly ready....
Roll them up...
And take them home to devour! Omnomnomnom!
My Pohpiah
Pavillion
168 Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
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Love the pictorial photoset of the girl making popiah.
ReplyDeleteI remember one place back home with amazing popiah, it was a stall in a hawker centre. Ridiculous queues. Good chilli sauce in it and i swear the secret ingredient that sold it was deep fried garlic bits. mmmmm!! ; )
why do u envy us with food in malaysia =P. LOLz. love it. Mum sometimes makes popiah at home! =) yumz
ReplyDeleteWow popiahs are so expensive these days! Four years ago, they were only Rm 1.20 per roll!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of popiah! It looks yum, loved the pics.
ReplyDeleteHeidi xo