The New Straight Times

YOU don’t have to love Teowchew cuisine to eat at Teow Chew Meng. Contrary to its name, the family-style restaurant does not only serve Teowchew or Chiuchow dishes.

After all, it’s signature dish, Mee Sua Tow, is really Hokkien in origin. Also known as Mee Sua Kor, this is a dish of wheat vermicelli cooked into a thick, congee-like consistency.

According to restaurateur Steven Seow, it started when his late father-in-law, Tan Thean Choon, visited China about 10 years ago and tasted the rustic dish for the first time. He loved it so much that he learned how to cook it.
Back home, he opened a small stall selling mee sua tow in Chai Leng Park, Butterworth, and business boomed. Instead of cooking it the traditional way with minced meat, Tan gave it a seafood twist to make it more tasty.

“It was basically a one-man show at that time,” say Seow. “My father-in-law was a perfectionist who insisted on doing everything himself – from preparing the ingredients to the cooking.”

Worried that the old man would tire himself, his children persuaded him to teach them the skill. Soon, Teow Chew Meng restaurants opened in Penang and later in Kuala Lumpur, with the latest being the outlet in Aman Suria, Sunwaymas. Today, there are four outlets each in both areas offering a similar menu..."MORE