Rice Paste Soup or Ding Bian Hu 鼎边糊 is a Hock Chew dish I heard of for a long time but never tried it till today. Neither Singapore nor Johor has this dish.
Ding bian Hu 鼎边糊 literally means "ding" 鼎 (wok), "bian" 边 (the side or edge), and "hu" 糊 (flat rice noodle pieces, crepe or kueh).
Glad to try it for the first time during our 8-day Pan Borneo Highway Kuching to Sibu self drive holiday.
There are a few well known ding bian hu stalls and shops in Sibu - we had ours at Treasure Land coffee shop.
Treasure Land is run by the second and third generation of Chop Hing Huong which was a well loved institution in Sibu.
Chop Hing Huong at Jalan Tukang Besi was founded by Kiu Chiong Loi who retired in 2024 after 60 years of operations. Kiu Chiong Loi in his mid-80s now still come to Treasure Land occassionally.
(Like Chop Hing Huong) Treasure Land still use this ancient stone grinder to mill their rice into gruel (to make dian bian hu).
Making dian bian hu is a lot about timing and control of temperature.
Rice gruel is splashed on to the edge of a hot wok. A lid is closed over it, covering the rice gruel for a few moments to cook the rice gruel to a paste or thin crepe. Then pork bone stock with a bit of seasoning and sauce is added to the wok. Cover again for a few moments.
The pork bone stock is made using real natural ingredients, no fooling around with flavour powders and concentrates.
The paste or crepe are scraped from the wok edge, folding the rice paste / kueh into the pork stock.
The rice gruel turned into sheets of paste with pork stock are transferred to bowls served to customers.
Toppings are added.
Ding bian hu is an austere dish. Clockwise from right, there's the pork bone soup, then pieces of kueh or flat sheets of rice paste, fish ball, dried cuttlefish, wood ear fungus, fried shallot and sprinkles of white pepper and chopped scallion.
The pork bone soup had a porcine kind of savoury flavour with a bit of pepperiness and aroma from fried shallot.
The kueh or rice paste came in different shapes and thickness, giving each piece a unique interesting texture to the bite. The relatively thick kueh were tender and carried the flavour of the savoury peppery pork soup.
I like the fish balls. They were fresh and clean savoury sweet tasting, tender springy to the bite.
Major bucket list checked 👌 but I want more.
Ding bian hu is an iconic Hock Chew staple going back centuries. I enjoyed it very much for its homely flavours and feel.
Address: Jalan Ling Kai Cheng, Pekan Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia
Hours: 7:15am - 11:30am (Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun) | 6pm - 8pm (Thurs, Fri, Sat) | Opens morning only on public holidays
Written by Tony Boey on 13 Oct 2026
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