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, paste, crepe or kway).
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 兴园餐室 which was a well loved institution in Sibu.
Chop Hing Huong (closed) at Jalan Tukang Besi (Blacksmith Street) was founded by Kiu Chiong Loi 邱昌蕊 who retired in 2024 after 60 years of operations. Kiu Chiong Loi's master 邱昌蕊 came from Fuzhou, and was in his 70s when teenage Kiu Chiong Loi joined him at his ding bian hu stall in Sibu in the 1950s. Kiu Chiong Loi who is in his mid-80s now still comes to Treasure Land occasionally.
(Like Chop Hing Huong) Treasure Land still use this ancient stone grinder to mill their rice into gruel (to make ding bian hu). They mill their rice fresh every business day.
Making ding 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 / kway 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 kway 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 kway or rice paste came in different shapes and uneven thickness, giving each piece a unique interesting texture to the bite. The relatively thick kway were tender, velvety smooth and its fresh rice sweetness also carried the flavour of the savoury peppery pork soup.
I like the house made fish balls. They were fresh and clean savoury sweet tasting, tender springy to the bite.
(During the early days of Chop Hing Huong, they used cuttlefish to make the balls but switched to squid when cuttlefish became too expensive. Today, at Treasure Land they use seasonal fish depending on what is available from fish supplier.)
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
Origin of Ding Bian Hu in Fujian China
Ming dynasty General Qi Ji Guang 戚繼光 (1528 - 1588) was credited
with bringing kway to southern China. The Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644)
was constantly fighting off marauding nomadic tribes on its northern
frontier and sea pirates on its south coast. Gen Qi was assigned the
mission to eliminate Japanese sea pirates who were pillaging Fujian,
Guangdong and Zhejiang.
In marching his army from their home bases in Shandong province in
the north to the front line in the south, Gen Qi was concerned about
food supplies. Gen Qi wanted to supply his soldiers with food they
were familiar with i.e. comfort food, so he wanted to bring hometown
food down to the south.
One day while pondering this problem, Gen Qi stumbled upon an old
lady making 鼎邊糊 ding bian hu which was milled rice made into a
paste with water, spread thinly on a hot flat griddle and seared into
a thin rice sheet. The paper thin rice sheet was then cut into squares
and stored for future consumption.
To eat, the thin rice squares were simply blanched in boiling water.
The soft and smooth rice sheets were eaten with preserved meat and
vegetables. Dried rice sheets and preserved meat / vegetables were
exactly the solution Gen Qi was looking for.
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| The battle formation which Qi Ji Guang used to defeat the samurai and their long swords. Image credit: Wikipedia |
Gen Qi's soldiers must be quite grateful as he seemed determined to feed them well. Gen Qi Ji Guang is also credited with the invention of Guang bing or kompia.
Looks delicious 😋
ReplyDeleteThere's a Hakka version in Kelapa Sawit. Eatery is a house, few doors away from the temple at Mural street area.
I came to Treaure Land last year and saw the old man hovering around clearing the table whilst the son cooked; only realised later it was the dad :-)
ReplyDeleteAt Tiong Hua Road Market - Stall No 9 will served up Fried Kompia a la Char Kway Teow style . Sibu folks buy Kompia in bulk in the morning and the leftovers somehow made their way to Tiong Hua Road Market to be fried . Stall No 9 only open from 6 pm till 10 pm
At Sibu Center Market - Stall 92 will serve up 3 colour Kampua Mee in the morning
Restoran Paik Siong at Puchong KL serves Ding Bian Hu as well for RM 7.00 .
I came to Come to Eat Restaurant at Sitiawan in July and they serve this Ding Bian Hu dish at RM 9.00 .