Ding Bian Hu 鼎边糊 is a characteristic soup noodle dish from Sibu, Sarawak. It literally translates to “wok edge paste” in Chinese. It is introduced by the early migrants that came from Fuzhou (Foochow) city in China and settled in Sibu.

The main star of the dish is that the flat noodle pieces, which are made from liquid rice flour batter. The liquid batter is poured around the side of the hot wok that is cooking the soup. When the liquid batter gets in contact with the hot wok, a thin layer of solidified dough forms. With a special scraper, the dough is then scraped into the simmering soup, thus forming the noodle pieces. The noodles and the soup are then dished into a bowl to be served.

Traditionally, the soup is made from pork and cuttlefish stock. Ingredients like Fuzhou fish balls, anchovies, black fungus, garlic, ginger, pepper and fish sauce are added to the soup to add more flavours. Sibu’s Ding Bian Hu are slightly different from China’s Ding Bian Hu due to the usage of local ingredients, especially Sarawakian white pepper. Most Ding Bian Hu eateries will have Sarawak white pepper on the table for customers to add more. To make it even more uniquely Malaysian, some inventive shops even cook Ding Bian Hu in a curry-based soup.

Ding Bian Hu is not commonly eat at home as it requires special tools and skills, so this dish is mostly found in special eateries. Although the dish and its authentic cooking method are slowly disappearing, there are still several shops all over Sarawak, especially Sibu, selling Ding Bian Hu. So if you are a foodie visiting Sarawak, Ding Bian Hu should be high on your list of food to try.