GEORGE TOWN, June 1 — The joo hoo eng chai (sotong kangkung) is a snack that used to be quite popular at hawker centres.

Unfortunately, it has lost its shine in recent times so fewer hawkers are selling it.

It is served with a generous serving of heh ko (thick shrimp paste), some sweet sauce and spicy sambal. What makes this snack so special is in the way the cuttlefish and kangkung are prepared.

These are first blanched in boiling hot water; this is where the skill of the hawker comes in as overcooked cuttlefish will become rubbery.

The kangkung too has to be blanched quickly or else it will come out too limp and soggy.

After the two main ingredients have been blanched, any extra water is shaken off before the sauce is added.

The cuttlefish is arranged on top of the kangkung before the mixture of sauces are poured on top. A good shake of sesame seeds finishes off the dish.

The soft, firm flesh of the relatively bland cuttlefish is given a lift from the burst of sweet, salty, spicy and shrimp-flavoured sauce.

The whole concoction relies on the crunchy and fresh, green flavours of the kangkung to bring it all together; a good dish of joo hoo eng chai should not be overpowered by the pungent seafood flavours due to the shrimp paste and the cuttlefish.

Nowadays, some hawkers tend to add only a little bit of shrimp paste to the sauce or some leave it out entirely, using only a mixture of sweet sauce and sambal.

This could be due to the fact that some customers find the flavours of both the cuttlefish and shrimp paste too overpowering.

It is not easy to find hawker stalls selling this particular dish anymore but here are a few to try out in Penang:

1)    Song River coffee shop, Gurney Drive

GPS: 5.432424,100.31716

Time: 7pm-11pm

2)    Gurney Drive hawker center, Gurney Drive

GPS: 5.439847,100.309038

Time: 6pm-11pm

3)    Penang Free School hawker  center, Taman Free School

GPS: 5.403041,100.309135

Time: 5pm-11pm

4)    Sin Kim San coffee shop, Macalister Road

GPS: 5.416531,100.323769

Time: 6pm -- midnight

5)    Goodall café, Jalan Gottlieb

GPS: 6.137056,100.36191

Time: 6pm-11pm