GEORGE TOWN, May 22 — Thick and sticky, mee suah tau is an acquired taste for many but it is also warm comfort food for those who grew up enjoying it.

The sticky concoction, which is also known as mee suah gor, is made from thin flour vermicelli cooked in a rich, starchy soup that is almost similar in taste and texture to shark’s fin soup.

It does not look like much when it comes to appearances due to the shredded ingredients and the thick starchy soup but it wins in flavours from the mix of ingredients used.

Like the shark’s fin soup, the soup base is usually a basic broth of either chicken or seafood. Nowadays, due to the increasing prices of seafood, most hawker stalls use chicken broth as the base.

The mee suah is cooked in the broth before ingredients like shredded chicken, crab meat and occasionally mushrooms are added in. Finally, the soup is thickened by stirring in beaten eggs and corn starch.

Long ago, some places actually serve this with seafood and little bits of shark’s fin. Again, due to the costs, this is no longer available which left the simpler shark-friendly version.

Now, the mee suah gor usually comes with only the vermicelli in the soup topped with strips of shredded crab sticks and chicken. Similar to the controversial shark’s fin soup, it is always served with a small bowl of vinegar.

Though it doesn’t have much seafood except for the shredded crab sticks, the vinegar helps to awaken the tastebuds through the cloying stickiness of the soup. This results in a smooth tasty concoction that you can even swallow without chewing if the thin strands of vermicelli has been cooked to a soft, mushy consistency.

For those who feel this might be a tad too bland, they will be glad to know that it is also served with some chopped cili padi or bird’s eye chilli. Adding this with a dash of the soy sauce that comes with it somehow enhances the flavours of the soup, if you like your food to be spicier.

This bowl of starchy noodles may seem like a light meal but it is rather filling due to the starch so don’t underestimate the portion served.

It is hard to ascertain whether the Teochews or Hokkiens introduced this dish but it is often known as another local Penang hawker fare, as evidenced by its Hokkien name.

Mee suah is in reference to the type of noodles used and the word “gor” meant starch. We tried asking around but even the hawkers do not know why it’s called “tau” by some hawkers but most of them assume that it probably meant soup.

There are very few hawker stalls selling the mee suah tau and some restaurants offer this dish too, but with the addition of more seafood that makes it pricier than the roadside versions.

Here are five hawker stalls to try out the mee suah tau in Penang:

One corner cafe, Jalan Bawasah
GPS: 5.421562, 100.325637
Time: 8:30am-2pm

Nam Hong Coffee Shop, Level 2, Komtar
GPS: 5.413989, 100.329668
Time: 9am-2pm

Island Park kopitiam, Tingkat Tembaga
GPS: 5.391303, 100.300327
Time: 7:30am-2pm

Success Coffee shop, Jalan Air Itam
GPS: 5.404979, 100.284133
Time: 5pm-10pm

Pusat Makan Era Jimat, Jalan Raja Uda
GPS: 5.430966, 100.384563
Time: 7pm-11pm