The Making of Kimberley Street Duck Koay Chiap

Most Penangites would have heard or tried the famous night-time Duck Koay Chiap in Kimberley Street, Penang. It is a stall by the roadside located just a few shops down from Restaurant Goh Huat Seng. The proprietor, Mr Por has been been serving Koay Chiap for almost twenty-nine years in this usual selling spot. For over the span of three decades, Mr Por has insisted on using local ingredients, while preparing everything himself. Ranging from the Koay Chiap to the stewed duck to the chili sauce, everything is prepared by him and has remained his trade secret all this while.

I had the privilege this time around to be invited by him to witness the process of making and preparing these famous Koay Chiaps, as well as the rest of the  dishes.  I was very surprise to learn how  tedious and time consuming the process to churn out the Koay Chiap! The process is done by hand as machine is still unable to take over the process as it involves a lot of stop and break in between.The proprietor’s son who is being groom up to assist his father with the daily operations was on hand to show me the process of making the Koay together with his mother. The Koay is made just like how the apong balik is made.

Step 1: Flour and water mixed by hand.

Step 2: Mixture carefully mixed until smooth & milky.

Step 3: Oil coated pans being warmed up to prepare to cook the Koay

Step 4: The mixture being ladled into a bowl, and brought to the pans

Step 5: Mixture poured onto the heated pan & cook over gas stove

Step 6: The pan is moved to ensure the mixture is evenly spread out

Step 7: The pan delicately swirled, very much similar to Apong making

Step 7: It is then placed on the gas stove for it to cook

Step 8: Once cooked, it is then swiftly placed on the 2nd pan which uses charcoal fire for the warming process

Step 9: It is left there to be warmed, while you can see another piece being made on the right

Step 10: After a few minutes of being warmed, it is lifted from the 2nd pan and placed on a rattan tray to cool

Step 11: Once the tray is full, it will be placed on a shelf

Step 12: After completely cooled, it will be cut manually into pieces with a scissor

Mr Por giving the final details of the process

The preparation of the stew duck is as interesting. Among the major ingredients for the preparation of the stew is star anise, cinnamon sticks, ginger and a few others. Of course, as the pictures will show, other parts are stewed as well, such as duck gizzards, necks and wings and pig intestines and ear. The pot puree is left to stew till tender and soft and as one will guess that will take a few hours. The stew has to be continuously stirred or else the bottom of the pot may get burn and that will ruin the whole stew with burnt smell.

Step 1: All parts separated out, and then washed & cleaned

Step 2: The intestines are stewed first, followed by the duck

Step 3: Duck meat with all other ingredients left to stew-to-taste

Besides the above ingredients, they also prepare their own stewed eggs, the chili paste and fried garlic. For those not preferring Koay, do not worry as there are also other choices to go with the dishes such as rice and porridge. A basic bowl of Duck Koay Chiap is RM5 with plentiful of ingredients plus a whole stewed hard boiled egg, while add-on are charged separately.

On Carnovan Street, turn left into Kimberley Street. Pass by Restaurant Goh Huat Seng. It is around 200 metres down the road. Click here for the Map Location.

Business Hours : around 6.45pm, sells right through 11pm (Closed on Thursday)
GPS Coordinates : N05°24’58.4″   E100°19’58.4″