Bakkwa 肉乾 or ròu qián (pronounced as rou gan) or Chinese dried meat is ohhh so lip-smacking good. 👍😋🤤❤️ Once you tried it you will love it for life! This smoky, salty and sweet dried jerky meat is usually made from pork because Chinese loves pork! There are also bakkwa made from chicken, beef and yup, turkey and ostrich. Bakkwa is thin and square in shape but in recent years you can also find bakkwa in a thin round shape symbolizing coin aka money and then there’s also bacon bakkwa. Bakkwa is available all year round but very popular during Chinese New Year (CNY) and there are usually long queues outside those famous bakkwa shops a few weeks before CNY.

I remember being basked in the wonderful bakkwa smokes whenever we pass by bakkwa shops at Chinatown aka Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur during CNY preparation years back. Our clothes would smell like bakkwa long after! These shops would charcoal grill the bakkwa just outside their shops and direct the smoke with a few fans towards the main road. In a way, yes it’s hazardous but it’s a wonderful marketing tactic to draw potential customers (like me) into their shops with their addictive and fragrant bakkwa aromas. You can’t find this experience any more at Petaling Street.

I wanted to make bakkwa for a while now because I found out we can actually make bakkwa at home. Besides, the prices of bakkwa have been steadily rising year after year. In another word, it’s expensive yo! So, I finally made bakkwa… woohoo BUT buttttttt I don’t have soy sauce on hand, one of the main ingredients to make bakkwa. I used shoyu koji 醤油糀 instead and thus 🤩🌟 shoyu koji bakkwa 🌟🤩 was born.

Shoyu koji bakkwa 醤油糀肉乾 is a fusion bakkwa where China meets Japan. The enzymes in shoyu koji tenderize the meat and as well as adding more oomph!

p/s: Noticed the uneven thickness? I’ll talk about it more below.

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