Who has heard of Masak Titek?

Masak titek (or masak titeh like how I used to pronounce) is not widely known unless you are a Penangite or a Peranakan. My mother used to cook white radish masak titek with dried prawns, sambal belacan and usually, she adds some fresh shrimps as well.

I haven’t had this soup for a long time already. A while ago, I reheat the white radish soup which was a leftover from last night dinner and I added a big tablespoon of sambal belacan to my bowl of soup.

I had my masak titeh moment on a rainy afternoon and it feels so good! So, I tried looking for a recipe and discovered that many websites had mistaken other dishes to be masak titek.

There are three different soup dishes which are typical Penang Hokkiens cooking.

1) Salted fish tofu soup is mistaken for masak titek.

2) Masak lemak ubi keledek with sayur manis is also mistaken for masak titek.

3) The real masak titek which consists of a soup made from sambal belacan, papaya (or white radish) with dried prawns and fresh shrimps.

Only a few people put up the right recipe which is the original masak titek. The original one uses unripe papaya with shrimps. My mom told us girls that we cannot eat unripe papaya as it may cause discharges.

Talking about unripe papaya, it is great to produce breastmilk if you are lactating. But that’s another story altogether.

So, who has heard and cooked masak titek? Can share your recipe?

7 Replies to “Who has heard of Masak Titek?”

  1. I heard and saw abt Masak Titik from the AEC channel in astro few weeks ago. They were talking about nyonya food. There is where I see how it looks like. Haven’t taste them in penang b4.

  2. My aunties (paternal side) used to cook this soup as their mother (my paternal grandma, who died before I was born) was a “practising” nyonya.

    Anyway, back to the masak titek. The soup they cook consists of fresh shrimps, chopped unions, daun kadok and lot of pepper. You get all stimmed up if you drink it piping hot. Good to have during cool raining days.

  3. Hi,

    I am from Penang. I supposed no one is cooking Masak Titik like I do nowadays using the same method as my late grandma & mother did during my childhood.

    We either used winter melon cut into chunks or watermelon skins (w/o the sweet flesh), so don’t throw away yr watermelon skins in future 🙂 including dried shimps, belachan & fresh sliced chillies or chili padi.

  4. Just made wintermelon titik last week.Basically same ingredients…belacan,onions,dried shrimps,lots of pepper and when its done ,throw in daun selasih.learnt from my grandmother.can also substitute wintermelon with fresh young bamboo shoots.

  5. I imagined “tetek” when I first read the title;). Never heard that before before mom used to cook unripe papaya with dried prawn, in clear soup. Dunno if it is related to this nyonya recipe.

  6. Hi,
    my mum makes masak titek but it is with a difference .This is a very typical Penang peranakan dish as I’ve never seen it eaten outside our island. Belacan, lots of pepper ,shrimps and watermelon rind. this is one way to make full use of the whole watermelon. one must remove the skin and for it to taste great, don’t cut too much of the flesh out. leave some redness on the rind. I am not sure of the proportions of the various ingredients(like all male members of the family, I only know how to eat! haha!). If you are keen , I will get the exact proportions of the various ingredients.

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