Ask any Malaysian Chinese what’s their favourite hawker centre or kopitiam food, and I guarantee most of them will say Pan Mee. It’s a dish that, although some may find lacking in visual flair, more than makes up for it with its flavourful taste. To many, Pan Mee is the textbook definition for “Malaysian comfort food”
Pan Mee is truly the gastronomical embodiment of the saying “variety is the spice of life” as it comes in a plethora of choices. Depending on who you ask, you may find some fancying the dry options, or you may come across some that enjoy their pan mee in a soup base. There truly is a type of panee for all!
At its core, Pan Mee can be described as “hand-torn” noodles, complemented by an array of condiments such as crispy anchovies, a healthy serving of veggies, and minced pork bits are but a few of the choices one may be spoilt for.
To many, Pan Mee also goes by another name – Hakka Flat Noodle Soup, though Pan Mee is the more colloquial term referring to the name of this crowd favourite dish. In fact, one may find Pan Mee and its different variants in central and the southern end of Malaysia as that’s where most Hakka people reside.
Ingredients (Serves 4 People):
- Broth
- 200 g of Chinese kohlrabi
- 20 g of anchovies (dried)
- 5 litres of water
- 5 tablespoons of salt
- The rest of the Pan Mee
- 2 servings of egg noodles
- 20 g of anchovies (dried)
- 200 g of baby spinach
- 3 tablespoons of cooking oil
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 15 g of dried wood ear mushroom
- 5 teaspoons of salt
- 100 g of minced meat
- 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
Directions:
- Soak the dried wood ear mushroom in a bowl of water for approximately half an hour.
- After that, remove the wood ear mushroom from the bowl of water and proceed to cut the stem off.
- Fold the wood ear mushroom and thinly slice in half and let it sit for the time being.
- Pluck off the stems of the baby spinach and thoroughly wash it.
- Peel, crush and chop the garlic into thin bits.
- Proceed to preheat a wok (a cooking pan works fine too) with the cooking oil.
- Fry the anchovies on low heat till crispy brown in colour.
- Turn the heat up to medium, and toss the garlic into the wok and fry till golden brown.
- Add in the minced meat and fry.
- Add the salt, sugar, and soy sauce into the mix and fry till the minced meat is a nice golden brown colour.
- Set aside the mixture in the wok.
- Boil 3 litres of water and for half a minute, blanch the wood ear fungus for 30 seconds and remove.
- With the same boiled water, blanch the noodles for half a minute and remove.
- Mix the noodles and wood ear fungus with the content of the wok and serve to your hungry guests!