Hokkien Mee
Thick yellow noodles braised in dark soy with prawns, pork and cabbage until the sauce coats every strand. Kuala Lumpur's version, almost black.
Photograph credit: Newton HokkienMee (image of Hokkien mee on Wikidata Q1624233) by Jpatokal · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Make Ahead and Storage
Best fresh. Keeps 1 day refrigerated; reheat in a very hot wok.
How to Make Hokkien Mee
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Render the diced pork fat in a dry wok over a low heat for 15 minutes, until the pieces are golden and crisp.
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Lift the crisp pieces out and keep them. Leave the rendered fat in the wok.
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Turn the heat to maximum and fry the garlic in the fat for 20 seconds.
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Add the pork loin and fry 2 minutes.
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Add the prawns and fry 90 seconds, then lift both out.
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Add the noodles and both soy sauces and toss, then leave still for 30 seconds so they catch. Repeat twice.
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Add the oyster sauce, sugar, white pepper and stock and bring to a hard boil.
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Add the cabbage and cook 2 minutes.
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Return the pork and prawns, stir the cornflour slurry in, and toss until the sauce clings.
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Scatter the crisp pork lard over and serve with sambal.
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Tips for Success
- Render your own lard. It is the dish.
- Leave the noodles still so they catch on the metal.
- Dark soy for colour, light soy for salt — both.
Why the Method Is What It Is
The crisp pork lard is not a garnish and there is no substitute — it is rendered slowly from diced back fat until the pieces are golden and hard, and both the fat and the crackling go into the dish. That fat is what carries the dark soy through the noodles. The wok must be as hot as it will go and the noodles left still for thirty seconds at a time so they catch.
Serving Ideas
Sambal belacan · Pickled green chillies · Chinese tea
Common Substitutions & Variations
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
Hokkien Mee Nutrition
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .