Pan Mee or flat
wheat noodle is part of Malaysian Chinese comfort food of Hakka origin. Malaysians eat them for
breakfast, lunch, dinner and even supper. Nothing fills and warms your stomach
like a good bowl of pan mee.
A walk in
Klang Valley alone, you will see a number of different soup variation for Pan
Mee – herbal, curry, laksa, thick gravy and etc. Authentic pan mee soup is made from anchovies
and pork bones and served with crispy dried anchovies, minced pork, mushroom
and leafy vegetable of either sweet potato leaves, spinach or lettuce and fried
shallots for that added “ommphh”. And of course sambal or lime chili mix on the
side for that fiery kick. If you are not a big fan of soup noodle, you can opt
for dry pan mee where the noodle is tossed with dark soy sauce mix.
In many soup
noodles, the cook can get away with good broth but shitty noodle (usually –
yellow noodle, flat or thick rice noodle or vermicelli). Not for pan mee. Noodle
for pan mee needs to be al dente, chewy yet silky while the broth must be
balance in terms of sweetness and saltiness. Ask any stall or restaurant and
they will tell you the secret to a good broth is a long hour low fire simmer to
draw out the essence from the anchovies and the pork bones.
I have few
favourite pan mee stalls and one of them is a stall in Rock Café food court located in Sunway.
Although run by Burmese workers, they got the broth right! Their clear broth is
made from chicken instead of pork and top with spinach (green bayam), dried
anchovies, mushroom, minced chicken and shallots and a fiery lime and chili mix
on the side.
First look,
you probably think this is too simple to be delicious. Surprise awaits on the
first mouth full.
The noodle they usually serve here is "miet" or tear. The dough are rolled up into small balls, flatten then lightly pulled before tossing them into boiling water.
The only downside of this bowl of pan mee is they used MSG. Such a wasted effort.
Here's the address if you want to experience a bowl of satisfying pan mee but do avoid weekday lunch if can. This food court is surrounded by offices, and colleges so parking here can be a bitch.
Rock Cafe,
Jalan PJS 11/20, Bandar Sunway,
46150 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
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