Mee Siam. As the name suggests, this particular dish probably had its origins in present day Thailand. Siam was its old name. Have you ever had Tom Yum Goong? Well, it is sort of similar. So, think of spicy, sour, maybe some sweetness, and aromatic herbs in a rice vermicelli broth. I love this a lot, especially if it is cooked by my mother. I love it so much that I would, and will, literally lick up that last drop of the rich sour-savoury goodness from the pot. My plate would be, and still is, very clean. In all my thirty years, I have yet to find the same taste anywhere else.
So, what is so special about my mother’s Mee Siam? It is a time-consuming dish. You cannot cook small portions of it. That said, this dish requires many people to eat. It requires almost an hour to prepare and cook, from preparing the rempah and soaking the bihoon, to getting the taste right. Nowadays, if I should ever mention wanting to eat Mee Siam to Mum, the first question from her is, “Who are you inviting?”
For as long as I can remember, Mee Siam was enjoyed by the whole family. When I was a child, my brother would help Mum in the kitchen. I only remember that I helped taste the kuah whenever she called me in. Now that my brother has moved out and living on his own with his own family, Mee Siam slowly made an exit. While some families would have popiah parties, we would have Mee Siam parties. My aunts and their families would be invited and we would enjoy it together. As the elders talked, the younger ones i.e. my cousins and I, would play. So, yes, Mee Siam was a family dish.
What I really love about this dish is the combination of taste. There is chili-spicy, tamarind-sour, umami from the belacan, sugar to balance out, and some salt to taste. The Indian version uses roasted ground peanuts to make the kuah thicker. Sounds complicated? I guess that is why I love this complicated dish. On deeper introspection, this dish could be liken to human nature. We are complicated creatures. Still waters run deep, don’t judge a book by its cover, etc. A person can be a swan on water – gliding serenely without a ripple but is actually paddling like mad. Who knows what goes behind a person’s mask?
Anyway, back to Mee Siam. So, yes, the complicated taste. If you love complication, you will love this, especially if it is homecooked. Do not buy instant. We nonya despise instant.
The bihun is also fried in the fragrant rempah that is specially set aside before cooking the gravy. We would also add in taugey to the bihun so as to add volume and, of course, fibre. And that is not all! To beautify the dish, there is hard boiled egg, boiled prawns (peeled and deveined before cooking), cut up taupok, and for my family, we would add in deep-fried cubed taukwa, garnish with some chopped kucai and a limau (kasturi) with a small condiment saucer of sambal chili. Do scroll down to see how the finished dish looks like. I realised I do not have photos of our Mee Siam, simply because it goes into my tummy before I remember to take a photo of it.
Is that not complicated? Now you know why my mother would ask, “Who are you inviting (to eat)?” As this dish requires so much effort, we really need to have a reason to cook it. Anyway, don’t you agree that food tastes better when there are more people to eat it with?
(Photo siphoned from Google images. This looks closest to what we cook except that the taugey is hidden in the bihun.)
Some non-English words used in this post:
Tom Yum Goong – spicy and sour soup with herbs from Thailand.
rempah – Spice paste usually made of onions or shallots, candlenuts, dried shrimp-paste and chilies.
belacan – Dried prawn-paste or shrimp-paste. More famous or popular brands come from Penang in Malaysia.
bihoon – Chinese rice vermicelli, or thin rice noodles. Has various names but all mean the same i.e mee hoon, bihun, mifen, mee fen. Sold mainly in dried form. Soak the noodles first before cooking.
kuah – Malay word for gravy, soup, broth.
popiah – burrito-like; crepe with many different ingredients, mainly vegetables, bundled up and then cut into roughly one inch pieces. Another complicated dish. Bao-bing in Mandarin.
nonya – Peranakan woman/women.
taugey – Mungbean sprouts, or beansprouts. Dou-ya in Mandarin.
taupok – Dried beancurd puffs.
taukwa – Hard beancurd.
kucai – Chinese chives, also known as gu-cai, or jiu-cai in Mandarin.
limau kasturi – Malay word for calamansi.
sambal chili – cooked chili paste with other ingredients, similar to rempah.
Child Of Woe 