Mee Siam (Siamese Noodles)

Mee Siam (Siamese Noodles)....ah, I remember this one dish meal very well.  I had my very first taste of this wonderful dish when I was a junior.  I was so interested in the colour and the "slurp-slurp" sound that the parents, uncles and aunties were making plus their chit-chatting in between that I had take a spoonful of it from my Grandma's plate.  As you guys may have guessed it, I screamed as it was super hot, (pedas - chili hot!!!)... sweet and sourish in taste.  This is not a taste which a junior's taste buds will accept. I stayed away from Mee Siam till I was in kinder and after one spoonful of this delicious dish, I will always ask my Grandma for her Mee Siam at least fourth nightly.

My Grandma told me that she learnt it from her Thai relative and its called Mee Kati and even though we are Peranakan, my Grandma often reminded me that Mee Siam is not an "original" dish from the Babas and Nyonyas, but its from Thailand. That's why its called Mee Siam as its from Siam (Siam changed its name to Thailand in 1949).

So, what is Mee Siam? Firstly, there's 2 version of Mee Siam - the dry version and the gravy version. Mee Siam is a popular one-dish meal in Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia. It is made of rice noodles (bee hoon) and serve with a special hot, sweet and sourish gravy.  For the dry version, you will still use the same special sambal which you make the gravy from. My other half loves the udang kering (dried shrimps) and whenever I make this dish, I will make sure I increase the udang kering. The special sambal is made of fermented soya bean paste, chili, buah keras, belacan, coconut milk, onions and tamarind. My Grandma will also fry the rice noodles with taugeh (bean sprouts), ku chai (chinese chives) and banana blossom. However, over here, its a little hard to get my hand on some banana blossom and ku chai. Therefore, I will only use taugeh and spring onions.

Here's a photo of my humble Mee Siam.

Oh...oh.....
Before I whisk myself from here to have another round of Mee Siam, here's a photo of the Nasi Lemak which we made this week. Nasi Lemak is just so delicious that we have to make it at least 2-3 times a month.

jəə gan mài kraao-nâa!!!!