I liked the fried kway teow (flat rice noodles) from this stall here but I did not quite enjoy his char chu mee (fry & cook noodles) and I never went back there since.
The other morning, however, I was at a loss as to what to order and walking past the stall, I could hear the loud banging of the guy’s wok. I stopped to see what he was cooking and it did smell good, his fried bihun (rice vermicelli) but I did not feel like having that.
In the end, I asked for his mee mamak and this…
…was what I got!
Wait a minute! “mamak” is the name given to those Indian Muslims (in the peninsula), those running the nasi kandar and the mamak stalls and their fried noodles, the mee mamak, is indeed very popular, available even at some classy cafés and restaurants.
However, tagged with a name like that, I would expect it to be halal…or at least, it should not have any pork among its ingredients. This one that I had that morning had quite a bit of char siew…
…though I am not sure whether that was pork or chicken. I did mention in my post the other day that folks here are switching from pork to chicken in their joint effort to protest against the sellers’ incessant, somewhat unscrupulous, increases in the price of the former.
The thing is we have all kinds of names given to all kinds of noodles, usually depending on how they are cooked. We went out for noodles one night not too long ago and my girl wanted the Singapore bihun…
I wasn’t sure whether that would be something she would enjoy as it would be nothing more than fried bihun with curry powder added. It may be nice depending on what other ingredients are added and whether it has this coveted wok hei fragrance or not, otherwise it can be somewhat plain and quite disappointing.
Another one is the lakia mee…
Now, “lakia” means dayak in Hokkien but unlike the mee mamak, this is not a recipe derived from how the dayaks or ethnic tribes fry their noodles. Actually, it is nothing more than the Chinese fried noodles, dry…
…but with lots of freshly-cut chilies added.
Anyway, back to the mee mamak, like the lakia mee, there will be a lot of freshly-cut chilies added too but the taste is different. If I am not wrong, it tends to be a little sweet, possibly through the addition of chili sauce and/or tomato sauce.
This one…
…that I had that morning had a lot of chilies, cili padi, no less…
…so it was very spicy and very much to my liking but unfortunately, I found it to be way too sweet. I squeezed the juice of that calamansi lime all over it to counter-balance the sweetness and it turned out to be really good after that.
I would say that I quite enjoyed it and I would not mind going for it again sometimes for a change but no, I would not go out of my way to come here for it even though at only RM6.00 a plate, I do think it is worth going for it a lot more than a plate of kampua mee, RM4.80-5.00 at some places now, with a few miserably thin slices of boiled pork coloured red to make it look like char siew and yes, that guy sure deserves a pat on the back for using glass plates instead of those horrendous gaudily-coloured plastic ones!
GRAND WONDERFUL FOOD COURT (2.309601, 111.845163)…
…is located along Jalan Pipit, off Jalan Dr Wong Soon Kai, on your right. You can also go in via Jalan Pipit from Jalan Pahlawan – go straight ahead till you get to it on your left.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
All the fried noodles you mentioned looks almost the same to me in whatever name they are called. If I am not wrong, only those fried noodles by the mamak stalls will add chilli to everything unlike the Chinese fried noodles. Anyway, they all look good to me.
Not really, this one that I had was from a Chinese stall and the lakia mee at all the Chinese noodles stalls here in Sibu will have a lot of freshly cut red chilies added…but I did notice that usually, they will add tomato and chili sauce to their fried noodles at the Malay stalls and probably the mamak ones as well. Never saw that at the Chinese ones.
I used to love any kind of fried noodles especially those spicy ones, I am sure I still do. I can’t handle to many chili padi, I will have tears coming out of my eyes LOL!
Oh? I’m ok with cili padi but not those lantern ones. Those have an unpleasant smell, anyway – not something that I like.
Mamak mee is spicy and sweet in flavour. There is quite a choice of fried noodle from this stall. Lakia mee?? The noodle like the one my hubby enjoyed in this Foochow Chu char stall.
No, the noodles are from different places. Ya…that’s the Foochow fried mee, dry – I am not a fan, prefer the wet one with sauce/gravy or the moon version.
Mee Mamak looks good and delicious. True, mee Mamak needs lime to make it yummy.
The fried noodles at the Malay shops and stalls too, will bring the taste to a whole new level.
Wow I’ve never seen any mee mamak with pork for sure!
Neither have I! My first time! Forgive us for we have sinned! LOL!!!
When I first arrived in Malaysia, someone told me that the word “mamak” was not politically correct and I should avoid using it. I never understood, really, as I see it used everywhere.
I only got to know the word much later – only used in the peninsula. Hardly any Indians here, mamak or whatever. I did hear that it is not nice to call a Bangla by that name – we do not get many of those here either.