Pan Mee

Hand-torn or hand-cut wheat noodles in a clear, deeply savoury anchovy broth, topped with minced pork, sliced mushrooms, leafy greens, a poached egg and crispy fried anchovies.

Egg

Pan mee is a Hakka creation, brought to Malaysia by Hakka Chinese settlers who shaped a simple dough of flour and egg into rough, hand-torn pieces. A homely, frugal dish of the tin-mining communities, it endured as comfort food, and in 1980s Kuala Lumpur a fiery dry 'chili pan mee' variant was born, now beloved across the city.

The broth is clean yet astonishingly savoury, tasting of the sea from slow-steeped anchovies. The hand-torn noodles are chewy and slightly uneven, catching the soup, while crispy anchovies add salty crunch and the runny egg yolk turns everything silky.

Dried anchovies release glutamates during a slow simmer to build a clear umami broth, while tearing the dough by hand creates irregular surfaces and varied thickness that hold soup and give the noodles their prized chewy bite.

Variations

Soup pan mee, KL dry chili pan mee, with hand-torn or knife-cut noodles, Hakka mee hoon kueh style

On the Palate

Where Pan Mee sits in the Malaysian flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 4

How it's made

8 steps · 40 min

1
30 min
Make a firm dough of flour, egg, water and a little oil; rest it until pliable.
Watch out
Rest the dough until it stretches without snapping back — slack dough tears into the irregular, chewy pieces this noodle wants.
2
20 min
Simmer dried anchovies with water, garlic and white pepper to make a clear, savoury broth.
Watch out
Keep the anchovy broth at a gentle simmer, never a hard boil — slow heat draws out clear umami; boiling turns it cloudy and fishy.
3
6 min
Fry a handful of anchovies separately until crisp and golden, then set aside.
Watch out
Fry the anchovies just to golden and crisp — pull them the moment they color, as they turn bitter if they go too dark.
4
8 min
Brown minced pork with soy sauce and chopped mushrooms until fragrant.
5
10 min
Tear or cut the rested dough into thin irregular pieces.
6
4 min
Drop the noodles into the simmering broth and cook until they float.
Watch out
The torn pieces are done the moment they float and turn glossy — leave them longer and they go soft and lose their bite.
7
2 min
Add leafy greens and a poached egg in the final minute.
8
2 min
Ladle into bowls and top with the pork, crispy anchovies and fried shallots.