Bakmi

The name is Hokkien — bak meaning meat and mi meaning noodle — and the dish was brought to Indonesia by Hokkien-speaking Chinese immigrants, becoming so widespread that it is now a national everyday food rather than a marked 'foreign' one. In its original and many present-day forms the meat topping is pork (bakmi babi), but because most Indonesians are Muslim, chicken versions (bakmi ayam) became the dominant public form, and the word bak survives even where no pork is used. The dish is part of the same broad family as the tossed egg-noodle dishes found across the Hokkien and Teochew diaspora of Southeast Asia.

The noodles are springy and slick, glossed with savoury-sweet dressing and the unmistakable warmth of sesame oil and a little rendered fat. The chicken topping is tender and faintly sweet from its soy braise, the greens fresh and crisp against the richness. You stir everything together, take a mouthful of noodles, then a sip of the clear, light broth and a soft wonton to reset the palate. A spoon of pickled chili or sambal cuts cleanly through. It is comfort food — warm, savoury, endlessly familiar.

The dressing is the heart of the dish: soy sauce, sesame oil and a spoon of rendered chicken or pork fat are put in the bottom of the bowl, and the hot, freshly boiled noodles are tossed through them so the fat coats every strand and carries the aromatics. The noodles are cooked briefly in plenty of rolling water, then lifted and shaken dry so they stay springy rather than waterlogged. The chicken topping is its own small braise — minced or diced chicken simmered with soy and a little sugar until glossy and tender. The clear broth is served apart so the noodles never go slack; the diner combines them to taste.