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Remember I told you that there are many talented Malaysian food bloggers?
Today, I would like to introduce you to Citrus and Candy—a fantastic and gorgeous food blog by the very talented Karen Low, who is based in Sydney.
Citrus and Candy is choked full of beautiful food photography and her dessert recipes are to-die-for. Anyway, for this guest post, I’ve got Citrus and Candy to share her favorite recipe with us—KL Hokkien Mee, or stir-fried dark noodles commonly found in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, which tops The New York Times “31 Places to Go in 2010.” Dig in, albeit virtually, and enjoy!
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I absolutely love Malaysia and I’m so proud of our amazing cuisine.
I have never really lived in my home country so I made the most of my holidays to KL with plenty of overeating! But it still doesn’t ease the constant cravings and homesickness.
Recently I started learning how to cook Malaysian at home. I’m still very much a beginner of course, so when Rasa Malaysia invited me for a guest post, I admit I was a little surprised (and scared) but excited!
I knew I wanted to do a dish to showcase my home city of Kuala Lumpur and there’s only one so far that I know so well— KL Hokkien Mee.
Not to be confused with Singaporean (which is lighter in colour) and Penang Hokkien Mee, the KL version (a.k.a Char Mee) is famous for the dark, fragrant sauce that the noodles are braised in. It’s the first dish that I seek out as soon as I touch down in KL!
The secret to an authentic KL Hokkien Mee is the pork fat (which should be available from your butcher). Pork fat makes any dish tasty but of course I try not to indulge in KL Hokkien Mees too often!
If it isn’t available on its own, then a piece of pork belly with a good layer of fat on the top would be fine.
I hope you enjoy it! A huge thanks to Rasa Malaysia for allowing me to share one of my favourite hometown recipes with you all.
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 456 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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KL Hokkien Mee
Ingredients
- 200 g (7 oz) pork belly (skin and excess fat removed and sliced into 1cm pieces)
Marinade for Pork:
- 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
- White pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon corn starch
Condiments:
- shrimp (allow about 3-4 per person)
- white fish balls (allow about 2-3 per person)
- 4 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
- 1 small baby Chinese cabbage
- 250 g (8 oz) thick hokkien noodles
- Chu yau cha (recipe below)
Seasoning:
- 2 tablespoons pork flavoured oil (recipe below)
- 4 tablespoons dark soy sauce (sounds like a lot, but this dish is suppose to be dark)
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce (adjust if the stock is salty or to your taste)
- 3/4 cup chicken or pork stock
- 2 teaspoons white sugar
- white pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon corn flour
- 2 tablespoons cold water
Instructions
- Mix the sliced pork belly pieces into the pork marinade and set aside for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, prepare the rest of your ingredients and set aside within reach of your cooking area:
- Shrimp – peeled, deveined, tails removed
- Baby Chinese cabbage – washed and sliced into 1cm strips (discard the really thick stems)
- Fish balls – halved
- Noodles – prepared according to your packet’s instructions. Mine was placed in boiled water until the noodles have separated, then drained thoroughly.
- Mix the cornflour and cold water in a little bowl until smooth and set aside.
- When everything is ready, preheat a wok over a high flame and add about 2 tablespoons of pork oil and heat until smoking.
- Add the marinated pork belly and fry briskly (be careful of hot spitting oil).
- When just browned, add the shrimp, fishballs and garlic and fry for half a minute. Toss in the chinese cabbage and fry for a further 30 seconds or so.
- Add in the noodles and give it a quick toss.
- Add the dark soy sauce and light soy sauce and mix to coat the noodles. Add more dark soy sauce if the colour isn’t dark enough.
- Add the stock, sugar, white pepper and a small handful of chu yau cha (crispy pork lardons) and fry to combine. Taste the sauce and adjust the saltiness and sweetness to your preference.
- Add in the cornflour/water mixture and toss until the sauce has thickened, and the noodles are coated in the gravy.
- Serve the noodles onto plates and spoon over the gravy. Garnish with more chu yau cha if you wish and a spoonful of sambal belacan.
To make the pork oil and chu yau cha:
- Dice your pork fat into small cubes (or lardons). If using just pork belly, remove the skin and then trim off the excess fat from the top of the belly and dice.
- Place the diced pork fat in about 2 tablespoons of peanut oil over medium-low heat. I used a deep pot and covered it partially with a lid to prevent the pork from spitting oil all over my kitchen!
- Render the fat until the little pork pieces are crispy and golden. Depending on the size of your lardons, this could take 30 minutes to an hour. Check it regularly to make sure it’s not browning too much.
- Remove the chu yau cha from the oil and drain on paper towels. Once it’s completely cooled, you can store the chu yau cha in an airtight container or jar.
- Drain the pork oil into a sterilized and airtight glass jar to store.
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Used boiled spaghetti and baby octopus instead. Tasted as good as ah hwa. No sambal belacan required
I followed your recipe exactly and it tasted almost 100% like my favourite hokkien mee in PJ. Keep it up !
Obviously the “wok hei” taste is hard to emulate in a home setting.
thank you! good recipe!
Hi Bee,
Being a Malaysian, this is one of my favorite dishes. My late mom made really, really good Hokkien mee. All our neighbors raved about it. I was looking for this recipe since I never did learn from my Mom how to make it. Very unfortunate.
And your recipe struck me as the most authentic since you used pork lard. That was the secret ingredient. I made this tonight and my husband and I enjoyed except that it was a little too sweet. Next time, I would not add more sugar on top of the 4 tablespoons of dark soy sauce. Otherwise, I think your recipe is the closest to the real Hokkien mee. Thank you.
Thanks!
I love the Rasa Malaysia recipes, and while I enjoy the Locla foods and all the noodle dishes when visiting KL, I also try to duplicate these in India where I live. What noodles do you use for Hokkien mee? I love the texture and the flavour, but in India I have not seen these thick noodles. Also being on a wheat gluten free diet restricts me normally to rice noodle versions of all. Would this work with thick rice noodles?
You have to use the fat noodles, if not, you can try udon noodles.
Amazing! I cooked the pork in sous vide for 24 hours and used duck fat instead of lard but will get some guanciale to make lardons and get pork fat next time! Thanks for an amazing recipe, which I’ll follow more closely next time (will probably use the sous vide again for the pork belly)
Thanks.
Can you make a recipe for the sambal belacan for the Hokkien Mee?
Thanks!!
I followed your recipe. Improvised a little by adding diced onions, carrots and eggs to further enhance it. Taste soooo good. Though I did not have pork belly, I used pork fillet. It tastes just as good. Thank you for sharing this recipe. Since covid, not able to be back to Malaysia but glad the taste is similar (or better). ??
Thanks for your trying!
What’s the difference between hokkien mee and mee hailam other than it’s name
Mee hailam is not black in color whereas KL Hokkien mee is very dark in color.
Thank you for sharing, like you upon arrival in KL first meal will be Hockkien Mee. I must try this recipe looks authentic.
Enjoy!
Hokkein mee in KL is my all time favourite next to Hainanese chicken rice, but I have to be careful not to eat it too often (the lard!).
There are many excellent food stalls serving it in Jalan Alor (central KL) or in PJ.
Thank you for the recipe. I will try this tomorrow!
Hi Bee!
I can’t wait to make Hokkien Mee at home but I was wondering if you know of any good alternatives to pork belly/pork oil. Due to certain health conditions, I’m trying to limit my intake of pork belly.
Thanks in advance!
Any cooking oil is fine.
Well, all you can do is not to eat Hokkein mee in KL, any substitute would be disappointing.
Or eat it just once every few months…?