Chili Pan Mee 辣椒板面

Pretty pleased with myself with my effort 😌

There’s 6 components which make up this bowl of goodness:

Noodle

Veggie

Meat

Chili paste

Egg

Fried ikan bilis/anchovies

One optional component is the accompanying anchovy and pork ribs soup/broth. I say optional when I really mean, please make it if you are going all the way to make chili pan mee.

We once had this in Pappa Rich and it was the most absurd plate of food they dare call chili pan mee. Don’t even get me started on price.

When the plate of noodles was served, all I can see was a piece of HARD BOILED EGG WTF.

I must have whinged really loudly because a few minutes later one of the staff came over to apologize saying they didn’t have soft boiled eggs anymore.

That’s horseshit of an excuse.

You should have let us know you didn’t have it BEFORE deciding that a hard boiled egg is enough to substitute it. Chili pan mee is a dry dish, the soft boiled egg is what makes the sauce. Throwing in a hard boiled egg is never going to cut it.

Yes it’s a once off occurrence. I have also tried it when they actually served it with soft boiled eggs, not impressed either. It was quite lackluster in terms of seasoning and flavour.

So far in Melbourne, Jojo’s chili pan mee tastes the most legit. But! I’m not sure what’s the deal with the staff, every time I go there the staffs seem to be in a really terrible mood. They hardly smile at customers, and sometimes will either ignore your request when you ask for the accompanying soup or have this reluctant reaction when you ask for it. If it’s an added cost I’ll be happy to pay, no need to make a customer feel like they’re being an inconvenience. They’re not rude but definitely not the warmest people in the service industry.

Now THIS is how a chili pan mee egg is supposed to look like.

If in a hurry, poach. If you’re pedantic like me, sous vide it at 62.8 Celsius for 45 minutes. It’s different and it’s totally worth it.

While researching about cooking eggs, I discovered something mind blowing. So I’ve been trying my best not to eat runny yolks or soft eggs since almost everyone says it’s not safe while pregnant. Reason being risk of salmonella. Fine.

Today I came across an article saying when you cook eggs at a low temperature over a long period of time aka sous vide, you are essentially pasteurizing it.

🤯🤯🤯

Do you mean all these while I could have had soft boiled eggs when I had cravings? And I’m only finding out now that I’m at the end of my pregnancy???

Anyway.

The other really important component of chili pan mee is of course the dry chili paste which had to be toasted for about 45 minutes until they’re sandy dry and caramelized. I have this meager bag of cili kering from Malaysia which I’m so glad I brought back a while ago. I can’t seem to find them here at all. They have quite a different flavour profile, almost smoky and they’re not too spicy. Unlike the Thai, Indian or Chinese varieties which are usually too spicy or pungent. I deseeded it the best I could, never liked the mouthfeel of seeds.

Everything else was pretty simple to prepare. I did screw up my noodles - too much water in my dough and it became a soft mess. It’s a beautiful dough though, the gluten could be stretched paper thin but it’s not ideal for noodle making. I might use it to make roti.

I had to remake the dough and thankfully got it right the second time. Didn’t even measure the water, just went by feel. I find that I’ve been doing that a lot lately; cooking with intuition than strictly by the books.

After mixing it all up...