KamPua Mee, Mee Pok, Kolok Mee, Hakka Mee, Kon Loh Mee, Mi Kolok, by any other names, in any other dialects are all basically dry flavoured noodles.

There is something about dried flavoured noodles that is so comforting to an Asian and especially to one who grew up in Kuching, Sarawak you just find it difficult not to have a deep desire to eat it when you are feeling a bit under the weather.

When I was working this is my weekend work. Making the ‘readies’ shallots crisps and oil, garlic oil, ginger crisps and oil, char sui for the freezer etc etc. In my house I always have ready mince even though I am not working now. Hubby will get very excited when he sees me frying this mince pork.

I remembered when we first moved from Kuching to Ipoh, Gunung Rapat area, there was a new Kedai Kopi with a stall serving Kon Loh Mee (Cantonese for dry noodles). The noodles were rather plain and wanting. My mother made friend with the lady seller and told her how in Kuching the Kolok Mee stall we frequent always have nicely flavoured minced pork toppings. That was the start of a great relationships! Mother then started to explain to her how she should have flavoured oil and flavoured minced pork.

The next time we ate there again, there were well fried and flavoured minced pork dotting here and there on the bowls of noodles and business for the lady improved! My mother was happy and I have always remembered this incident. Not sure why.

I can still remember the Kedai Kopi in my mind’s eye as it was next door to my Uncle’s the then Sundry Shop. Hmmm……a case of with age comes reminiscences? 😀 Certainly a sign of old age.

These noodles were from my old classmate. I must be not too bad a person to have good friends from school days who still loves me <3 At first I was rather sceptical about these dry noodles. I was thinking, nah they will never taste as good as the real ones ……. BUT I stand corrected! These were good! The dried KamPua Mee taste different to other dried noodles! I must get my hands on more! The hubby said they have a special springy bounce and I agrees wholeheartedly.

Sometime the hubby will just ask for kolok mee kosong. That means nothing added just the noodles, oils and mince! In his opinion simple is the best!

Updated 23rd September 2020. Added a few more pics and simple explanation of just making Kon Lo (dry noodles) kosong (with just mince pork, sauces and flavoured oils)

TIP – Fried mince pork can be kept outside (room temperature in a clean receptacle in UK) use a clean spoon when taking out for a week or if you have fridge space just put in your fridge. If you store in fridge please micro your prepared bowl before adding noodles to mix.

TIP – If you have any leftover by the end of the week you can fry rice with them, put on top of steamed toufo, fry mince with potatoes and many more.

A friend recently is very interested in learning this dish. Maybe because she sees I eat a lot of this. It’s my go to lazy dish. When I am wrapping, I tend to wrap a big batch and bagged them into my freezer.

Then when I am hungry and want some food I would just make an easy chicken or mushroom stock, add a few of these babies from my freezer, some fried shallots with oil and any vegetables I can find in my fridge. Sometimes I add in an egg or two. Lunch or dinner is served within 20 minutes.

This brand of wrappers is the bigger ones so perfect for wrapping Sui Kow as I like to put in a lot of big bits of prawns. No I am not making my own wrappings though at one time when these wrappers were no on sale for 6 months I thought I might have to. Phew…..not that hardworking but was considering buying a pasta machine.

If you can only find the smaller wrappers then chop your prawns smaller.

As for my broth I use anchovies powder or mushroom powder or chicken powder if there’s no home made stock in my freezer. The mushroom stock I buy from the Japan is very good. It is entirely up to you of course.

On a day like today where the weather is teetering between 13C & 16C you get to feel a bit bored. It has just been cloudy all day and I really feel like cooking something comforting. At the top of my comfort food list is steamed minced pork with Tung Choy. 

I still remember the happiness I felt when I moved from Devon in the South West to outer London and found tung choy in Chinatown. It’s amazing how we missed the things of our youth as we inevitably grew older.

I started making Bak Kwa on my second year in UK. I was so desperate to eat. I remembered making it in the middle of winter. There was no sun to be seen. What to do? Needs must. ? I rolled and used the oven to bake them. Once I actually lighted the BBQ in the snow  as I was too fussy. To me baked in oven just do not taste the same! I wanted that slightly burnt taste that only  BBQ from charcoal can give. Thinking back I could only laugh at my greediness. Then there was a year where I taught all my Facebook friends to make bak kwa and my Facebook news page were dotted with bak kwa pics from all over UK, France and even across the pond from the US. All my friends were making bak kwa. To read more about Bak Kwa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakkwa

Fast forward some 20 years and now making it is a lot easier because I have a nice back garden space that I can use. Also practice makes perfect. Having outside water pipe to wash helps too. Nowadays I make them only in the summer. I have sorta developed the easiest way for me to do it too. I now vacuumed sealed them and freeze for those times when I feels like eating with home made bao buns.

I have made four batches of 3 kg mince each in total for this summer thus far. I have send some to friends who have not been fortunate enough to balik kampung for awhile as a treat. This is my recipe that I have developed over the years. Please use it as a guide and adjust to your taste. I find that my taste have changed from the time when I used to make with a relative every Chinese New Year to sell in Ipoh, Malaysia. Those were the days. It’s like another lifetime ago ……..

This post is more about the TIPs and way of making rather than the perfect recipe. I will give you my preferential recipe of course. Please refer to each pic for explanations and TIPs. Enjoy.

p/s I prefer mine to be tougher, fatter and chewy but the hubby prefer his softer and easier to eat but no fat – What’s your preference?

JULY 5, 2018 BY ADMIN