Prawn Noodle Broth · Hawker Staple
Penang Hokkien Mee (Prawn Mee)
Photo: Melissa Law / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
Elsewhere in Malaysia, 'Hokkien mee' means dark soy-fried noodles — order that in Penang and you'll get a completely different, soup-based dish.
Thick yellow noodles and rice vermicelli sit in a spicy, rust-colored broth simmered for hours from prawn heads and shells, pork ribs, and dried chilli, then topped with halved prawns, pork slices, boiled egg, and water spinach. Vendors ladle it from steaming pots at breakfast stalls across Penang.
Why it's made this way: The name mix-up itself tells Penang's story: the island's Hokkien Chinese community built a broth-based prawn noodle culture distinct from the fried noodle dish that took the same name further south.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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