One of the noodles that I miss a lot away from Singapore is the Meepok 麵薄. It is a type of egg noodles made by the Minnan Teochew 潮汕 people that is slightly broader than the typical Cantonese egg noodles for more satisfying volume but just as springy because it is thin and flat. Outside the Teochew region, you can only get it in richly Teochew enclaves such as Singapore and Thailand.
Why choose Meepok? Because it is best eaten in a ‘dry noodles’ dish rather than in a noodles soup. Famously, it is eaten as a popular rendition of the Teochew fishball noodles.
This recipe teaches you how to make your own Meepok 麵薄 at home! But take note that there are specific tools and ingredients you will need.
Pasta making machine
Because the Meepok is slightly thinner than the Italian tagliatelle, the pasta machine is ideal for making Meepok. On top of that, you will need to be strong enough to flatten the dough so a pasta machine will come in handy.
High protein flour
The reason why the Meepok is so springy is because of the high protein content of the flour. Use only bread flour or pasta flour where the protein content is higher than 12%. I use 15% protein flour.
Lye water (kansui) 碱水
Another ingredient you will need is lye water. Know in Japanese as ‘kansui‘ and in Chinese as ‘jian shui‘ 碱水, this alkaline solution is the secret to chewy Chinese noodles. It is also used in making Japanese ramen 拉麵. You can get lye water in most North-East Asian supermarkets.
Following this recipe, I will add another recipe below on how to make the famous ‘Fishball Meepok Ta’ dry-tossed noodles 潮州魚丸麵薄亁.
The ingredients below are for one person (with two servings of noodles). Please increase accordingly if you are making for more people.
Ingredients:
- 200g high protein flour
- 1 egg yolk
- < 80ml water
- 1 tsp lye water/kansui (かん水, 鹹水)
- Corn flour
You will need:
- Food-grade plastic gloves
- A big basin for kneading the dough
- Pasta machine
- Rolling pin
- Plastic wrap
Instructions:
- Break an egg and retrieve only the egg yolk in a measuring cup. Top it up with water until it is 80ml. Mix well with lye water.
- Place the flour in a big basin and use your finger to make a little well in the middle. Pour your egg water solution into the hole and knead the flour into a firm dough for 15 monites. Wear plastic gloves as the lye water may irritate your skin.
- Once the dough is well kneaded into a ball, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge overnight.
- The next day cut your dough into four and rub your rolling pin and cutting board with a bit of corn flour to prevent sticking.
- Roll out each dough ball flat enough so that it can pass through the largest opening of the pasta machine (6mm).
- Use the pasta machine to roll out and flatten each dough ball, from 6 to 5 to 4 to 3mm. 3mm is enough but feel free to go down to 2mm if you prefer even thinner Meepok noodles.
- Once all four sheets are done, change the setting to tagliatelle cutter and cut the sheets into noodles.
- Alternatively, you can fold each sheet gently and cut it manually with a knife.
You can store the meepok noodles in a zipped plastic bag for a few days but not in the freezer.
How to make Teochew Fishball ‘Meepok Ta’ dry-tossed noodles at home 潮州魚丸麵薄亁
The main reason why I made these Meepok noodles is precisely because I LOVE ‘Meepok Ta’.
The Teochew Fishball ‘Meepok Ta’ 潮州魚丸麵薄亁 is a dry-tossed noodles, served in a Teochew signature garlic chilli oil and a bowl of fishball soup on the side. It is so satisfying because it is spicy, chewy and wholesome – the very kind of streetfood that makes you instantly happy when you are sad and crazy ecstatic when you are already happy.
Many of the ingredients below can be found in a store but I am letting you in on the secret noodles sauce and also the secret to the soup.
Teochew Chili Oil 潮州辣椒油
You can only make Meepok Ta with the Teochew chilli oil. You can find it easily in a North East Asian supermarket and most of the time, the Hong Kong brand ‘Lee Kum Kee’ sells it. But I strongly recommend the Thai version (as you can see in the picture), as it has a lot of kick – more garlic and hotter chilli.
Dangtsai/Dongtsai 冬菜
The Teochews call it ‘Dangtsai’ while the Hokkiens call it ‘Dongtsai’. It is minced pickled Chinese cabbage. Often ignored, this is a key ingredient in the soup of the whole array of Teochew fishball noodles. Without Dantsai, the fishball soup would not taste ‘right’. You can find Dangtsai easily in Thai supermarkets where it is called ‘ตั้งฉ่าย’.
Fishballs, fried fish cake and fish dumplings
These can be found in the frozen sections of a Thai or Cantonese Chinese supermarket. The Koreans and Japanese make them too but the Teochew version is too unique. The fresh handmade fish dumplings are a lot harder to find even in Singapore and Thailand, so I have created a recipe for Teochew fish dumplings but I have to warn you they are very difficult to make.
A note about cooking the egg noodles: always prepare a bowl of ice cold water to instantly cool down the noodles. This will ‘shock’ the noodles into becoming very springy. This is a classic Chinese method of producing bouncy egg noodles.
Ingredients:
- 1 tbs Chinese dark vinegar
- 2 tbs Teochew chilli oil
- 2 tbs Chinese light soy sauce
- 2 tbs peanut oil
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 750ml water
- 2 tsp Dangtsai
- 1 tsp Ajinomoto (optional)
- 1 tsp mushroom or chicken stock powder (optional)
- 8-10 fishballs
- 10 slices fish cake
- 8-10 fish dumplings
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Handful of bean sprouts
- Handful of fresh Meepok noodles
- Pot of water for cooking the noodles
- Pot of ice cold water for cooling the noodles
Garnish:
- Fried pork lard
- Fried shallot oil
- Chopped spring onions
- Coriander leaves
Instructions:
- Bring to boil 750ml of water in a soup pot. Once boiling, the Dangtsai, Ajinomoto, stock powder, fishballs, fish cake and fish dumplings. Leave it to boil until the fish balls expand then turn down the heat to medium to keep it simmering uncovered. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- In another pot add 75% water and bring it to boil.
- In the meantime, mix the vinegar, chilli oil, soy sauce, pol, sugar and sesame oil in a serving bowl.
- Once the pot of water is boiling, throw in your Meepok noodles and keep stirring with chopsticks to prevent them to sticking. Once it is cooked, place the noodles into an pot of ice cold water and keep stirring to help release the heat. Keep it there for about 2 minutes. Bring your noodles back into the boiling water to cook further for another 3 minutes.
- Drain and serve the cooked Meepok noodles in the serving bowl. Mix well with the sauce. Meanwhile, blanche your beansprouts for 1 minute in the boiling water. Remove and place on top of the noodles.
- In the serving bowl, add some fish balls, fish cakes and fish dumplings from the soup. Garnish with some fried lard and fried shallots, spring onions and coriander leaves. You may add another dollop of chili oil for added spice.
- In a soup bowl, serve some fish balls, fish cakes and fish dumplings and garnish with coriander and spring onions.
- Serve both noodles and soup piping hot. Enjoy!
