Real street food: Tuaran mee noodles

What is the dish?
Tuaran mee is a Nanyang-Chinese fried “egg noodle” hawker dish from Tuaran in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. It most commonly refers to the fried version, but it is also used to identify egg noodles that are made in Tuaran. A typical plate consists of fresh egg noodles, an egg, char siu, pork egg roll, and choy sum.
What’s the history?
According to a famous heritage vendor, Tuaran mee in its modern form began to replace the traditional ‘knife-cut’ noodles sometime in the late 1970s. With the introduction of noodle machines, the strands became thinner and more uniform. Up until the mid-1980s, fried noodles in Sabah were simply called “Chao Men” in the Hakka dialect. This began to gradually change, as the Hakka people outside the area started labeling the fried noodles in Tuaran “Tao-Ah-Lan Men,” or Tuaran mee. This was so that locals could differentiate it from noodles from other towns like Beaufort, Tamparuli and Sandakan. So the name Tuaran Mee is the result of this retro name-calling that went viral, and it has stuck for more than 30 years!
What does it taste like?
A good plate of fried Tuaran mee should be fragrant, very eggy, delicately springy, savoury, wavy and slightly smoky from the charring of the hot wok. The aftertaste should pleasantly confuse you with an unexpected hit of egg umami. It should also be incredibly moreish; you’ll be sliently eating until you find yourself picking up the remaining bits on your plate, giving up only when your chopsticks skills fail you. Fatty pork makes it taste even better!
How is it served?
It is plated directly from wok-to-dish, then topped with your protein of choice. Tuaran mee tastes best eaten hot, and it goes really well with chilli sauce. Some shops will fry and fold the proteins into the noodles to incorporate the flavours together.
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Anything extra?
You can choose from a variety or combination of pork, beef, chicken, and/or seafood. Just make sure you tell the waiter what you want, or you’ll get the shop’s default signature plate with an egg, char siu and the local pork egg roll called Choon Ken. If you’re the adventurous type, try having it with a dash of Lihing (yellow rice wine) for that sweet twist of alcohol!
Why should someone try it?
It’s delicious! Strand-for-strand sans sauce, it is quite possibly the most flavourful egg noodles on earth. You can’t find this outside of Sabah, except for an odd shop in Kuala Lumpur. In the olden days, local food lovers would travel from near and far to Tuaran to have some of this eggy goodness. It’s more convenient now, as Tuaran Mee is quite accessible in the capital city of Kota Kinabalu. So if you’re in town, it’s a must-try!
What’s the bill?
Pretty inexpensive. A plate costs between RM6.50 - RM9.00 (£1.10-£1.60), depending on the topping and combo of your choice.
Where can you get it?
In Tuaran town, Lok Kyun, Tai Fatt, and Tuaran Mee Restoran are quite popular. In Kota Kinabalu, the favorites are Seng Hing Sinsuran, Sin Fatt Hing in Likas, and Tuaran Mee Restoran in Inanam.
Can you make it at home?
Technically yes, but it’s a challenging dish to make (see below). To get the flavours right, you’ll need to have access to or make the freshest Tuaran-style egg noodles yourself. Then you’ll need to use the right utensils, roaring high heat, and ninja cooking skills. We’re talking an impeccable sense of timing, and the dexterity to respond correctly in the rapid distribution of heat. That’s if you want your end product to taste like authentic Tuaran Mee. Failing any of that, your creation will just be “Wannabe Tuaran Mee,” or worse, “Just Not Tuaran Mee”.
What does this dish say about your home city?
It shows that Sabahans are a harmonious bunch, and that we are quite happy to hold on to our heritage while we cross-pollinate our ideas to create something just a tad bit different or better. The dish came into existence out of the collective input of three generations of peoples with Hakka, Hainanese, Hokkien, Fuchow, Cantonese, and Kadazan-Dusun ancestry. It’s fusion history on a plate, and everything we love about Nanyang Borneo.
And finally ... how to make ‘almost’ Tuaran Mee
To learn more about the authentic cuisine of this region, check out Jackie Miao’s website Jackie.my. And if you want to have a go at recreating Tuaran Mee – not easy! – here is a recipe developed and tested by our food editor, Eve O’Sullivan. By adding an extra egg to the noodles and frying in a very hot wok until crispy, you can hope to get a sense of how good the real thing tastes. You will need to prepare the pork the night before, or swap it out for prawns or chicken.
Serves 2
3 tbsp vegetable oil
300g fresh thin Hong Kong or wonton egg noodles
2 eggs, beaten
2 pak choi, roughly chopped
Soy sauce
Ground black pepper
Chilli sauce, to serve
For the char siu pork
300g pork fillet medallions (not lean)
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp rice wine
1 tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp chilli flakes
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tsp yellow bean sauce (optional)
1 To make the pork, put the meat in a shallow dish, then mix the rest of the ingredients together and pour over the meat. Cover, then leave to marinate for at least 4-6 hours, or preferably overnight.
2 Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4, remove the meat from the marinade (reserving it for basting) then put in a roasting tin. Brush liberally with the marinade, then roast for 10-12 minutes, checking halfway through and brushing with more marinade. Keep warm while you assemble the noodles.
3 Heat the vegetable oil in a wok until almost smoking, then throw in the noodles – you are looking to crisp them at this stage, as opposed to fully cooking them. Move around the pan to avoid too much sticking, then once parts of the noodles have turned crispy (around a minute), remove from the pan.
4 Add the pak choi to the hot wok, then cook until almost wilted (no more than a minute) and remove from the pan. Next, add the beaten eggs, and when almost cooked, throw the noodles back in. After a minute or two, return the pak choi to the pan with some soy sauce and black pepper, then add the pork and a drizzle of marinade. Serve immediately.
Jackie Miao is currently working on a book of authentic recipes from her hometown. For more information, visit her website Jackie.my

How to make sweet, nutty glutinous rice balls – recipe

Sweet, sticky glutinous rice balls. Photographs: Claire Thompson for the Guardian

A day spent with my Sichuanese stepmother Lily is always a joy – she's a terrific cook and the children love the delicious food she makes. It is the Chinese custom to share a variety of dishes that appeal to everyone at the table. When she puts a plate of these sweet, honey-drenched glutinous rice balls down at the end, the kids really beam.
I made these balls with Lily and tried desperately to keep up as she flung ingredients in the bowl at a pace. She doesn't own any scales and scoffed at the very thought of giving exact quantities for the sesame nut paste and the rice dough. You just "taste and feel that it's right", she laughed.
The filling will keep well in the fridge for at least a month, allowing you to make smaller quantities of the dough to cook fresh in smaller batches. Lily fries her rice balls for a crisp and chewy texture, rather than the slippery result that steaming or boiling brings. I've used peanut oil here; in China it would almost certainly be animal fat.

For the nut and sesame filling

(Enough for 20 or so balls)
60g roasted, salted peanuts
40g roasted almonds
40g roasted walnuts
40g sesame seeds
100g dark brown sugar
60g tahini or sesame paste
1 tbsp sesame oil
25-50g peanut oil
If your nuts aren't already roasted, roast them in a moderate oven until golden. Leave to cool.
Toast the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan over a moderate heat until golden. Leave to cool.
Put the nuts, seeds, sugar, sesame paste or tahini and sesame oil into a food processor, and blitz until broken down and sand-like in consistency.
Gradually add the peanut oil in small increments until the paste is mud-like in consistency; you may not need all the oil. Refrigerate for at least an hour, until hard.

For the sticky rice dough

(Makes six digestive biscuit-sized sticky rice patties)
200g sticky rice flour
100g cold water
Put the rice flour in a mixing bowl and cautiously add the water, a little at a time, mixing with your hands. The rice flour behaves a bit like cornflour, and a little too much water can be fatal to the finished mix, so go easy.
Work the dough with your hands until you have a shiny, soft, play-dough-like ball of dough. Cover with a damp tea towel, as it can dry out quickly if exposed to the air for too long.

For the rice balls

Divide the dough into six pieces. Leaving the others covered, take one piece in the palm of your hand and shape it into a bowl. Put one teaspoon of the nut paste into the hole.
Gather the sides together and draw the bowl closed, squeezing as much air out as possible and sealing it tightly and carefully. Make sure the dough is not torn or broken and the ball is intact. No filling should be visible.
Flatten slightly with your hand to make a round patty shape. You want the walls of the patty to measure about half a centimetre thick.
Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.

To cook the rice balls

Runny honey, to serve
Put a tablespoon of peanut oil in a non-stick frying pan over a moderate to hot heat. When hot, add the sticky rice patties and fry for about three minutes on each side. The dough should lose its snowy white colour and blister gold and tan when ready.
Put the patties on a plate and drizzle with a little honey.

BBC Good Food Shows

The BBC Good Food Shows return this autumn in Scotland, London and Birmingham for a jam-packed day out with something for everyone. Indulge in show-stopping shopping where you can stock up on fabulous gifts and exciting kitchen gadgets, taste and buy delicious ingredients from artisan producers, get inspiration from celebrity chefs and food experts and see the stars in action with entertaining demonstrations on a range of live stages.
Much-loved and new features at all shows...
Supertheatre
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The Producers’ Village
A huge speciality food market will be at the heart of the show, packed with small artisan producers who pride themselves in the quality and provenance of their produce. It is the perfect place for picking up great gifts and recipe ideas. Here you can try before you buy with seasonal foods that are hard to find on the high street.
Bakes & Cakes Village
Don’t miss out on all things bakes and cakes at the BBC Good Food Shows! Look out for an array of gifts and accessories, plus you can pick up advice from top baking and cake crafting enthusiasts and specialists. Enjoy a relaxed afternoon (or morning!) tea in the Bakes and Cakes Tea Garden. Watch the world go by, and plan the rest of your day over a delicious cuppa.
BBC Good Food Kitchen
For an extra special experience, head to the BBC Good Food Kitchen where you can savour dishes inspired by recipes from the bestselling magazine with wine to match.
Eat Well Pavilion
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Book your tickets now, go the the BBC Good Food Show website or call 0844 581 1363.
* Standard Supertheatre seat included with advance tickets, subject to availability. Not all celebrities and features appear on all days at all shows – check website for details.