I meandered towards Robert Mee Siam recently to try out a quite underwhelming (visually) dish called Mee Siam. It was perhaps one of the weirdest (but not in a bad sense) taste experiences so far. “What even is it?” I asked as I experienced the various tastes with each chopstickfull? Let me ask the internet…
Ok, so Mee Siam mean Siamese Noodles in Malay. It’s a bunch of vermicelli noodles (bee hoon) plunged into a shallow bowl of sour sweet gravy accompanied with a boiled egg, chives, and little crunchy airy fried bean curd things. Added to it, is a dollop of sambal chili paste which I found to be more sweet than spicy. Prior to serving some generous squeezing of lime took place.
I accompanied mine with some sugar cane with lemon drink thing. Was nice.
The elderly couple who run the Robert Mee Siam stall were very friendly and the wife half of the partnership was curious about me as I waited for the husband to serve up their pride and joy. And laughed at me when I asked for chopsticks as opposed to the old fork and knife.
The gravy definitely has the most influence in this dish. Made up of (or as the internet tell me) a concoction of rempah spice paste, tamarind and taucheo (salted soy bean) it has a gritty but light texture. It definitely leans towards a sweet sector of the taste spectrum with tart undertones. You can see a few chili flakes floating around in the gravy but it certainly is not spicy (or I’m becoming immune like a hawker centre super hero).
The vermicelli noodles are soft and when eaten with a few crunchy bean curd cubes, some chives, and a bit of egg it actually is a pleasing taste mixture of flavours.
Mixing the sambal chili paste all through the dish makes the most sense and getting everything all mashed around gets the myriad of flavours clambering over each other throughout the meal.
All in all, an interesting and unique dish with some very unexpected and unusual flavours. I think I liked it. But it was weird. I would try it again. I think.
At $3 a serving, it’s a perfect introduction to a dish you may not go out of your way to try.
Find Robert Mee Siam here (the car park outside the Whampoa Food Centre also houses some Blue-crowned hanging parrots at random times):