Thursday 10 May 2007

Kong Nam Meen

For once, I'm stumped with the name of this noodle dish. I have no idea what's the translated meaning in English. Anyone can help?

I first ate this noodle dish in a shop located in Jinjang, selling Ulu Yam style loh meen. Lady boss introduced Kong Nam Meen, wahhh very jakun (country pumpkin) then cos we have never heard of it (and that time I was still very young), most prolly it's a Hokkien dish?? My parents who are very adventurous and loved to try new stuff quickly said a yes. From that moment, I've fallen in love literally for Kong Nam Meen. I still remember the crispy yee meen beneath a starchy gravy with loads of vegetables, squid and huge prawns. It's like the familiar Cantonese fried noodles or Wart Tarn Hor but yet it's so different! I loved the different types of vegetables used ranging from capsicums, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, young corn and gosh different place will have different variety of vegetables thrown in.

I will usually order this should I chance the stall or restaurant serves this. However, hubby had a very late discovery of this dish. I had order this before with him but he was disinterested until he ate a superb version of Kong Nam Meen at Green View Restaurant. He was hooked since then, well, guess what, it's due to the same reason of having loads of vegetables in it.

I've attempted this dish recently and I have to say, it's a far cry from resembling one LOL!!!

I have loads of vegetables in there ranging from brocolli, cauliflower, baby corn, carrot, onions and capsicums, on top of chicken meat, squids and prawns. I've used deep fried mee sua instead of the thicker yee meen which worked out fine but seriously I need to find out more on how to cook the starchy gravy. I did not use the right amount of starch which rendered my gravy not being thick enough. My egg swirls failed horribily too... well because I did not bothered to research on how to cook it, just pandai-pandai (cleverly) guesstimate my way along!

Take a look of my attempt... and you'll know what I meant.

Kong Nam Meen

Let me try again some other time and if it turns out right, I'll post up on how to make this right.

All right, all done with my disastrous experience, I wanna post a plug here since babe_kl had her fair share of being in the limelight recently. One of the Foodster came and bought me lunch today at Aryan. He brought along the legendary, John Krich, a well travelled food writer from The Asian Wall Street Journal. I'm so honoured to have met him finally! I still can't get over it ok. Check out this article and read where John had recommended for one of his top makan places in Malaysia particularly Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

Before we parted ways, the Foodster passed me May-June 2007 edition of The Halal Journal magazine. He told me to give the mag to hubby as an appreciation in helping him out with an article. He quickly flipped thru the pages and showed me the quotes and accredition given to hubby. Thanks so much Foodster!!!

There you go darling... you're now famous already in the food scene (for once), well maybe to the Arabs lah hehehe, eh that's according to the Foodster ok not mine! *Ouchhh* (in anticipation of a whack on my butt!)

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16 comments:

  1. kong nam meen, yummy. it's actually fried sang meen (the same noodles used in sang har meen), topped wif big chunks of vege and meat, and the yummy smooth egg gravy.

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  2. ooo...so thats what its called...

    funny enough, i usually order this as the kong fu chow with yee meen. and yes, its crunchy, hot, less starchy than the normal KFC.

    about the name, tried googling it but cannot find the meaning. did find out where to eat the best versions tho...hehehe.

    mmm...kong nam meen for dinner tonite :p

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  3. This one I don't think is hokkien. Don't ask me why but it is just gut feeling. I am a hokkien. LOL!

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  4. ooo i love this dish..whatever it's called (my mom usually orders it but i dont know what she calls it, usually we just describe what we want to the cook)

    in sarawak thrs a variation of this, but the mee they use is the kolok mee type (thin and white and flour - not the oily yellow mee) and the sauce is tomato-based.

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  5. The best Kong Nam Meen I have eaten is in Rawang!!! Ha ha ha....I use to stay in Rawang for awhile. Maybe I should make a trip back there for some food revisit! Oh, the Kong Nam Meen usually comes with century egg. For a decent version, try Mama's Kitchen in Taman Tun Dr Ismail (call me if you want more details), they put century egg too!

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  6. ahhh never heard of this noodle before. Must try must try.

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  7. thanks olivia but what does kong nam stands for in English??

    ac, how? last nite ate kong nam meen??

    pablo, i guess only since that loh meen place run by Hokkiens haha

    coconutice, thanks for coming by. hmm i think that is known as tomato noodles in Kuching as decribed by Kuching's bloggers

    wmw, how come the versions we ate don't have century eggs?? thanks for your offer, we do eat at Mama's Kitchen sometimes if we're around that area. in fact was there 2 weeks ago :p

    teckiee, you should. i think you'll like it since it has lots of veges

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  8. yes!! i had kong nam mee yesterday :D still prefer the version i had in cheras b4. the one here in ipoh had lots of seafood (prawns + sotong) but the gravy was watery...

    wmw, century egg in kong nam meen is nice right? it adds a different texture to the bite. will try out Mama's kitchen TTDI...if i can find out the exact location :P

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  9. egg gravy...call if u need assistance in the sauce, lady....lolz

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  10. i LURVE KNM...was so glad to read boo's blog that told me greenview sells it. actually, its a new dish to me, i only lost my KNM virginity this year, in tang palace, dynasty hotel, where it was cut for the very time. (for me).

    been meaning to blog about that meal, but cant seem to find the pics. ah well.

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  11. ooo..... interesting, green view sells it? good... let's see when i've da chance to try :D

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  12. I think the Kong comes from Kwangtung (Canton) and the Nam means south so 'south kwangtung'. It is actually Cantonese fried mee with addition of vegetables like your cauliflower and etc. The authentic version would of course have century eggs and I think offal like pig intestines and liver.

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  13. ac, you can find mama's kitchen review in masak-masak.

    ooo thanks mike!

    KNM newbie eh fbb? i think there are many dai chow places sell this now. just ask.

    meiyen, yeah you should try. the Green View KBM is superb.

    thanks for the info shin hin

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  14. haha totally agree green view knm is da bomb..just look at how i saliva at my own pictures i took..

    ur pic shows u r almost there..abit more starch..abit more egg..voila!

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  15. ya ya need lots of improvement joe

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  16. shin-hin left this comment in my mailbox. thanks a lot for the info.

    Slight correction, the Kong actually refers to the river Yangtze Kiang, so Kong Nam is south of the Yangtze, which we know is Kwangtung.

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