Ba Mee Moo Dang (บะหมี่หมูแดง)/Thai-Style Egg Noodles with Red BBQ Pork

With soup (left) and Dry with soup on the side (right).  Notice the condiment tray to the top right, a staple on every Thai table

In the early 1900's, a prime minister of Thailand asked everyone to invent new noodle dish. By that time, a lot of Chinese had immigrated to Thailand, and they all brought their background knowhow to cook a noodle dish adapted to the hot weather and the culture of Thailand.

This classic street food must have been invented by the Cantonese. The best BBQ Pork to this day is still in Hong Kong, but Cantonese people do not exactly eat it like this. You will find that only Thai people eat the BBQ pork like this, hot and spicy, salty and sweet and a bit sour! Everything is in one dish.  We Thais know how to balance every flavor out in one dish.

The yellow noodle shown, is a Cantonese style or more southern style egg noodle.  The northern Chinese style noodle would be white, big and round, more like the Japanese udon. One package of noodles usually comes in 4 rolls of noodles. It is very important to unroll them before boiling, otherwise it will stick together.  And do not open the package and leave the noodles out to dry up. If you are not using it right away, cover with moistened paper towel until use.  Certainly do not put them in the microwave.

When buying BBQ Pork it is best to buy the whole cut that is 1 or 2 lbs. then slice it at home.  Doing this, you will get a lot nicer cut and a lot more slices to have for guests.  And remember to ask for the pan juice. If you happened to have leftovers BBQ Pork, don't worry, you can make fried rice with it.  I usually buy a bit more and chopped whatever I think I would need for the noodle and the rest I would freeze for the next week.  Fried rice with BBQ Pork will be dinner the one day of the week that I want to be lazy or I have to go somewhere that I have very little time to cook.

- Daisy

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This is one of those dishes that just scream home and comfort to me.  My mom knows this is one of my favorite dishes and always has it ready when she knows I'm coming home, especially when I'm all frazzled from a hectic week.  And the fact that she always saves me a portion for lunch the next day just makes it even more awesome.  My brother and sister like the angel hair style egg noodles with soup, while I have my soup on the side and I prefer the fettuccine style egg noodles and I like mine dry so it's almost like pan fried noodles minus all the greasiness.  And the flavors are just so much more intensified without any soup to dilute it.  I love egg noodles, and this dish really is the best of our Chinese Thai heritage that our family is so proud of.

- Darin

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Ba Mee Moo Dang บะหมี่หมูแดง
Thai-Style Egg Noodles with Red BBQ Pork

Fish Meatballs.  Feel free to skip if you're not a seafood person.

For 4 servings

For the Soup:
1 Pork Bone, chopped
2-3 Carrots, peels and chopped into 2" pieces
16-18 cups water
2 1/2 Tbsp Salt
1 tsp Rock Sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp Soy sauce
2 1/2 Tbsp Fish sauce
1Tbsp Black Peppercorns
1 package Fish Meatballs

1) Fill a pot of with enough water just to cover the bones and let it boil for about 5 minutes.

2) Carefully take out the bones and pour out the water.  Rise out the pot and put back in the pork bones and add the carrots.

3) Pour in 18 cups filtered water and put on high heat. After it is boiling, cover and lower the heat.

4) Use a big spoon to skim out and discard all the foam that rises to surface.   Leave it to simmer for 2-3 hours, then use a strainer to take out the bones, carrots and peppercorn, leaving only the clear broth.

5) Add the salt, sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce and black peppercorns.

6) When ready to assemble the bowl, get the broth to a simmer and add in the fish meatballs to cook according to package directions.

For the Noodles:

Chinese Hand Strainers. Very handy.

1 12oz. package of Fresh Chinese Egg Noodles (Twin Marquis Brand is the most popular one you'll see.  I'd recommend either the fettuccine-like noodle or the angel hair-like noodle.  Stay away from the lo mein ones.)
1 tsp Vegetable Oil
Sesame Oil

1) Boil a pot of water and generously salt.  Add a the vegetable oil.  Blanch the bean sprouts now for 1 minute in the salted water if you are using.

2) Unroll the noodles and loosen them up.  Using a strainer in one hand and a pari fo chopsticks in another, boil the noodles while constantly stirring and lifting the noodle up and down in the strainer until noodle is done, about 2-3 minutes.

3) Put the finished noodles into a bowl and add a couple drops of sesame oil.

Fresh Chinese Egg Noodles.  This one is the angel hair style.

For the Bowl:
1 roll Fresh Chinese Noodles, boiled
1 lb BBQ Pork, sliced and warmed
1 lb Bean sprouts, blanched
1 bunch Green Onion
1 bunch Cilantro
Chinese Tian Jin Preserved Vegetable

1) Start with around a cup of bean sprouts, follow with the noodles, top with BBQ pork, then the green onion, cilantro, and preserved vegetable.

2) Pour the soup over everything and make sure to get a couple of fish meatballs in there.  It adds a slightly sweet briny-ness that is just wonderful.

3) If you are eating the dish dry, serve the soup on the side in a separate bowl and add the following to the noodles in addition to the pork, bean sprouts, green onion, cilantro and preserved vegetable:
2 tsp Sweet soy sauce
1 tsp Soy sauce
1 tsp Fish sauce
1 tsp Sugar
1 tsp Chili Garlic Sauce (sambal oelek)

For the Condiments:
Asian people will always have some condiments on the table for each person to adjust the seasonings to their preference.  Below are some examples you can play with:
1) 1 Tbsp Chili garlic sauce + 3 Tbsp Apple cider
2) 1 Tbsp Jalapeño pepper, sliced + 3 Tbsp Apple cider
3) Red pepper flakes
4) Sugar
5) Fish sauce

From left to right: fish sauce, white mushroom soy sauce, condiment tray with pickled chili and sambal oelek, sweet soy sauce, fresh Chinese egg noodles (fettuccine style), preserved vegetable and sesame oil.