Singapore Mei Fun (Mai Fun) recipe with Char Siu pork, carrot, red onions, shrimp and napa cabbage
I have received one request about how to make Chinese takeout Singapore fried Mei fun (Mai Fun)around one week ago. Before that request, I totally had no idea about how popular this dish is outside China. However it is really worth the popularity.
I guess you might be quite confused why this Singapore stuff food appears on Chinese takeout menu. Although it is named as Singapore chow Mei fun, this dish is not unique to Singapore. The Chinese name of this pan fried rice noodle recipe is “星州炒米粉” and it is usually served in tea restaurant in southern China and Hong Kong. It really combines several interesting ingredients for example Chinese char siu or sausage and golden curry powder from India. By the way, curry powder has become a really popular kitchen seasoning in Chinese kitchen now. And you should not feel surprised when hearing the stewed beef with curry and potato has been ranked as top 20 popular dishes in China now.Anyway, no matter where it comes from and why it is named as Singapore Mei fun, we can just enjoy yummy dishes.
Here are some tips about the ingredients
- For the curry, golden curry including powder and paste is high recommended since it contains large amount of turmeric powder, thus giving a golden color of the final dish.
- About Char Siu, if you just cannot find any store version Char Siu and not interested in making some at home too. You can replace it with Chinese sausage or bacon.
- About the Mei fun (Mai Fun): In this recipe, dried thin rice noodle is usually used. In addition, we have flat rice noodles used in beef chow fun. If possible, use Taiwanese Mei fun for this recipe because most of high quality Taiwanese Mei Fun provides a better texture and you will not end up with broken rice noodles.
Heat up around 1/2 tablespoon oil in pan and make a thin omelet. Then shred the egg omelet on your cutting board after cooling down.
Heat up around 1 tablespoon oil in wok over medium fire. Add shrimp and Char Siu meat or sausage or ham to fry for around 10 to 20 seconds until aroma. Add other side ingredients including carrot, green pepper, onion and cabbage to fry for another 30 seconds or until they are slightly soften. Spread the curry power on the mixture and mix well.
Add rice noodles in and after that stir in the stir fry sauce in. Make quick movements to coat all the contents with stir fry sauce evenly.
Add shredded egg omelet , mix well.
Enjoy!
- 100 g dried rice noodles
- 8 whole Shrimp ,peeled and deveined
- 2 whole Eggs
- 1 cup Shredded Napa Cabbage
- 1/2 cup shredded carrot
- 1/2 cup shredded red onion
- 1 fresh green pepper ,shredded (I use half green and half red)
- 1 scallion or green onion ,cut into 2 inch sections
- 1/3 cup Chinese Char Siu or sausage ,finely sliced or shredded
- 1.5 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1/2 tbsp. golden curry powder
- 1 tbsp. cooking wine
- 1/2 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1 tsp. dark soy sauce
- 2 tsp. sesame oil
- 1/2 tbsp. oyster sauce ,optional
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1/2 tsp. salt or as needed
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Pre-soak the rice noodles for around 20 to 30 minutes until soft and then drain.
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Heat up around 1/2 tablespoon oil in pan and make a thin omelet. Then shred the egg omelet on your cutting board after cooling down.
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Slice other ingredients and mix the stir fry sauce in a small bowl.
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Heat up around 1 tablespoon oil in wok over medium fire. Add shrimp and Char Siu meat or sausage or ham to fry for around 10 to 20 seconds until aroma. Add other side ingredients including carrot, green pepper, onion and cabbage to fry for another 30 seconds or until they are slightly soften.
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Spread the curry power on the mixture and mix well.
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Add rice noodles in and after that stir in the stir fry sauce in. Make quick movements to coat all the contents with stir fry sauce evenly.
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Add shredded egg omelet and scallions or green onions. Fry for another 20 second or so.
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Transfer out and serve hot.
Since both soy sauce and oyster sauce contains salt, so I spare salt in this recipe. For any reason you need to cut or reduce any of the ingredients, increase the salt amount accordingly.
Please test with small batch firstly as chow Mei fun or other rice noodles needs frying practices. If you are trying to make a larger batch, make sure you get a larger wok and stronger fire.
Elaine, I am feeling a touch sketchy after a few too many wines last night and I can’t tell you how appealing this is to me right now. I never crave pizza or McDonald’s. I crave Asian food! Just to confirm, is this vermicelli noodles??
Haha, Nagi,
You must have a very wonderful night. Yes this is rice vermicelli noodle and we have mung bean noodles too. This really is a yummy and luxurious breakfast.
I need to make this. One of my favorite dishes.
This is quite appealing to me. Happy cooking James.
When you add the stir fry sauce iakes the entire dish dark ?
Hi there,
It should be added in step six after you adding the Mei Fun noodles. Happy cooking and bon appetite!
Thank you !
My pleasure!
I’m broke my ankle yesterday and now I am in a lot of pain laying in bed on bed rest I am about to order Chinese what should I order the pain is so intense I need something to help me feel better what would be the best trying to ease ingredients or dishes for this
Hi Aaron,
I am so sorry to hear that. We usually use 红花油 to help ease the pain. Can Chinese food or this dish help?
Hope you feel better soon!
I LOVE Singapore Mei Fun — I have some in the refrigerator waiting for my lunch right now! and now I don’t even have to go out for it! Mmmmmmmm…..
Thanks Lorri and enjoy!
Hi Elaine,
Im trying to figure out gooden curry powder. Is it tuneric powder or the actual curry powder that is used to make indian curry. I cant wait to try cooking once i have d ingredients in place
Cheers
Hi Deena,
Indian curry is used in this recipe. Good luck!
Hi Elaine,
Thanks for the recipe.
Over here in Malaysia (a neighboring country of Singapore), the local hawkers prepare the similar dish 星州米 very closely to your recipe. They normally add some tomato ketchup and Worcestershire sauce as part of the stir-fried sauces. It has a wonderful taste and loved by the locals. You may want to try that and see if you like it. Cheers 🙂
KP Kwan
I want a recipe of this Ok.
Hello ! It’s look wonderful ! 🙂 But we don’t have to cook noodles in hot water before putting them in the wok?
Yes, there is no need as we pre-soaked the mei fun. It is different from normal noodles and requires less heat.
When my husband and I visited China, every hotel had a dish like this on the breakfast buffet. It became my husband’s favorite breakfast. I don’t recall it having a yellow color or tasting of curry though. Every restaurant that we’ve been to that serves this seems very similar to your recipe. Is there a version without curry?
Yes, Margarita. There are Chinese fried mei fun without curry depending on the provinces. This Singapore mei fun is popular in Cantonese area and Hong Kong.
I have used in the past rice noodles that were required to be soaked in hot water. Did you use hot waterbor cold water?
Hi Claudia,
I would recommend using Luke water to soak the mei fun.
Hi, is there a vegetarian version you can recommend please?
There is no vegetarian version of Singapore Mei Fun, but it tastes great with some basic vegetables, shredded cabbage, carrots and red onions.
Hi, Made this tonight as this has become a regular meal in my house now. I enjoyed it so much (again)
that I thought I just had to let you know and say thanks for a lovely recipe.
Thanks Tricia for the trying the recipe and the lovely feedback.
Is this just one serving or two?
It can just serve two. I do not recommend frying a large batch each time.
Are vermicelli rice noodles comparable to the noodles you recommend?
You can use other vermicelli rice noodles. Just be gentle and do not break them when frying.
Just enjoyed it – verrrry tasty!
Thanks for the beautiful mouthwatering photos, as well!
Cheers
Thanks Julia! I am so glad that you loved it. It is a family star on my table too
Elaine, this is one of the best things I have ever tasted/cooked! Thank you for an amazing recipe! My whole family is raving tonight after I made this for dinner! I am a big fan of yours …. please keep sharing your amazing knowledge and recipes with us!
H，Kirsty
Thanks, I’m very glad you have tried my recipe successfully and your family love it. Wish you have a good time!
Delicious, I add extra curry power (1 1/2 tbs) as the Chinese sausage made it a little too sweet.
Hi, Ali
It’s OK with extra curry power if you don’t like the sweet of Chinese sausage.
Made this for my family tonight. They LOVED it!
Thanks Brain for the wonderful feedback.
Hi Elaine, which brand of golden curry powder do you recommend? Should it be a Chinese brand or would any curry powder work in the recipe?
Hi Nerimaro,
Any brand of golden curry powder can work for this recipe.
I love this dish….always ate it in food courts in Melbourne. But interestingly when I relocated to Singapore, this dish does not exist!!! So i wonder where the “singapore” name came from in naming this dish?
Hi Derek,
I do not know why too. The Chinese name is “星洲炒米”. It is not originated from Singapore but quite popular in China towns.
Totally killer. Made this, even though I lacked a couple bits – tastes better than the stuff at the take-out place. Will be one of my favorite go-to’s going forward! Thanks so much! Wish I knew where to get that pork, though.
Thank you for such an encouraging comment. The pork is leftover Cha Siu, you can get it at any dim sum halls or it is also quite easy for homemaking.
This was deeeeelicious! Definitely satisfied my restaurant craving. We made with chicken and shrimp, only 2tsps of oil, and used reduced sodium soy sauce (we didn’t have regular or dark). The portions were huge! This could easily make 3-4 portions for those who eat a little less.
Thanks Valerie. When eating fried noodles, my family members always eats a lot. I serve them as a meal, sometimes with soups.
Every year for Thanksgiving my family makes food from different cultures. This year we chose Asian. Your website has been EXTREMELY helpful. This is a favorite of most of my family and I had no idea it was this easy. Thanks so much! Hope it turns out well tomorrow. Wish us luck lol
Dionne,
Happy cooking and Happy Thanksgiving!
I subbed the meat and eggs for tofu and tempeh to make it a full plant based meal and it did not disappoint. The tofu was fresh firm and the tempeh was sprouted chickpea. I also threw in a little ketjap manis for a sweet soy taste and halved the sugar.
Thanks for the recipe!
I just finished making your recipe for Singapore Mei Fun and it was so delicious. I thank you for sharing the recipe! This is definitely one to save for my recipe box! Will be making this many times!!!
Thanks Marilyn so much for this lovely feedback. Happy cooking.
I love a good Singapore noodle dish from our local Chinese restaurant here in Seattle. It would be fun to recreate it at home and thanks to you I might.
The noodles need to soak in cold or warm water?
Also do you have a site where I could order an authentic chinese wok already seasoned?
Thank you Elaine for this recipe!
Claudia,
I usually soak them in warm water to fasten the process.
I am sorry that I have no idea about where to buy seasoned wok. But the step is quite easy and you can finish at home easily. Get some fat （animal fat） and ginger slices, brush the wok carefully with the fat and ginger. Then wash with hot water. Dry and repeat this fro 2 times and then your wok is well seasoned.
Hi. Elaine
I found your website from this very recipe on Pinterest. This used to be my absolute favorite takeout meal. Question is there any way to lighten the sodium level in this recipe? I have to watch my salt intake but would love to make this as it sounds delicious. Please let me know.
Christina,
There is low sodium soy sauce sold. If you need to water the salt taking, you can use low sodium soy sauce and skip oyster sauce, and slightly reduce the amount of salt. I hope this helps. happy cooking!