Singapore Noodles is a super quick dish of stirfried rice vermicelli noodles with vegetables and some sort of protein. BUT the defining character of the Singapore Noodles is the addition of curry powder, which is the prevalent flavour of this takeout dish.
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Table of contents
What’s in a Name?
Singapore Noodles or Mei Fun – the very name is just plain wrong. Speaking strictly as a born and bred Singaporean! There is no such thing as Singapore Noodles in Singapore! We have way too many noodles for there to be just one, no matter how immortalised it is in the world of Chinese takeouts!
The first time I came across Singapore Noodles was within my first month in the UK. Shock, horror. Almost as bad as when I saw a knocking shop called Singapore Massage! Almost.
Definitely a WTH moment! For want of a less rude acronym!
Take a look at the gallery below, showcasing just some of the much loved noodles you’ll find in Singapore (and some in Malaysia) and you’ll see what I mean. No curry flavoured, stirfried rice vermicelli to be had anywhere!
Origin of Singapore Noodles
So if Singapore Noodles didn’t originate in Singapore, where in the world did the dish come from? Apparently, it is a Cantonese creation, very popular in Cantonese restaurants and stalls in Hong Kong. But why the curry powder, when it’s not really an ingredient associated with Chinese cooking? Your guess is as good as mine.
Perhaps the enterprising cook who created Singapore Mei Fun had visited Singapore and tried our Malay or Indian or Nyonya food. Or he popped over to Burma, or maybe even India! Whatever the origin, suffice it to say, it is a hugely popular stir fried noodle dish in the UK, the US, Canada and Australia.
The Recipe
As with any noodle dish, the “filling”, that is the vegetables and protein, is really a matter of taste. The “standard” vegetables in a takeaway Singapore Noodles recipe tend to be:
- red capsicum (bell pepper)
- beansprouts (here in the UK)
- carrots
- Chinese cabbage
- mushrooms (sometimes)
And the protein can be one of or a combination of the following:
- prawns (shrimps)
- chicken
- pork (roasted or otherwise)
- all of the above, then it’s called “The Special” here in the UK
For Vegetarian Singapore Noodles, just leave out the meat and substitute with tofu or more vegetables.
Cooking Singapore Noodles at Home
Once you get the ingredients ready, this is a very, very quick dish to cook. The rice noodles only want 2-3 minutes of cooking on high heat. Any longer, and they’ll be stodgy, no longer that springy, almost al dente feel to them. And you don’t want stodgy.
So, how do we cook the perfect Singapore Noodles? Let’s take a look at some of the ingredients:
Rice Noodles or Rice Vermicelli
The fact that we are using rice noodles, makes this the perfect “free from” recipe. Use a wheat free soy sauce and oyster sauce, and you’ve got yourself a gluten free noodle dish.
If you are lucky enough to have access to fresh rice vermicelli or bee hoon, or mee hoon or mei fun, get those and just proceed with the actual cooking.
If not, dried vermicelli is the noodles we use. All you need to do, is soak the noodles in hot water. Not cold, not room temperature, and most certainly, not boiling water. Let me explain why.
How to Prepare Dried Rice Noodles (Vermicelli)
- Soaking your dried noodles in cold water results in noodles that will still be hard and brittle after cooking. Same goes with lukewarm water.
- Noodles soaked in boiling water are actually do-able, but the problem with using boiling water, is that even an extra minute can kill those noodles and make them all gooey and lumpy upon cooking. Even 5 minutes is too long, in my opinion.
- So the best option? Boil the kettle. Leave it to settle for 5 minutes, then pour over your noodles, totally covering them. Soak for 5-10 minutes, then rinse with cold water to stop them from softening further. Why 5-10 minutes? Because you may have left that hot water longer than you think! Test the noodles after 5, if they are pliable but still not soft all the way, they are done. If they are not pliable, give them 2 more minutes. Erring on the side of caution is better than mushy noodles. So if you are not sure, stop and rinse them. Just remember, the hotter the water, the less time the noodles need to be soaked.
Singapore Noodles “Sauce”
When I fry noodles, like Chow Mein and Pad Thai, I like to mix all the sauces and seasonings into a bowl, so that when I am flash cooking the noodles, it’s just a case of dumping 1 ingredient, instead of half a dozen. And that’s what we have here: the soy sauce, oyster sauce, etc, all get placed in one bowl, ready to be used.
Curry Powder for Singapore Noodles
Chinese curry powders tend to be a mixture of madras curry mix, along with other ingredients like flour, sugar, garlic, ginger, and oftentimes, msg. So it doesn’t have the full curry aroma that you would have with a “proper” Indian or Malay curry powder.
So go get yourself a packet of Chinese or even Japanese curry powder, if you like, or just use a regular mild Madras or any generic curry powder. You could increase the sugar in our sauce to 1 tsp, to make the noodles a touch sweeter, if you fancy, making them more like takeaway Singapore noodles. If you want sweet noodles!
Shaoxing Rice Wine
This is from the region of Shaoxing and made with fermented rice, and is a light brown to dark brown colour. You can use any rice wine (not vinegar) as substitute, or, failing that, dry sherry is a perfect substitute.
If you don’t do alcohol, just substitute any cooking wine with a tiny amount of vinegar. So in this recipe, 1/2 tsp clear vinegar will be perfect.
Soy Sauces
We use 2 different types of soy sauces here: light and dark. Click here to read about the different types of soy sauces. You should be able to get both fairly easily these days. Here in the UK, they are found everywhere.
The Protein (Meat) in our Singapore Noodles
I’m using a small portion of prawns (shrimps) here. You could double the amount of prawns, if you like, or use chicken or pork. Whatever meat you use, wants to be cut up small and be quick cooking. You could also use cooked chicken or meat, like leftover roast chicken or roast pork (char siu).
But not cooked prawns. Never cook with previously cooked prawns, as so much of the flavour would already be lost from the initial cooking. As far as I’m concerned, that rule holds for most seafoods.
High Heat or Medium High Heat for Frying Noodles?
Ideally, it should be high heat. However, in my experience, it’s not something many people can carry off, stir frying on very high heat at home is a bit of a skill and requires focus.
No distractions from kids or getting another forgotten ingredient. So I have long gone for medium-high, as a compromise, in my classes and even when I cook them, as I have 4 homeschooling kids.
Vegetarian Singapore Noodles
This is super, super easy, as with any noodle dish. Just leave out the meat/seafood and replace with more vegetables or tofu. I would definitely suggest tofu, if you are a tofu fan. Other vegetables you can add to make our mei fun vegetarian would be:
- sugar snap peas
- mangetouts
- green beans
- bamboo shoots
- more mushrooms
Final word on cooking Singapore Mei Fun
You need to have everything at hand, because the actual cooking is done in the blink of an eye, and the noodles do not want over cooking.
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And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood
Lin xx
Singapore Noodles (Singapore Mei Fun) a Popular Takeout Recipe
Ingredients
- 400 g (14 oz) dried rice vermicelli
- 2 cloves garlic
- 4 spring onions (scallions)
- 200 g (7 oz) raw prawns (shrimps)
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp sesame oil PLUS a little more to drizzle
- 2 Tbsp mild curry powder
- 3 large eggs lightly beaten
Vegetables
- 1 small carrot
- 1 red capsicum (bell pepper)
- 2 handfuls Chinese cabbage or any white cabbage
- 6 shiitake mushrooms
- 1 handful spinach
Sauce
- 1 Tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp oyster sauce leave out for vegetarian
- 1 Tbsp Shaoxing rice wine or any rice wine or dry sherry OR ½ tsp clear vinegar for non alcoholic substitution
- ½ tsp white sugar
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
- Soak the noodles in hot water for 5-10 minutes, as discussed above. At the end of that time, drain, rinse in cold, tap water, drain and set aside. If you like, snip the noodles to manageable lengths for eating. I don’t, as it’s bad luck!
- Chop up the garlic finely and the spring onions into 5cm (2″) lengths.
- Grate the carrot, julienne the bell pepper and slice thinly the cabbage and shiitake.
- Mix all the sauce ingredients into a small bowl and set aside.
- Heat the vegetable oil in your wok on medium-high heat and pour in the eggs. Leave to set for 15 seconds, then lightly scramble for about 5-10 seconds, leaving the scrambled eggs still very soft and a little runny. Tip onto a plate and set aside until needed.
- Clean the wok and heat the 2 tsp pf the sesame oil on medium-high heat and fry the prawns for 20 seconds.
- Add the garlic and spring onions and fry for 10 seconds, then add the rest of the vegetables. Cook all this for 30 seconds, stirring on the medium-high heat continuously.
- Add the sauce, stir and cook for 20 seconds. Tip in the eggs in.
- Add the noodles, sprinkle the curry powder all over and stir thoroughly, mixing everything up, coating the noodles and scraping the bottom of the wok. Don’t cook for more than 2 minutes. The noodles ought to be done in 1 minute.
- Turn the heat off, drizzle a little sesame oil all over and serve up.
Azlin, thanks for sharing!
My pleasure.
Hi again Azlin.
Wanted to let you know that after reading about 6-7 different recipes for this dish, I used yours as the basis for making my first attempt at this dish. For my taste I find I like a bit more curry powder, and I like this dish on the hot pepper side. That’s the beauty of learning to cook, we can adjust things to our preference.
I also added quite a bit more heat using both hot crushed pepper and Chile de arbol powder.
Your recipe is excellent. My first attempt went quite well. I LOVED it. Thanks again. Anyone else looking for a great Signapore Chow Mei Fun, Hot type for me, go with Azlin’s.
Tome T.
Thanks Tome, it’s all an adventure, isn’t it? The journey is half the fun. Stay in touch.
Thank you for you take on this dish. As you likely know, there are a good number of online recipes for Hot Singapore Chow Mei Fun. Over the past 5 years I have tried, tried, to make Chinese-American dishes at home. I am great at Italian, East European/Balkan, some French, and American dishes.
I just wanted to comment on the Shaoxing wine. I have tried a couple of highly recommended varieties from China. They were very good. However, not having a readily available Asian grocery near me, I have an excellent replacement that is much more readily available. You can replace Shaoxing with Marsala wine. Yes, Marsala wine.
Marsala wine is a fortified wine made from grapes. It originates in Sicily. There are two types of Marsala, sweet and dry. Which you prefer for certain recipes is up to you. If you get both types, try them out and note the differences in sweet and dry. I’ve tried both types. I prefer the sweet type when making dishes that may call for a bit of sugar, such as a good number of Asian dishes. The dry variety is also very good and I tend to use that type for dishes such as “Marsala Chicken”.
Marsala has a very similar flavor profile to Shaoxing even though Marsala is made from grapes and Shaoxing from rice. Many chefs will suggest Sherry as a substitute for Shaoxing. That is why Marsala is also a great substitute as Sherry and Marsala can substitute for each other. If Sherry is similar to Shaoxing, and Marsala is similar to Sherry, then that is why Marsala is a good substitute for Shaoxing.
I hope someone finds this info useful. BTW, I’m making Hot Signapore Chow Mei Fun tonight. I am using Marsala to marinate the chicken strip, and in the sauce. I found a different curry that has a nice darker gold color, and the scent is wonderful. I hope it works.
Take care, and eat well. 🙂
Tome T.
Thank you Tome, I appreciate the time you took to write this. Marsala and other dry fortified wines are a very well known substitute for Chinese wine in many parts of the world. I mention dry sherry in the post and recipe.
Azlin, thanks for sharing! Saved my butt on a quick impulsive idea for a dinner side!
Haha, glad to be of service!
Azlin, these recipes look great! It’s awesome to see so many delicious recipes in one place.
Thank you!
Azlin, what a great idea! I love noodles. Your version really pleases me very well, with ingredients that I often use in cooking too.
It looks awesome! So much flavors packed on this recipe that makes this simply irresistible, definitely having this on my table!
Thank you, Olga! I love how easy it is!
Very interesting read and enticing recipe, Lin. I love such quick dinner ideas. A must try soon!
Thank you!
can i use Indian curry powder?
Yes, absolutely. That’s what I tend to use also.
This sounds (and looks) amazing, Lin! I did have a version of it when visiting Singapore (the Hawker stalls!) and HK…simply divine. I sure hope I can reproduce your recipe!! Happy Year of the Dog!! xo ~ally
Great recipe
Thank you!
I love this recipe
Me too!
This dish looks mouthwatering! Really love noodles like this, and your ingredient tips are quite helpful too!
As if you read my mind Azlin! I had eaten Vegetarian version of Singapore Noodles sometime ago and had fallen in love with these. Had been meaning to replicate the recipe since long. I am saving this recipe for reference and link back notes when I put my recipe on. Loved yojrsetaiked recipe!!
Thank you, Sonal! I only eat them when we make them!
there are so much misinterpretation in languages… but the food is still super tasty nontheless <3
Yes indeed!
For some reasons noodles always seem to intimidate me haha, but thank you for breaking it all down. Makes it very easy to follow.
Thank you, Jen!
these look absolutely delicious!! Love the variety of flavors!
Thank you!
THIS is so being made, but for me, with spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles!!! It just sounds so dang flavorful!
That sounds like a great option!
I love this recipe and all your tips are so helpful! I’m so hungry now for noodles. I’ve often been a bit intimidated by those rice vermicelli noodles. I will be making this for dinner this week. Yum!
Thank you, Michelle!
Lol, I hear you! I was just as puzzled when I first saw the name! Yours looks really good, might whip it up for lunch on Sunday.
Awesome, let me know how it goes, Kevin!
Great, my favourite noodles, I get them almost every weekend. I’m gong to try this, Azlin, along with your sweet and sour chicken. Planning to do it this Saturday, wish me luck!
Thank you, Steven, let me know how it goes.