Lor Mee (Noodles in Thick Braised Gravy)

Name: Lor Mee (Noodles in Thick Braised Gravy)
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Singaporean (Hokkien)
Ingredients: 500 g Thick fresh yellow noodles; 400 g Pork belly, in one piece; 500 g Pork bones; 2 L Water; 3 tbsp Dark soy sauce; 2 tbsp Light soy sauce; 1.5 tsp Five-spice powder; 2 Star anise; 1 Cinnamon stick; 1 Garlic, whole head, halved; 1 tbsp Rock sugar; 6 Eggs; 4 tbsp Cornstarch; 150 g Fish cake, sliced; 150 g Fried fish fillet pieces (or ngo hiang), sliced; 100 g Bean sprouts, blanched; 4 tbsp Black vinegar, minced raw garlic, chilli sauce and coriander, to serve

Thick yellow noodles under a dark, starchy, five-spice gravy thickened with egg — topped with braised pork belly, fish cake, a braised egg and fried fish, then cut through with black vinegar, raw garlic and chilli at the table. Hokkien from Zhangzhou, and one of the hawker bowls Singapore still queues for.

Source

Recipe by Chinese-Singaporean hawker stalls · 🏺 Traditional · Teochew, Hokkien and Cantonese stall cooking in Singapore's hawker centres and coffee shops

Singapore · noodles under braised gravy — An ownerless hawker dish, so no cook is credited. The cited article confirms lor mee as a Hokkien noodle dish from Zhangzhou served in thick starchy gravy, eaten by Hokkiens in Singapore, described by the Singapore Government as a popular hawker dish, with two lor mee stalls in the 2025 Michelin Guide for Singapore. The braise, the egg-thread technique, the toppings, timings and quantities are this book's own.

Background on Wikipedia ↗

Watch it being made · 3 videos

Spice N' Pans The Meatmen Channel Cooking with Sheryl

⏱ 120 min🍽 4 servings🔥 580 kcal🇸🇬 Singapore🌶️

Dairy-freeNut-free

Steps

Simmer the pork bones in the water 45 minutes, skimming. Add the pork belly, both soys, five-spice, star anise, cinnamon, garlic and rock sugar, and braise 45 minutes more until the belly is tender.
Add 4 whole peeled boiled eggs for the last 20 minutes to stain them brown. Lift out the belly and eggs. Strain the gravy back into the pot — about 1.5 L.
Bring the gravy to a boil. Mix the cornstarch with 6 tablespoons of cold water and stir it in; simmer 2 minutes until glossy and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Beat the remaining 2 eggs. With the gravy at a bare simmer, pour them in a thin stream while stirring slowly in one direction, so they set into fine silky threads.
💡 Bare simmer, thin stream, slow stir. A hard boil scrambles the egg into lumps; no stirring gives you a sheet. The threads are what make lor mee gravy feel the way it does.
Blanch the noodles 1 minute and drain. Slice the belly and halve the eggs.
Put noodles and bean sprouts in bowls, ladle the gravy over, and top with belly, egg, fish cake and fried fish. Put vinegar, garlic, chilli and coriander on the table for each person to add.

💡 Tips

The vinegar and raw garlic are not optional garnishes — the gravy is deliberately heavy so they can cut it. A bowl without them tastes flat.
Leftover gravy sets to a jelly in the fridge and reheats perfectly with a splash of water.