Mee Rebus

Azlin Bloor’s mee rebus brings egg noodles and bean sprouts together under a curry-flavoured gravy thickened with sweet potato and peanuts. Her version uses minced beef in place of the small meat pieces her grandmother cooked, while the toppings remain a generous part of the bowl.

Sweet potato is boiled in salted water, drained and mashed. Raw peanuts are dry-toasted, cooled and finely chopped. Onion, sliced lemongrass and galangal are ground with shrimp paste, dried shrimp, taucheo and curry powder to make the rempah.

The rempah fries with two bruised lemongrass stalks before minced beef joins the pot. Water and salt start the covered simmer; sugar and ground peanuts enter later. Two ladles of the same gravy loosen the mashed sweet potato before it is stirred back into the pot.

Eggs are boiled, cooled, peeled and halved, while selected firm tofu cubes fry until lightly golden. Noodles blanch in salted boiling water, which is retained to blanch the bean sprouts afterwards.

The noodles are divided between bowls, topped with bean sprouts and covered generously with gravy. Bloor offers halved eggs, fried tofu, calamansi, chillies, spring onion, coriander and crispy shallots among the finishes, letting diners choose the toppings they enjoy.