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Ramen vs. Char Siew Mee

  • 5

You guys crack me up.

Those of you who think ramen is the best thing that happened since sliced pork - I wonder if you've ever tried the humble char siew mee.

I'm afraid there aren't enough Singaporeans here on this board to campaign for char siew mee. Let me just say that Singaporean char siew slices are no less than barbeque perfection, not something which looks as though it's boiled overnight. And mee, the noodle!

(Not the exact photos I was looking for, but these will have to do...) http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=2...

Ah, don't get me wrong - I sort of like pork ramen, too, but I could never really get into that stuff.

Just my two cents. Cheers.

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  1. that looks awesome, esp the second pic

    how is it different than ramen flavorwise? seems like the noodles sit in a pool of sauce, rather than a soup like concoction?

    1. The coloration of the bbq pork in the first photo is so wrong, way too orangy. The second photo it's much better. The second photo is usually call char sui lo mein in Cantonese.

      1. how different is this with the egg noodle soup w/ roast pork or pig that I get at cantonese resturants?

        As for the comments on the ramen vs. the noodle, if i had a choice, why not choose both although I don't know a place that serves the other dish. Ramen (although not great) can be found around DC.

        1. The first picture is wan tan mee... my all time favorite mee! It's the first thing I eat every time I go to Singapore. The meat is a little too orange as mentioned but the chillis and wan tan looks great.

          I compare all pork noodle dishes to dry or soup style wan tan mee and they can never compare!

          1 Reply
          1. re: boogiebaby

            My sentiments exactly - they can never compare.

            You may notice I deliberately called it char siew mee to make the comparison more suitable for this discussion. I am talking about the char siew wan tan mee, the soup version, without wontons if you like - hence char siew mee. But hey, if you want to compare the dish with all the delicious trimmings, why not.

            As for the Cantonese comparison, some tuning is in order since I haven't visited Singapore in years (Cantonese dishes are easier to find in America.) And I may be imagining it (many years of of dreaming leading to hallucinations...?) but the Singapore version generally has more zing, and the noodle texture is "tighter" if it makes any sense, and tends to be less "gloppy". I don't know all the varieties of lo mein, but the mee versions I like are different from the lo mein versions I know.

            Another picture -