Mee Suah Soup (Wheat Vermicelli Soup) – a quick and easy comfort food that takes only minutes to prepare. Add or substitute with ground pork for a heartier flavor.
Mee Suah Soup (Wheat Vermicelli Soup) is a Chinese comfort food. Like Chicken Rice Porridge (Congee), it can be eaten any time of the day and is often served during convalescence. I grew up eating this dish and continue to enjoy it until this day. My mom usually makes the soup with dried anchovies. Occasionally, she would add some ground pork if she has it on hand.
Dried Anchovies
Whole dried anchovies can be purchased in small bags at the Asian grocery stores. Keeping them in the refrigerator helps it stay fresh for a longer period of time. Whenever I visit my mom, I get to bring home several bags of cleaned and peeled anchovies. She will buy a few kilograms of these tiny dried fish and spent days removing the heads and bones and finally sealing them into bags for me. Now, that’s a labor of love!
Mee Suah (Chinese Wheat Vermicelli)
Chinese wheat vermicelli is a very thin variety of salted noodles. It originated in Fujian, China and is different from rice sticks or bean threads. Easily available at the Asian grocery stores, it usually comes packaged in flat boxes. Inside the box are little bundles of vermicelli tied with a red string. Each bundle is a little over an ounce (about 35g) and is sufficient for one serving. Japanese somen has a similar taste and texture and may be used in place of mee suah (wheat vermicelli).
Tools Used in Making This Mee Suah Soup
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• Cuisinart Professional Stainless Saucepan with Cover, 3-Quart, Stainless Steel
• Chef Craft Stainless Steel Ladle
Mee Suah Soup (Wheat Vermicelli Soup) - a quick and easy comfort food that takes only minutes to prepare. Add or substitute with ground pork for a heartier flavor.
- 4 bundles mee suah (Chinese wheat vermicelli)
- 6 stalks baby bok choy (sliced in half lengthwise)
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup dried anchovies (cleaned)** (25g)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 6 cups water (1.5 liters)
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 green onions (finely sliced)
- Sesame oil
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Rinse and soak dried anchovies for 10 minutes. Drain.
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Heat vegetable oil in a medium sized pot. Fry anchovies for about 2 minutes. Add garlic and fry for another minute. Pour in water. Bring to a boil and season with salt*** and pepper. Reduce heat and allow soup to simmer for 5 minutes. Break in the eggs and lightly break yolks with a pair of chopsticks. Add bok choy and mee suah and allow to cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
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Turn off heat. Divide into 4 bowls, garnish with green onions and a few drops of sesame oil. Serve immediately.
**If you prefer not to use dried anchovies, it may be substituted with 4 oz (115g) ground pork. Alternatively, omit the anchovies and use 6 cups (1.5 liters) chicken stock.
***Mee suah (wheat vermicelli) is salty. Give it a taste test before adding salt.
Mee Suah Soup is best eaten as soon as it is cooked as the vermicelli tends to soak up the soup very quickly and become overly soft.
Enjoy…..and have a wonderful day! 😎
Jabeen says
May 11, 2011 at 5:21 pmThats a perfect chinese treat .. Love the bowl..
Belinda @zomppa says
May 11, 2011 at 5:51 pmWhat a lovely, simple, clear soup with the best touch of anchovy!
Veronica's Kitchen says
May 11, 2011 at 6:36 pmI miss this noodles soup made by my mother-in-law. Simple but tasty!
torviewtoronto says
May 11, 2011 at 7:59 pmwonderful delicious soup
Nasi Lemak Lover says
May 11, 2011 at 8:14 pmI love this way too, so simple but yet so delicious!
tigerfish says
May 11, 2011 at 10:22 pmWe are so in-sync again (after the kale and meatballs posts)! I just featured somen (texture almost like mee suah) in my post. Hee heee…with kale again.
Biren says
May 11, 2011 at 10:27 pmIn sync again? Well, must be the weather…hehe! It’s finally a little warmer and I wanted something a little soupy this morning. Mee Suah immediately came to mind. 🙂
Zoe says
May 11, 2011 at 10:27 pm100% agree with you that this is a great therapeutic food.
Nami @ Just One Cookbok says
May 11, 2011 at 11:15 pmBiren, this looks delicious!!! I have never seen dried anchovy before (only a can). Is that a common item in Chinese market? It gives a real nice flavor to the soup. I would love to use anchovy than ground pork!! I really like precise instruction Biren…(like when you don’t use dried fish, you can use how much of alternative ingredient we should be using, etc). It shows you are very detailed oriented person…me too, but you are even more. 😀
Biren says
May 12, 2011 at 8:25 amNami, these anchovies are quite different from the canned ones. You will have to get these from the Asian markets and you will have to remove the heads and peel them to remove the strip of bones. It can be a time consuming process but you only need a little to make a pot of tasty stock. I think you can also use a few teaspoons of crushed dried bonito (not sure what it is called). The soup may be a little cloudy and may not taste exactly the same, but it should be close.
I try to make my recipes user friendly and provide alternatives where possible as some ingredients are not always available for everyone.
Haruna says
May 12, 2011 at 9:00 amDried bonito stock = katsuoboshi 😀
Lindsey@Lindselicious says
May 12, 2011 at 12:39 amOooh this looks so good. I have never tried the Chinese version of this- it sorta reminds me of Pho. I will have to look for this next time I go to the chinese noodle place to try!
Rumana says
May 12, 2011 at 1:14 amYummy soup:)
Marelie says
May 12, 2011 at 2:21 amHello.I found your blog while browsing.You have great dishes here and your blog is also a beauty.I am your newest follower. http://www.cookiedropletsetcbymarelie.com
Biren says
May 12, 2011 at 8:26 amHi Marelie! Thanks for visiting and following. I hope you will visit often. Many thanks also for your compliments. 🙂
Blackswan says
May 12, 2011 at 2:50 amMee Sua always reminds me of my birthdays where mum would always cook a bowl for me. Have u try dried mee sua? It just as good with lots of vinegar 🙂
Biren says
May 12, 2011 at 8:29 amYes, I have tried dried mee suah and plan to cook it soon. I’ve never eaten it with vinegar and now I and am curious as to how it might taste.
Lisa H. says
May 12, 2011 at 2:59 amMee Suah … Ooooh my fave. I would have this almost every afternoon when I was a hungry teen…
Just looking at your pic makes me hungry.. oh be still my tummy :p
Biren says
May 12, 2011 at 8:33 amWhat a coincidence! I used to make this almost every afternoon as a hungry teenager but with beehoon instead. The anchovy stock is just so convenient, no need to defrost anything.
Pepy@Indonesia Eats says
May 12, 2011 at 5:52 amWe call this misoa or misua and usually cook with Chinese okra/ sinqua for a soup.
I remembered back in 2001 I got typhoid and hospitalized for 11 days. I couldn’t eat anything hard. Got tired of hospital bland rice porridge. Once the doctor said I was ok to eat other else. I requested to the nurse that I wanted misoa soup 🙂
Biren says
May 12, 2011 at 8:34 amVery interesting! I’ve never tried it with okra but I can imagine what it would taste like. This definitely is a good alternative to rice porridge. 🙂
pigpigscorner says
May 12, 2011 at 6:37 amThis is simple and delicious! Very comforting too!
Joanne says
May 12, 2011 at 8:20 amFilled with all of these rock-star ingredients this is not only comfort food but is so good for you too! Love it.
kitchen flavours says
May 12, 2011 at 9:44 amThis is a bowl of pure comfort noodles! My mom always make this for us when we are sick and no appetite for rice! Now I sometimes cook for my children too!
kristy says
May 12, 2011 at 11:14 amOh Biren, I love Mee Suan in rice wine soup! Hmm…salivating by just thinking of it. ha.. Can you find rice wine there?
Hope you’re having a lovely day.
Cheers, Kristy
Victoria @ Mission: Food says
May 12, 2011 at 12:47 pmWow, cleaning those anchovies definitely is a labor of love! You know that with all that TLC the resulting soup is going to be really special 🙂 I love how comforting this soup looks. It’s hard to resist a good noodle soup!
Magic of Spice says
May 12, 2011 at 1:46 pmWhat a glorious soup…wonderful! I still need to search out dried anchovies. This is really lovely Biren and love the photos too 🙂
5 Star foodie says
May 12, 2011 at 2:26 pmA terrific soup here, nice salty flavors!
BestOodles says
May 12, 2011 at 3:25 pmOften cook this kind of soup when someone is sick in my household since noodle is delicate and soft for sick person to digit easily. Great recipe using anchovies!
Nutmeg Nanny says
May 13, 2011 at 6:05 pmI’m doing a CSA this year and we will be getting a lot of bok choy. This recipe looks fantastic and I can’t wait to try it 🙂
Lyndsey says
May 17, 2011 at 4:11 pmMmmm…this looks like a big bowl of comfort! How nice of your mom to clean all the tiny fish for you! Funny how cooking and food bring back such good family memories! 🙂
Biren says
May 17, 2011 at 8:51 pmIt is so true that food brings back a lot of memories of home. I think the sense of smell plays a large part in this.
It takes my mom quite a while to clean the anchovies but she will do it for me every time I visit. It is a labor of love and I appreciate it deeply.
Adora's Box says
October 22, 2011 at 1:06 pmMee suah is indeed very comforting, Biren. My mum-in-law always has this (usually with duck in soup) ready for us when we visit Malaysia. It is just the perfect thing to eat after a long stint on the plane. Seeing yours just makes me crave for a bowlful.
Hyosun Ro says
October 23, 2011 at 8:25 amBiren – Dried anchovies are my favorite ingredient for making stock. It’s easy to make and yet flavorful. Your noodle soup looks great. I like baby bok choy in it too.
Alicia says
March 1, 2012 at 4:30 amWow, this is a blast from the past. Love the simplicity of this soup