Mee Pok at Hai Ky Mi Gia |
From Eric Koo's Mee Pok Man |
It makes sense that Hai Ky Mi Gia has mee pok on offer, as it's a Chaozhou (Teochew/Chiu Chow) dish. It was Chaozhou Chinese who brought the dish to Singapore, and Chaozhou Chinese (by way of Vietnam) who brought San Francisco Hai Ky Mi Gia. In its traditional form, mee pok is made with wide egg noodles topped with fishballs (at a minimum) and other seafood and non-seafood ingredients, and typically served "dry." i. e. with the broth on she side. There are variants using skinny noodles, and it can be served "wet" (in soup). All versions are apparently possible at HKMG.
Sunday at Hai Ky Mi Gia |
My order arrived quite promptly, considering how bustling the place was. My bowl consisted of nicely chewy wide egg noodles, topped with fish balls, shrimp, minced pork, lean pork slices, pork pate (a nod to HKMG's Vietnamese heritage, perhaps) and some shredded chicken that I can recall. I added a little chili sauce and a squeezlet of hoisin sauce, tossed it, moistened it with a little of the broth, and dug in. In a matter of no time, thanks to my increasingly expert noodle slurping skills, the noodles, toppings, and broth were all gone.
To make a short story even shorter, suffice it to say I was very happy with my experience with the poor man's version of mee pok. Now there's this version with a whole braised duck leg that everyone else seemed to be having and...
Where slurped: 707 Ellis St. at Larkin, San Francisco
The girls of Mee Pok Man |