Bak chor mee (肉脞面) or minced meat noodles is a popular hawker food in Singapore. It is so common that the dish is often abbreviated to simply bcm. The most famous of all bcms is of course the Bedok block 85 bcm (cw: meat), which is almost a hawker institution in the country. I remember making the trip there just to eat this famous bcm with my friends after school.
The classic Bedok 85 bcm has very simple toppings of minced meat and meatballs. But these days, most of the bcms have upgraded to include things like liver, mushrooms, fish cake, dumplings, and the list goes on. So, in the spirit of excess, our vegan bak chor mee also has a lot of toppings.
For the mince in this vegan bak chor mee, I use TVP and oyster mushroom ends . The noodles are also topped with shiitake mushrooms, tofu ‘fish cake’, some leafy greens, and a dumpling. Instead of pork lard, we use crispy and fragrant fried garlic (idk why but it actually tastes the same). In place of egg noodles—which is obviously not vegan—I use capellini or angel hair pasta.
A lot of hawker stalls like to use lettuce. I chose to use a leafy green because it has more nutrition. But if you like, lettuce is cool too! The sauce of this dish has a sour tang from the vinegar. It is supposed to help with the digestion of the fatty meat. You could reduce the amount if you are not sure, but it wouldn’t be bcm without the vinegar.
This recipe does not include the dumplings! You can use any dumpling you want really. I made these with OmniMeat, chives, and mushroom.
Tips
- When you are making a lot of bowls of this, it would pay to braise the mushrooms instead of just frying them. Then you can use the braising sauce instead of the vegan oyster sauce when assembling your dish. You can follow the instructions for braised mushrooms at Ipoh Mushroom Horfun (怡保鸡丝河粉).
- If you can get qianye tofu (千页豆腐), also sometimes called baiye tofu, you should totally do it. It is a kind of tofu that has a springy QQ texture that is reminiscent of fish cakes. It makes a fantastic vegan fish cake option. I will show you the brand that I use in the instructions below.
- When I make stir-fries and Vegan Fried Chicken Cutlet I always cut off the oyster mushroom ends and use them for mince. They are also great for adding texture to seitan sausages like these G/F Vegan Okara Sausages. When used in mince, they provide a kind of chewy porky texture.
Ingredients
- For the Mince
- Toppings
- Sauce (Per Bowl)
Instructions
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Dice your oyster mushroom ends up real small.
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Rehydrate and rinse the TVP. Then add the oyster mushroom stems and mince marinade. Mix well and leave 15 minutes.
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In the meantime, fry or braise your mushrooms. Since I am only preparing for two, I simply fried them in vegan oyster sauce. Set aside for later.
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This is the tofu I used.
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Fry your tofu block until golden on four sizes. Cut into slices. Set aside for later.
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Heat up 2 tbsp of oil over medium heat and fry the diced garlic until gollden. Set aside for later.
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Make some dumplings or buy some premade ones. Cook one for each bowl of BCM.
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Blanch the green leafy vegetables.
- Cook your noods in the vegetable blanching water (don't waste). Once the noods are cooked, rinse them briefly in cold water.
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Mix all the sauce ingredients. Then toss your cooked noodles in the sauce.
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Add your toppings, and done!
