Taiwanese Meefun

My mom is also from Taiwan, and her mifen is arguably the favorite dish in our family, from young to old. Sharing some mods/notes that I hope will be helpful: -Use stock instead of water. She uses more than the cup this recipe calls for, which I think leads to a softer, silkier texture, but it’s a matter of preference. -If wanting meat, thin strips of velveted pork or chicken are a great addition and cook quickly. -Top with black vinegar in addition to the cilantro and chili oil. Next level!

My mom, part of the generation of Taiwanese who came to the US in the late 1960s to attend graduate school, made this dish all the time. She always used shiitakes, plus sliced onion, scallions and garlic—I wonder if cilantro is a modern addition? Never came across meefun with cilantro ever. Also: this will be a fairly dry dish, the noodles absorb the flavoring, and there isn’t a coating of sauce as people might be expecting.

Made this for my crew, which consists of a teen veggie who hates mushrooms, a teen vegan who gets the soapy taste from cilantro, a meat-eating wife who detests tofu and me, the human garbage disposal. I fried tofu, shrooms and eggs separately and set aside in bowls. I sautéed ground pork and turkey for the meat-eater and set aside. Then made the recipe as directed, without mixing in cilantro. Everyone topped their noodles as they liked, then I mixed what was left and happily devoured it. Awesome

I wanted to add that I used the water that the shitakes ( black mushrooms) were soaking in)to add flavor to the dish.

Since I didn’t have any chili oil, I mixed siracha sauce with sesame seed oil. Yummy! Also used the soaking liquid from the mushrooms. Can’t imagine discarding that when it calls for water.

Shredded the baked tofu on my box grater, which made it acceptable to those who thought they wouldn’t like tofu. Delicious!

Yes the mushroom water is great - but strain with a coffee filter.

Definitely a dry but flavorful dish. I used sriracha instead of chili oil, doubled the carrot, and added ginger. Will certainly make again!

I came from Taiwan too. To answer EHSMD, we do use cilantro in our meefun. It lift up the flavor. A lot of Taiwanese xiao chi add meefun on top.

I'll make variations of this again. It was tasty, but because so many of the commenters noted that the dish was bland and dry, I added the mushroom soaking water, a dollop of garlic chili sauce and used a drizzle of toasted sesame oil when cooking the egg. Also, there's no way this makes 4-6 servings. More like two hearty dinner portions.

What does black vinegar taste like and where can I find it?

Would chicken work? Tofu is a very hard stop for me. Or, how about seitan?

I used chicken broth instead of water for added flavor and chicken instead of tofu and it worked great. I also added a squeeze of lime at the end for a little brightness. Yum!

What kind of sauce would you recommend for coating this dish?

I found this recipe a bit of a struggle, but it got rave reviews from my husband. It ended up tasting great. I used several carrots and got to two cups which was plenty.