Jawa Mee (14 June 2008)


Penang Jawa Mee, or Mee Jawa Pulau Pinang, is a Penang Nyonya-inspired noodle soup. Despite its name, Jawa Mee has its origin in the Peranakan kitchen far and away from Java. The type of Jawa Mee sold by hawkers has the noodle swimming in a transparent tomato-based gravy. It is topped with boiled eggs, boiled potatoes, one or two prawns, fritters, slices of beancurd, a sprinkling of fried grounded peanuts, and chilli paste to taste.

In my opinion, the home-cooked Jawa Mee made by my wife (which she learned from my mother-in-law) is best! She uses broth made from pork bones (bah kut) into which she adds orange sweet potatoes and tomato sauce. The meat from the pork bones is chopped fine and added to the gravy. The taste is out of this world.

Ingredients of Jawa Mee:

  1. egg noodles (mee)
  2. rice noodles (bihun)
  3. bean sprout
  4. beancurd (taukua)
  5. boiled eggs
  6. boiled potatoes
  7. prawns (optional)
  8. prawn fritters (heh chiee)
  9. fried grounded peanuts
  10. potato-based tomato gravy
  11. fried chilli paste to taste
  12. slice of lime (keat-la)
  13. lettuce for garnishing

There are a number of places on Penang Island where you can enjoy Jawa Mee. I show them on the food map below, as I found them, and list out the stalls below the map.

Members Recommendations of Jawa Mee Stalls

  1. Evevy Ang recommended the Jawa Mee at Farlim Genting Coffee Shop in Farlim on 4 December, 2019.
  2. Rebecca Lee recommended the Jawa Mee at Farlim Genting Coffee Shop in Farlim on 28 October, 2019.
  3. Chu Lian Chen recommended the Jawa Mee at Lip Sin Market in Sungai Dua on 19 October, 2019.
  4. Russ B King recommended the Chinese Jawa Mee at Viva in Tanjong Tokong, Penang, on 9 October, 2019.
  5. Russ B King recommended the Jawa Mee at Mount Erskine Market on 22 August, 2019
  6. Deric Ong recommended the fried jawa mee at Genting Farlim on 11 October, 2019.
  7. Jawa Mee at New Cathay on Burmah Road in Pulau Tikus, Penang, was recommended by Deric Ong on 10 September, 2019
  8. Vegetarian Jawa Mee at Season Vegetarian Corner in Farlim, Penang recommended by Deric Ong on 4 September, 2019
  9. Jawa Mee at Genting Farlim in Farlim, Ayer Itam, was recommended by Deric Ong on 23 August, 2019

Where to find Jawa Mee Stalls in Penang

Jawa Mee is available at the following locations in Penang:

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About this website



Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

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