Bakmi consists of two Hokkien Chinese words literally translated to English as "meat noodles" (肉麵, Pe̍h-ōe-jī: bah-mī). Bakmi is a wheat based noodle which was brought to Southeast Asia by Chinese merchants, and is today a common noodle dish, especially in Indonesia and in Thailand. The dish has also been further developed to more closely align with the local tastes. Bakmi is between Chinese style wheat noodles and Japanese Udons in thickness, and there are several variants of bakmi in Indonesia.
The most common type of bakmi in Indonesia is bakmi kuning, or 'yellow noodles'. And the most common recipe of bakmi dish in Indonesia is chicken noodle (Indonesian: bakmie ayam or mie ayam). Mie ayam is wheat noodle topped with diced chicken meat seasoned in soy sauce. Mie ayam often accompanied with wonton (Indonesian: pangsit) either crispy fried or in soup, and also bakso (meatball). Bakmi ayam is a popular Chinese Indonesian dish and ubiquitous in Indonesian cities, it can be served in a restaurant to a humble travelling cart.
The other popular Indonesian bakmi recipe is fried bakmi (Indonesian: bakmie goreng or mie goreng).
In Thailand, wheat noodles are also known as bami (Thai: บะหมี่). It is eaten mainly in noodle soups and in Chinese style stir-fried noodle dishes.
Bakmi/bami strongly resembles the Chinese noodles called lamian and mee pok.
The words mie and bami, used in Dutch, come from bakmi and were introduced into the Dutch language during the Dutch colonial period in Indonesia. Indonesian food is very popular in the Netherlands, and bami goreng (fried bakmi) is a popular dish.
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Bakmi is normally boiled for serving. When bakmi is intended for use in soup, it is usually boiled separately from the broth. The noodles are usually mixed with either pork fat, chicken fat or beef fat. They are then served with toppings that vary from diced seasoned chicken to bok choy, fried or boiled wonton, bakso (meatballs). The soup is served in a different bowl, and is added to the noodles by the individual diner according to taste.
Some boiled bakmi are also served with thick gravy instead of a soup, or stir fried. The stir fried process follows after boiling the bakmi, it is stir-fried with vegetables, sweet soy sauce, meat, eggs or any other ingredients such as curry powder or gravy. However, there are exceptions such as Ifu mi, which is bakmi that is first deep fried and then topped with vegetables, meat and gravy.
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