Malaysian-Style Fried Noodles with Sweet Potato

In Penang, Malaysia, at Cawangan Boundary food stall, we tasted the noodle stir-fry called mee goreng. To make the dish, proprietors Sarina Binti Hussin and Abdul Hamid Bin Mohamad Husin wok-cook noodles, seasoning them with two different sauces that involve lentils, sweet potatoes, peanuts, tamarind, alliums and multiple types of chilies. The flavor was richly complex, with charred, salty-sweet notes and noodles with an almost meaty character. This is our much-simplified version of it. Mee goreng typically is made with precooked yellow-hued wheat noodles that resemble spaghetti with a bouncy, resilient texture. These noodles can be difficult to source, so here we approximate them by boiling dried lo mein in water alkalized with baking soda, a process often called “ramenizing.” The higher pH of the cooking liquid turns the lo mein slightly golden in color while also making them chewier and springier.