The lore behind the Merdeka mee
TWO hawker stalls in Penang cannot help but “get in the mood” around this time of the year. Their signs say “HAINAN LOR MEE SINCE 1957”.
The business began just a few months before Malaysia’s founding father made his historic declaration of Independence and retired hawker Cheah Meng Kin, 90, treasures fond memories from 1957 which he has passed down to his children.
In the days that followed Aug 31, 1957, Meng Kin recalls groups of people frequently coming out of the comfort of their homes to walk as if on parade along Carnarvon Street where he started his first lor mee stall.
“There were hardly any cars those days, so people could crowd the streets.
“My father often spoke of how the people on the streets would come and order our lor mee.
“They ate as if in celebration. He remembers an air of jubilation and triumph around his customers.
“People were constantly parading and there was a carnival- like feeling on the streets after we gained independence,” said Meng Kin’s son It Kheang, 56.
“Penangites were in a lau juak ( merry in Penang Hokkien) mood and the lor mee business soared because everyone came out,” says It Kheang, adding that a bowl of the noodles was only 20 cents those days.
“My father had no chance to celebrate then because business was so good. But Merdeka is sentimental to him because he started the business the same year,” he added.
His two stalls are now managed by his children at coffee shops, one at the corner of Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling and Lorong Stewart and the other at the corner of Jalan Burma and Jalan Jones.
Meng Kin hails from Wanning, a city in the southeast of Hainan province in China and came to Malaya in 1938 at the age of 12 with his father and two uncles.
Just weeks after arriving in Malaya, Meng Kin’s father died of malaria.
“He had to do odd jobs to support himself. He then became a cook aboard a cargo ship in 1948 when he was 22,” said It Kheang.
The lor mee idea came from Meng Kin and two of his friends on the ship. The three Hainanese lads decided to add mee sua noodles into leftover shark fin soup to avoid wastage.
“They first called it mee sua kor. It is not a recipe they brought from China. They came up with it while working on the ships.”
But mee sua was a bad idea because it became a soggy mess after being left to soak in the soup for just a few minutes. So it was replaced with yellow noodles and bee hoon.
Meng Kin’s lor mee has seen quite a few changes over the years to suit the local palate.
More than once, It Kheang said he and his siblings had been tempted to change the stall’s name to “Merdeka Lor Mee”, but out of respect for their father, they still retain the original name, Hai Beng Hainanese Lor Mee.
“We still have the customers who have been with us for 40 or 50 years. We still meet them, and they will ask me ‘ Do you remember? When you were just a kid, I have been eating here since then!’” It Kheang beams proudly.
He is proud of Malaysians, too. Every local customer or tourist who orders the family lor mee knew the significance of the stall being started in 1957.
“They would usually ask me if I was born that time and I would have to tell them that I was born in 1960,” he quips.
Meng Kin’s granddaughter Cheah Siew Li, 34, is the third- generation proprietor of the family’s Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling outlet.
“I suppose we have become well- known because we were one of the earliest ones to sell lor mee in Penang.
“But my grandfather has never claimed to be the first person to come up with this dish. He believes there are others who started this dish before he did,” she added.
Siew Li, the eldest of six female siblings, said her family’s lor mee stall has never closed even once on Aug 31 every year since it started, a fact which the family prides itself in.
A big Jalur Gemilang flag will also grace the stall.
“Merdeka day is a public holiday and also one of the busiest holidays of the year. People would take opportunity to go sightseeing in George Town or visit the Goddess of Mercy Temple. Then they would hop over to have our lor mee. It’s almost a tradition,” Siew Li said.