I think I could eat some form of noodles every day of my life and I would be happy. Noodles are life and these Indonesian fried noodles, or mie goreng —which literally means noodles fried— is one of my favorite dishes. I grew up eating the instant noodle version and to me, mie goreng is comfort food, through and through. I feel like I ate instant mie goreng as an after school snack everyday in high school.

These days though, I don’t eat instant noodles as often anymore, which makes me kind of sad. But what makes me really happy is a giant wok of homemade mie goreng! What makes this dish is the sauce. Mie goreng’s main flavor comes from kecap manis, a super sweet and sticky, almost molasses-like soy sauce. It’s so tasty and super addictive.

The other thing that makes this dish is the toppings. You can go with whatever you like or have handy in the fridge. I went with chicken, Chinese sausage, shrimp, and tofu puffs. If you’re very into noodles and not really into toppings, you could easily just have noodles and sauce!

PS – If you want to watch a hilarious video of a dude eating Indomie Mie Goreng with an insane amount of chilis, watch this!