PETALING JAYA, July 22 -- Lately, I keep seeing new pan mee places popping up everywhere.

Once regarded as a family meal - where a large pot of hand-torn dough pieces cooked with broth and vegetables is kept on the stove to feed everyone throughout the whole day - pan mee has stepped up as the main star in eateries.

It comes in all forms.

Some stick to perfecting the basic bowl, perhaps using a hand-me-down recipe with dough flattened by hand rather than a modern appliance and upgrading some elements to fit modern tastes, making it a story worth telling to everyone.

Others tinker with the dough, using fermented starter like sourdough discard, elevating it to be more digestible for your stomach.

A more straightforward way is to use th...