Viral Tom Yum Instant Noodles (Mama Jeh O)

If you follow the Bangkok food scene you may have heard of a restaurant called Jeh O on Banthadthong Street (aka Jeh O Chula) with lines out the door everyday. What are people lining up for? Instant noodles.

Yes, instant noodles! But it is the most deluxe, most delicious bowl of tom yum instant noodles I have ever had, and it was worth the wait. I wanted to try it specifically so that I can recreate it, and I'm happy to report that my recreation was a success! You can see my experience at Jeh O in Bangkok and watch the recreation process in this video!

How Instant Noodles Went Viral and Became Iconic

"Jeh O" is the name of the auntie chef-owner of this a 60-year-old restaurant that was originally known for khao tom ped, a duck version of this Thai rice soup. Around 2015, Jeh-O's son made a tom yum mama noodle soup for himself (Mama being Thailand's favourite instant noodles). But instead of using just the seasoning powder for the soup, he made creamy tom yum soup from scratch and dressed it with a lot of toppings. He posted it on social media and it looked so impressive that his friends asked him to make it for them.

He served it right in the pot, with lots of toppings, and when he plopped it on the table people said, "Oho!" which is Thai for "wow." So he named the dish "Mama Oho."

When Jeh O consulted her son about how to draw in more customers during the quiet late night hours, he suggested putting his Mama Oho on the menu because mama is a popular late night snack for many Thais.

And people went wild for it. After they announced the new item on social media, lines were forming around the block on day 1. Literally overnight an iconic dish was born. It has been many years, and Mama Oho has stood the test of time and people are still lining up for it today, and I was one of them!

Ingredients and Notes

Here are all the ingredients you'll need, and important notes about them. For amounts, see the full recipe card below.

For the Noodle Soup

• Creamy Tom Yum Mama noodles. You can find these at many Asian grocery stores. If this flavour is not available you can also get regular tom yum flavour, but note that creamy tom yum flavour is bigger than other flavours (90 g vs. 55 g), so you'll need to get more packs of the smaller size.
• Makrut lime leaves, aka kaffir lime leaves.
• Lemongrass, bottom half only as this is the most flavourful part.
• Galangal, thinly sliced
• Thai chili paste (nam prik pao) aka Thai chili jam. This is an important part of this dish, so there is no substitute! If you can't find it in stores, you can make your own following my Thai chili paste recipe.
• Thai chili paste oil. This is the oil that is on top of every jar of Thai chili paste when you buy them. If you're using a half-used jar and there isn't any more oil, you can substitute another chili oil as long as it's doesn't have too-strong flavours of other "irrelevant" spices.
• Fish sauce, read about how to choose food fish sauce here.
• Fresh lime juice, yes fresh only, no bottled!
• Thai chilies, chopped. Put as much or as little as you can tolerate, but the dish as served at Jeh O is about medium spicy.
• Pork stock, unsalted (If you're making the meatballs, you can just use the meatball cooking water as your stock). Otherwise see my pork stock recipe here.
• Egg whites, which will be mixed into the broth. Keep the yolks for topping.
• Evaporated milk. If you can't have dairy, you can substitute coconut milk.

For the Toppings

Mama Oho is not complete without elaborate toppings, this is what makes it WOW! Feel free to pick and choose the toppings here, but I highly recommend the meatballs!

• Thai style pork meatballs or what we call moo deng, recipe included beloe.
• Crispy pork belly, store bought is fine, or if you're feeling ambitious you can make it using my crispy pork belly recipe
• Shrimp, large ones for the same impressive effect. Ideally at least size 21/25.
• Squid or crab meat, whichever you prefer, or both!
• Sawtooth coriander or cilantro
• Lime slices, these are just for show, feel free to omit.
• Egg yolks

For the Meatballs (moo deng)

• White peppercorns
• Garlic
• Ground pork, preferably not lean, but lean is fine
• Soy sauce
• Fish sauce
• Sugar
• A small ice cube, optional
• Food processor, optional. Ideally you'll also need a food processor for the meatballs (small one is fine). If you don't have one, it's ok.

How to Make Mama Tom Yum Noodles - Jeh O Style

Here's a bird's eye view of the process, for the full recipe with complete instructions and ingredient amounts, see the recipe card below.

1. Pound the garlic and pepper into a paste (not shown). Add the pork, the garlic paste, soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar and a small ice cube into a food processor.
2. Process the pork into a paste. Without a food processor just knead all ingredients together well with your hand.
3. Roll them into little balls and cook them in boiling water for about 2 minutes or until cooked through.
4. Remove the meatballs and, using the same water, blanch the shrimp until fully cooked. If using squid, blanch them in this water too. Keep the water as a base for the soup.

5. Into a medium pot, add the lemongrass, galangal, lime leaves, fish sauce, lime juice, Thai chilies, chili paste, chili paste oil, and all of the seasoning powder and chili paste packets that came with Mama.
6. Add the pork stock (or meatball cooking water) and bring to a vigorous boil.
7. Add the noodles and pour the egg whites on top of the noodles. Keep pushing on the noodles until they start to loosen and try to get all the noodles to be submerged.
8. Once the noodles are softened (takes only 1 minute) turn off the heat and stir in the evaporated milk. *Noodles are already cooked, they just need to be rehydrated and they'll continue to soften in the hot broth, so do not overcook the noodles!

9. Immediately pour into a serving bowl and top with toppings. Do this quickly as the noodles will swell up too much if you take too long.
10. Take a quick photo of this masterpiece, and enjoy immediately!