SERI KEMBANGAN, June 23 — Some noodles are meant to be soft, tender to even the gentlest slurps. Some noodles have to be al dente, like pasta, with a bit of a bite to every strand, with a near-raw centre.

Then there is a good bowl of pan mee, that has a texture that is its own category: moist, chewy and as the Taiwanese (a foodie nation, surely) would call it, "QQ” — you have to have tried to know what I’m talking about.