On Wednesday (May 8), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's fellow Members of Parliament (MP) presented him with a special cake with "his favourite items", as a tribute before he officially steps down as PM.

The centrepiece of the cake? A bowl of mee siam, "held up" artistically by a pair of black chopsticks.

Now, some might disagree with the use of chopsticks to eat the gravy-soaked vermicelli (I for one am in favour of the ol' fork and spoon).

But few would disagree that mee siam is the subject of PM Lee's most iconic meme in all his 20 years of service in the top job.

And it looks like this bowl of mee siam, fittingly, does not include cockles.

"Mee siam mai hum"

The phrase I'm talking about, of course, is mee siam mai hum (mee siam without cockles).

It comes from a humorous comment made during the 2006 National Day Rally, when PM Lee seemingly referenced a podcast by Singaporean blogger Lee Kin Mun (mrbrown):

"You put out a funny podcast, you talk about bak chor mee. I will say mee siam mai hum."

Skip to 1:08:49 of the video to hear it for yourself.

Many were left baffled as mee siam doesn't actually come with cockles in the first place.

The quote quickly went viral after it was remixed with Black Eyed Peas' popular hit, "My Humps".

Afterwards, "mee siam mai hum" became a meme in Singapore, and later headlined a book of funny quotes from Singapore politicians, printed by local publisher Epigram Books.

PM Lee himself seemed to give a nod to the meme in his 2021 National Day Rally, when speaking on how consumers could help share the cost of higher wages for low wage workers in Singapore:

“But businesses will still have to pass on some of the costs to their customers. So all of us, as consumers, must also chip in.

Pay a little bit more for some of our favourite things, like bubble tea or bak chor mee, with or without 'hum', to help the shop cover higher cleaning and waste collection costs."

Which funnily enough, spawned a previously unheard-of trend of people ordering bak chor mee with cockles.

So now you know.

Top image from PMO/YouTube & Baey Yam Keng/Instagram