Category Archives: Noodles

Egg, Malaysian, Noodles, Pork

Hokkien Prawn Mee

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When you talk of Hokkien Mee, you have to qualify yourself: do you mean KL-style Hokkien Char Mee, or Penang-style Hokkien Prawn Mee? The two couldn’t be more different. KL-style means thick, yellow noodles braised in a thick, dark soy sauce with pork, squid, fish cake and cabbage and, if you’re lucky, some crispy pieces of lard. Enjoy it with some pickled chile peppers for a spicy-vinegary kick.

Penang-style Hokkien Prawn Mee is a soup-noodle dish, using both egg and rice noodles. The broth is made from lots and lots of prawns, plush pork and / or chicken bones. The noodles come laden with prawns, fish cake, pork, and crispy fried shallots.

Annie adapted this Hokkien Prawn Mee recipe off of the Rasa Malaysia website. She made a stock from shrimp shells and pork bones with some rock sugar for sweetness. Egg and rice noodles go on the bottom, followed by shrimps, pork, and a hard boiled egg. Ladle on the rich broth (great, unctuous mouth-feel with little bits of pork fat floating in it), then top with fried shallots. Serve with a spoonful of chili sauce made from blended chiles, shallots, garlic, and oil.

Our shrimp stock is not as dark as Rasa Malaysia’s because we used mostly shells and not enough prawn heads. Next time, more heads!

Aloha, Nate

Chinese, Fish, Japanese, Noodles

Chee Cheong Fun with Unagi

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A lot of times when we go out to dim sum, we order the cheong fun – steamed rice noodles filled with either shrimp or char siu. It’s just one of those things we have to have, because you can’t normally find fresh steamed noodles in the Asian groceries. The ones that are sold in the Asian groceries tend to be cold and hard and not as nice to eat.

Recently we found out that King Eggroll on Story Rd near McLaughlin in San Jose sells fresh steamed cheong fun. We bought a couple packets home, and they were quite soft! Cut the rolls up into chunks, then tossed them in a sauce consisting of hoi sin, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, water, and sesame oil. Garnished with cilantro (didn’t have green onions) and sesame seeds.

We brought out a frozen unagi from the freezer and reheated it in the microwave to serve alongside the noodles.

Simple and tasty!

What would *you* do with noodles like these?

Aloha, Nate

Japanese, Noodles

Miso Ramen

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Annie found a packet of three servings of miso ramen at the Asian grocery, on sale for 3 bucks. These aren’t your typical fried and dried “Top Ramen” type packets with the overly salty spice powder packet. The noodles are fresh and the sauce is a wet paste. The preparation is straightforward – boil water, make broth, pour over warmed noodles.

To the soup bowl, I added in some frozen corn sauteed in butter, blanched bean sprouts, a barely hard-boiled egg, some slices of home made char siu, and garnished with nori and chopped green onions. I added a few dashes of shichimi chili powder to mine to spice it up a bit.

This really hit the spot. It was just as good or even better than Ramen Halu in West San Jose (supposedly the best ramen in the South Bay).

Aloha, Nate

Egg, Malaysian, Noodles

Singapore Curry Laksa

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Most of the Malaysian/Singaporean restaurants here in the Bay Area are not quite authentic because their chefs use local ingredients and adjust their recipes to suit local tastes. Here in San Jose, we’re lucky to have a branch of the Singapore-based restaurant chain Prima Taste. Prima Taste ships all their sauces pre-made from Singapore, and so preserve the flavors.

We’re also lucky that an Asian grocery near our place carries the Prima Taste brand of sauce and seasoning packets, for a pretty good price. This is their Singapore Curry Laksa.

You have to buy all the fresh ingredients – the noodles, bean sprouts, fish cake, shrimp, and egg. But to make the soup you just add the contents of the spice packet to water and bring to a boil, then assemble all the ingredients. In no time, you’ll have a delicious bowl of fragrant laksa.

Aloha, Nate