That’s especially for the guy who can’t stomach chewy, stretchy and supposedly sludgy stuff like sotong and fish maw. I didn’t believe it at first when he told me that’s how he orders his Sotong Mee at hawker centres!
This is just one version of fried Hokkien Mee, with the alternative, darker and perhaps Malaysian version found here. I’m still confused by the fact that both are termed similarly within the same dialect group, though I suspect this is a result of differences across the Straits. I personally prefer this whiter version for a very simple reason – I grew up eating this version. My parents used to buy them from the West Coast wet market, just opposite the Ginza Plaza (now renamed as the West Coast Plaza). I wonder if the stall is still there…?
Ingredients:
- Prawn: 5, deveined, with heads and shells (except tail) removed for the stock
- Water: 3 cups
- Salt: a pinch
- Oil: 2 tbsp
- Pork belly: 100g, sliced thinly
- Dark soya sauce: 1 tsp
- Light soya sauce: 3 tsp
- Shallot: 1, chopped
- Egg: 1
- Yellow egg noodles: 150g
- Thick Bee Hoon: 150g
- Bean sprouts: 150g
- Corn flour mixture: 1 tsp corn flour and 2 tsp stock
- Ground white pepper: to taste
- Chilli: 1 tbsp
- Lime (calamasi): 1/2
Method:
- Cook the stock by boiling the prawn heads shells in the water for 30min over medium heat. Add a pinch of salt to taste.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil. Fry pork belly with 1 tsp dark soya sauce and 1 tsp light soya sauce.
- Add prawns and fry with pork till cooked. Remove and set aside.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in saucepan and fry shallots till fragrant.
- Crack the egg in and stir fry with shallots till cooked.
- Add egg noodles, bee hoon, 1 cup stock and 2 tsp light soya sauce. Mix well.
- Cover saucepan with lid. Simmer over medium heat for 3-4min.
- Add bean sprouts to noodles. Mix and leave to simmer for 1 min. Add more stock if it’s too dry.
- Add the pork belly, prawns and corn flour mixture to the noodles.
- Add pepper to taste.
- Serve on plate with chilli and lime.
Tricks:
- The right stock helps to enhance the fragrance of the dish. Chicken stock would work just as well.
- It’s also important to ensure that the dish is ‘wet’ enough, so add more stock if needed while cooking, but not too much such that it drowns the bean sprouts.
Fiery rating:
😈 😈
Serving:
1 person
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