Woah...

Good friend of mine enjoys cooking on the occasion. One of the achievements attained to his satisfaction after numerous trials and errors is prawn noodles. I was invited to dinner recently so this was pretty much what this post is about if anyone has been guessing and re-visiting to see updates. As one of many numerous ubiquitous dishes locally, prawn noodles are something that is judged with varying standards, much like other local favourites like laksa and chicken rice. Various ingredients are measured across different yardsticks, subjected to differing preferences of individuals that eat or enjoy them. The prawns, the soup and possibly the noodles being the key items. These large prawns that you see in the picture, courtesy by my lovely hand model (I know you can't tell) are however not for the noodles. They're river prawns from Thailand, cost about $8 a pop and were grilled with simple condiments of salt, pepper, and not forgetting - the ever useful and delicious butter.

The highlight of the dinner was originally the prawn noodles. The huge prawns were originally not part of it. In retrospect, both were well done and definitely made it a difficult choice as to which was the star of the table at dinner. If you are wondering why is that, behold the hay mee!


I admit that it did look like ba kut mee (pork rib noodles) instead of prawn noodles since the pork ribs are clearly the only visible item in the bowl apart from the noodles. And no, the prawns are not hidden at the bottom. There are no prawns in the noodles. Which brings me to the other ingredients which I will divulge with the exception of a few key items which must remain secret or this would be the last entry that anyone will ever read from me. 

The key items that were used to create the sweet stock of this particular rendition of prawn noodles includes obviously prawns (or shrimps if you would), flower crab, pork ribs (I presume that one might have guessed easily), pig tails, cloves of garlic, onions, some ginger, belachan, kang kong and a couple of other items which are easily available. As said friend would state, he learnt it from his grandmother, there is no unit of measurement for the various items that are used. It's a trial of estimation until you get the proportions correct.

The result was a delicious prawn soup noodle. The shrimps that were put into boil for the stock were mostly used for the flavour, along with the disintegrated meat from the flower crabs. As you may have surmised, the soup was sweet from the use of those ingredients. The pork ribs survived the cooking process and had turned delicately soft, sliding off the bone with ease. The meat at this point fell apart easily in the mouth. Which takes us to the large grilled prawns.


These prawns spent about 15 minute in the oven to bake. After which, the essence and roe/brain oozed out onto the tray and was summarily scraped clean by the spoons of almost everyone at the table. I can only describe it was foie gras good. Heart clogging richness coupled with a fragrant caramelization in every mouthful would also be quite accurate. The meat of the prawns were firm with crunch from each bite and slightly sweetish. I'm normally not in favour of bones and shells but this was one of those exceptions when I discarded utensils in favour of better tools. I meant my fingers of course.