I try…

I first heard of fried mee sua (thread/string noodles) sometime ago from a colleague of mine in my former school, and the first thing that came to my mind was, “How did they manage to fry it?” Those of you who are familiar with this Foochow longevity noodles would know that normally, we would boil the noodles and serve it in chicken soup cooked with lots of ginger and red wine. But if you do not add the soup quickly, you will end up with the noodles in a lump, all stuck together like some kind of cake.

This particular colleague of mine sang its praises and encouraged me to go and try – at the Sheraton Restaurant. I don’t actually recall when I actually got round to doing that when I did, I found it very oily and was not very impressed. Perhaps I had caught them on a bad day. However, lately, I quite like what we have been eating at the Ruby Restaurant and it seems to be getting very popular, so much so that other places now have it in their menu as well.

Well, yesterday morning, I thought I’d give it a try, so I boiled some mee sua and once softened, I rinsed it in cold water a few times to remove the starch and loosen the strands. Putting the noodles aside, I fried a bit of chopped garlic in oil and I threw in some ingredients that I could find in the fridge – a bit of minced meat, some shrimps, taugeh (bean sprouts) and I threw in an egg as well. After sprinkling in a bit of chicken stock, I added the mee sua and stir fried it until it was mixed thoroughly with all the ingredients. Then, it was ready…

It looked okay, so next came the acid test…the eating!

Yes, the noodles were in loose strands, not all stuck together and the taste was…very nice! But for one thing, I would have to do something about the colour. Maybe I can just serve it on a bed of lettuce with some slices of tomato on the side, or perhaps I should add a little bit of soy sauce for a darker shade, sliced chillies for a bit of red and green veg or spring onions for a touch of green. That will make it more presentable, I suppose, but it will  have to wait till another time, should I try to fry mee sua again…