I have had a lot of posts on one of our Sibu local specialties – the Foochow fried noodles, for instance…here…and here…and I have been eating that since I was a kid. However, this was the first time I had tried cooking it myself.
Well, actually, I found a small plastic bag of those yellow noodles in the fridge – enough for one serving…so I thought I could cook that and see how it turned out. These were the ingredients that I used…
There were some prawns in the freezer but I had to go through the chore of removing the shell and vein and cleaning them. I could not find any meat but I was able to trim some bits and pieces from some pork bones that my missus would usually use to cook soup. There was no sawi either but I just made use of whatever leafy green vegetables I could lay my hands on. Of course, for Foochow fried noodles, I would need chopped garlic and soy sauce…and I also used a bit of tomato sauce and Foochow red wine which I would think were actually dispensible.
I fried half of the chopped garlic in oil till golden brown and then I threw in the vegetables followed by the noodles. By the way, I had tossed the noodles in a bit of soy sauce prior to cooking so that the noodles would be evenly coated. Add a little bit of water as and when necessary and I found that this helped in scraping of the noodles sticking to the wok. Keep frying for a few minutes and then remove them from the wok and put them in a plate…
Add a little bit of oil and fry the rest of the garlic. There is no need to clean the wok even though there may be bits of noodles and whatever sticking to it – I noticed that they did not do that either in the shops. After frying the garlic for a while, throw in the prawns and meat and next, add water to make the gravy for the noodles. I added some soy sauce and a spoonful of Foochow red wine and tomato sauce…and half a teaspoon of msg. When it had started boiling, I added a bit of diluted cornflour to thicken the gravy.
Finally, I put the noodles into the gravy and let it simmer a bit before serving it on a plate…
There you have it – how to cook Foochow fried noodles.
I have seen in some shops that they do not put the noodles back into the wok to simmer in the gravy – they just poured the gravy over the noodles…but I have seen people doing it the way that I did it and I actually preferred it when they did it that way.
Not difficult at all, right? You can give it a try yourself. As for the taste, it was nicer than what I have had at many places…but I wouldn’t say that it is the best in town. I think I will have to try again a few times. As they say, practice makes perfect! LOL!!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
LOL! Looks like my fried noodles la… and similar ingredients too…minus the prawns, usually, as I don’t stock up on seafood in my house. Not fresh. 😦 Nothing seems to be really fresh in KL… especially seafood. 😦
Wah! That’s a sweeping remark! The pretty young girls also not fresh kah? Muahahahaha!!!! 😀 You buy your seafood from Klang lor… Anyway, if you eat at the shops here, you do not get prawns either…just a few bits of meat and veg plus the noodles for RM2.80…or RM3.00 at some places.
The pretty young girls are just good at being fresh with you. LOL. Nip tuck here wan la, most of the girls here. I auntie oredi, out of their league. LOL.LOL… I don’t buy seafood from Klang. LMAO… my FIL lives in Klang… so if want, must bully him get them for me. Then I dun nid to pay money. Wakakakakakakak~ RM2.80? That’s cheap. Can’t get that price here except for Bazar Ramadan or Pasar Malam at Rm1.
Ya…those Malay stalls – the mee/mihun real cheap…no ingredients but tastes great!!! I wonder how they cook – must go and spy on them one of these days and learn! LOL!!! 😀
That’s the way I cook the noodles during CNY or occasions! I like the tease of Foochow red wine to it! Yum, yum!
Aha!!! I’m on the right track then! I watched them cook a number of times – at that coffee shop opposite the cinema at Rejang Park…everytime I tapao-ed some. I like their noodles – nice but not much ingredient.
Thats the way I like it .. you can open a stall. more income haha.
Sigh!!! If I had gone into that when I was younger, I probably would be a millionaire by now… LOL!!! 😀
This looks the same as all the coffee shops’ one! 😀
Yes, looks pretty good eh? I was quite impressed myself. Hehehehehe!!! But the taste isn’t all there yet – nice but can be better. Must work on it! Hope to get it absolutely perfect soon… 🙂
I haven’t eaten foochow noodles for quite sometime now.. but I’m not a big fan of it.. 😛
Ya…I know. Young girls these days! My daughter’s not a fan either – more into pasta…or char kway teow or mihun!!!
hehe just like dad’s cook ler. :p seriously, i dnt like garlic! xD
Your father Foochow, by any chance? LOL!!! Aiyor…garlic is good for health and ginger is good too! Should take more!
Finally! The foochow noodles recipe,been waiting to see how you cook them..similiar to mine actually except sometimes I may throw in liver n squid.. but minus msg,don’t even hve a btl in my pantry…stop using long ago. maybe shld start indulging in it again..love the fact that u didn’t rinse the wok before cooking the gravy part, i do that too, sometimes i wonder if i can do that but now i know i m in good company…haha!
I saw them doing that in the shops – just add water to cook the gravy. I don’t use msg if the sauce or gravy is “sweet” enough…especially with liver and squids! Yum! You should see how much msg they add in the shops! No wonders theirs always taste so nice – but these days, I am quite sensitive to it. Don’t like if too much and leaves a lingering after-taste…
surely not as nice as the real thing. :p
On the contrary, it tasted good and definitely a lot nicer than many places in town including some that I’ve posted on…going all out to cheat those uninitiated people from elsewhere…and those with retarded tastebuds who really can’t tell the difference.
Good morning Cikgu… never tasted a foochow noodles before but it sure looks like any other fried noodles to me.
Same meh? I’ve never seen these being sold anywhere over your side. It’s not the same as the very pale Cantonese fried noodles – they fry the noodles till crispy and then cook the sauce, pale as they do not use soy sauce plus they add egg to it…and then they pour over the noodles. It’s not the same as Hokkien fried noodles either – the dry, very black thick noodles that look like worms…. And it is definitely nothing like mee mamak. Maybe you know of some place selling noodles cooked this way?
let me try next timee ok heheehe
i think it should be taste great!
Ya, it tasted great…but I need to work on it – to make it the best in town! 😀
AH! STP’s foochow fried noodles! It looks good and just like those selling at the coffee shop! I am sure it taste good too!
It’s nice! Next time you come back to Sibu, I’ll cook for you and you can post on it and give your honest opinion… As the say, self-praise is no praise!
looks simple enough…maybe i can try this at home..if im free 🙂
Ya…it is simple but I was a bit slow – first time mah! You see the people at the shops – so fast, can dish out so many plates so fast! I guess I will improve with practice – once I’m more familiar with what I am supposed to do.
looks simple enough…maybe i can try this at home..if im free 🙂
Oops! Duplicate comment. Never mind – the more the merrier! 😀
Wait a minute, I thought Foochow freid noodles should have pork lard?! (just kidding) But it really taste nicer if you saute with pork lard… anyway your foochow chow does look yummy!^-^
have a nice day ahead!
Ya…I guess that was what makes it nice but not as nice as some places in town – the lard! But it’s healthier without the lard – that’s a consoling thought, and it would be nice enough to cook and serve for home parties and dinners.
i wanna makan edy! yumm =)
Come, come to Sibu and I can fry for you too – very easy! 😉
1 packet of noodle 1 serving?hmmm…u eat very little ho… 🙂
What one packet? My missus bought 1 kg…and cooked some…and that was the leftover – in the shops, I think enough for two plates! It was not like what you get in a packet of instant noodles…
Got use tomato sauce wan ka?
I saw the lady at one of my favourite stalls adding that…but not the one at Rejang Park. I guess it’s all according to taste.
Not bad..Am sure my both boys would have it. They are nuts on yellow noodle. One of the Uncle own a noodle making factory
My brother’s children from NZ – the Kiwis – simply loved the Foochow fried noodles (and the kampua), Stella’s children from Melbourne too…and my cousin-in-law, an Englishman from the UK…. They all loved eating that when they came to town!
Maybe coz the noodle look a bit like spaghetti kot?
They’re all the same family, anyway… LOL!!! 😉
wahsei….looks super delicious….can see u r a great cook. anyway, i dun think i have tried fu chow dishes before…cant recall ler.
I do enjoy cooking…but like when I sing karaoke, I need an audience – and when I cook, I would like to have people eating and singing my praises! So vain hor! LOL!!! 😀 …..Well, if you go Perak, Sitiawan side, you may get to taste some Foochow dishes…but somehow they’re not exactly the same as what we have here – just similar.
I also prefer gravy poured over the noodles too, can taste the noodles itself. And if i dun like the gravy, i can also somehow separate those noodles with gravy and those without:)
Without the gravy, aren’t the noodles quite tasteless? Better order the dry-fried then…like the Malay fried noodles or the mamak ones.
Just love noodles with a little of gravy and not those very dry type. Yummy..tQ.
Dry ones…I don’t mind the Malay or mamak ones, not those dry ones at the Chinese stalls here. Prefer those like this one – with gravy.
Aha..one of my favs. Well, if your missus doesn’t mind, to improve on dis dish, maybe you could use big fire, toss d noodles n slam d wok on d stove like some cooks do..:)
The tossing and the slamming is to prevent the noodles from sticking to the wok…but with the amount of oil they use, they need not have worried – quite hard for the noodles to stick…and yet, I’ve noticed that they actually do…and the big fire is to get the noodles a bit burnt so that they will have that special additional fragrance. Easy to get them burnt, just don’t stir the noodles a while longer…
My missus has this thing about getting the wok all hot and throwing the things into it – doesn’t make much of a difference, it seems – only serves to mess up the cooker top and make the kitchen floor all oily. My cooking, minus all that, is equally nice…if not nicer. Hehehehehe!!! 😉
I think the tossing on the wok is not really to prevent it from sticking…I find that food cooked this way has a certain character to it. It’s the jerking movement, and the first time I tried it, I got food all over the stove AND floor! Now I tend to “toss” when I cook certain things…makes a lot of difference, even sausages!
Shhhhh….!!! Don’t let the old lady hear that! Guess who will end up wiping and cleaning the cooker top! One week old…one month old or longer…layers of grease…bits of food! Tsk! Tsk! And she simply refused to have a maid in the house! 😦
Oh my, this looks so yummy ! Very much like the real thing ! And cooking at home means more ingredients that half a prawn and a few morsels of meat 😛
Morsels? Tiny bits, more like it. The ingredients they add at the shops are really pathetic!!! Will cook again – this time, I will buy all the “extra” ingredients. This one was unplanned and I only used whatever I could find in the fridge.
Wah!! Not bad for a first try!! Well done!!
Thank you. Will try again, gonna be the best of the best! LOL!!!
Nice. At least the food you cooked is not horrible (unlike my cooking). It is still tasty. ^_^
Well, I agree with you there. Practice will perfect your cooking talent.
LOL!!! Well, you can learn the simple cooking recipes that I post in my blog. All are easy ones – not much work, otherwise I would not have bothered. Ya…will practise and make it better! 🙂
nom nom nom! looks nice man!! =D
Nice! Too bad I’m too old to turn pro…otherwise, I would be rich soon! 🙂 Good luck in your paper tomorrow!!! 😉
wah your foochow fried noodles looked like it can be served at a coffee shop! bravo!
Thank you! Thank you! *takes a bow… LOL!!! 😀
You must be one of those extinct species being an Asian gentleman in this part of the world who can cook well and apparently, love to cook. Well done.
Not just gentleman! You ask the young students today – most can’t cook – boy or girl, the same! Did you read my post sometime ago about how they went overseas and the girls blew up their microwaves one after another? *shakes head!!! I dunno why…but there are nice dishes that do not require much hassle and are very easy to cook. I will cook those – I’m basically lazy…so don’t expect me to do it if it is a lot of work!
Talking about microwave oven. Do you know that, if you put live ants or cockroaches inside the microwave oven, you couldn’t kill them?
Dunno. Eyew…I wouldn’t wanna have ants and cockroaches in my oven, not that I use it a lot…not even for reheating – just my missus!
the noodles look so fat fat! I’m a noodle person u know. I can survive without rice and take noodles all day 🙂
Our noodles here are fatter…and less yellow than the yellow noodles over at your side. Eeee…they say noodles are fattening, rice not as bad?