Big or small…

When I had a post on fried tom yam mihun recently, somebody commented that she would prefer the extra fine version of the rice vermicelli so the other day when I thought of frying some more, I went and bought this –

…which is finer than the usual ones that I normally use. There is, of course, the bigger version or what we call hung ngang here which is about the size and looks something like what is called laksa – the type they use in preparing Penang assam laksa.

I soaked that in hot water to soften and this time around, I decided to cook it with canned stewed pork…

In the past, we would us the green-labelled Ma Ling brand but lately, people are very doubtful about their products here, probably imitations as even the labels do not seem to be of not very good quality and the colours look kind of suspicious. I put that in the fridge the night before so that when I opened it in the morning, I could easily remove the layer of fat/oil at the top. I poured the sauce into the softened mihun and tossed thoroughly, prior to the cooking proper.

As for the other ingredients, they are the same as those that I would use for frying my version of the kampung fried rice minus the ikan bilis – sliced shallots and garlic…

…and I had some sliced fresh chili as well and chopped spring onions since we had that in the fridge.

As usual, I fried the shallots and onions in a bit of oil in the wok till golden brown and then I added the pork, mashing the pieces up with the ladle to break them up into smaller strips and chunks. Then I threw in the mihun and the chili and spring onion. After mixing everything together thoroughly, I added some soy sauce and fish gravy (in place of salt) and some msg, according to taste. Finally, I broke two eggs into the wok and kept frying everything together till the eggs were cooked and then, it was ready…

When I shared a photograph of this on Facebook…

my friend, Yan, commented that this was very typically Foochow. Well, I’m not really too sure which dialect this belongs to but my mum often cooked it this way for us while I was growing up…or with canned clams in soya sauce, Amoy Brand no less which, I must say, is just as nice.

Come to think of it, I imagine it would be good also if I had some cangkuk manis in it. Hmmmm…another time perhaps but the next time around, I would probably go back to using the slightly-bigger mihun that I would usually use, not this extra-fine one – between the two, I would very much prefer that.