I can’t afford it…

I love Singapore nyonya mee siam…and I was able to cook that myself once – exactly like the real thing using this…

…and this is readily available at the supermarket round the corner from my house but unfortunately, it is way too expensive and I just can’t afford it. Currently, it is selling at around RM16.00-18.00 a box and if you look closely, it serves 2-3 persons only…except that I stretched it a little bit and added a bit more water so there was enough for 5-6 servings and it was still very good.

Well, you may remember that we came across this…

…not too long ago and we used it to steam the tilapia that I got from Annie-Q’s mum and it was really very nice. It crossed my mind then that it would probably be good for the gravy for the Singapore nyonya mee siam so I went and got a few packets to give it a try. They’re only RM3.50 each here.

Firstly, I fried some bihun with chopped garlic and some chives and added one ikan bilis stock cube to it…

Melissa prefers tauhu pok (fried been curd) so I had that…

…cut into thin strips instead of tau kua (bean curd cake) which I would need to fry lightly and slice thinly.

She also likes omelette more than hard boiled eggs…

…so that was what I had, also cut into thin strips. Well, this way, I would not need so many eggs to have enough to go round.

Next I boiled some prawns and sotong (squid)…

…and used the stock to boil the gravy.

I put in one stalk of serai (lemon grass), bruised…and two spoons of tau cheo (fermented yellow beans) and added a packet of the Thai steamed fish sauce. Oopssss!!!! There was too much water and I had to add another packet of the sauce to get the right strength of the taste…and I brought that to boil…

…and let it simmer a bit.

To serve, I just put the amount of bihun that I wanted and a bit of everything else in a plate and poured the gravy over it all…

…and garnished that with chopped daun sup (Chinese celery). Everybody loved it and said it  was very nice…except that it did not taste like Singapore nyonya mee siam – it did not have the sweetness…

Actually, it was more like tom yam except that it was not so sour. I guess it was something in between the two – not exactly like one nor the other.

Despite the favourable reception, however, I wouldn’t want to cook it again though as it was simply too much work. Maybe I would just use the sauce to fry the bihun and see how it works out. Will surely let you know when I do, so stick around!