There was a time when the Boy and I were on our travels and we stopped by Singapore for a whirlwind visit.
On one of our aimless wanderings, we decided to dine in a food court along Orchard Road. There were lots of locals dining there and as they say, “When in Rome…” or in this case, “When in Singapore…”
So it was that, that we went to the Food Republic (food court) at Wisma Atria.
Once there, it was pretty obvious to us that the most popular food stand was the Singapore Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle stall.
There was a long queue. And it wasn’t like any other queue you would see at a food court. This queue was akin to lining up at the airport check-in.
It was amazing. Sure, there were other things to eat and try out at this food court, and if you weren’t keen on waiting then yes, I’d recommend going elsewhere. But if you can spare the time, I’d say spare it. Just the thought of a plate of the hot steaming noodles is making me hyperventilate :8P
A few weeks ago, the Boy and I were craving for this plate of noodles, and with some research, we came pretty close to replicating the recipe.
So here you are folks! Our version of the Singapore Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodles Recipe. Bon Apetit!
Ingredients
250g Yellow Noodles (or Hokkien Noodles in Australia)
200g Thick White Rice Noodles (or Thick Rice Sticks/Laifen – soaked and drained)
300g Large Prawns (uncooked with shell intact)
250g Pork Belly
200g Squid (Calamari – cut into rings)
2 Large Eggs
1 Tbsp of Garlic (chopped)
50g Garlic Chives (Ku chai)
1/2 cup of Bean Sprouts
2 cups of Chicken Stock
1/2 cup of Water
1 Tbsp Fish Sauce
Dash of Pepper (for seasoning)
1 to 2 Tbsp of Sambal (for plating)
1 Lime (or Calamansi lime) – sliced to wedges (for plating)
Procedure:
Peel off the prawn heads and shell (keeping the tail intact). A prawn peeler would be useful in this situation.
Heat about 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok and add the prawn heads and shell. Fry for about 5 to 7 minutes on medium-high heat.
In a saucepan, combine chicken stock and water, and bring to boil. Add fried prawn heads and shell into the stock and boil for 45 minutes. Add pork belly and boil for 15 minutes. Reduce heat and let simmer for another 30 minutes until tender. Remove pork belly and set aside to cool. Once cooled, cut pork belly into thin slices.
Return stock to a boil and add prawns and squid for 30 seconds; remove and set aside. Strain the stock to remove the heads and shell. Continue to keep the stock warm by using the lowest possible heat on the stove while you prepare the noodles.
Add about 1 tablespoon of oil into a hot wok and fry garlic till fragrant (on medium heat). Crack in the eggs and scramble them. Fry for a few more minutes. Increase to high heat and add both types of noodles into the wok. Add fish sauce and continue to fry till lightly browned.
Add 1/2 of your stock and cover for about 5 minutes on medium heat to braise. Remove the cover and add prawns, pork, squid and the rest of the stock. Continue to fry for a few minutes, allowing the noodles to absorb the stock. Add bean sprouts, garlic chives and a dash of pepper and fry for another 1-2 minutes. And you’re done! (Note: If you prefer the ‘less gravy’ version, continue to cook till noodles absorb most of the liquid – but beware, you might risk the noodles being too soggy)
You can serve the noodles on Opeh/Betel Nut leaf but we didn’t have any… so instead, we used 3 bamboo leaves (left-overs from making Bak Chang) and stuck them together with skewers to form a ‘boat-like’ shape.
Add a generous amount of Sambal Chilli and some lime wedges to accompany the noodles. And there you have it, Singapore Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodles to satisfy the craving. The pictures doesn’t do much justice to the dish but I promise you that there is gravy underneath those noodles! It won’t be as good as the ones from the stalls but it should suffice whenever you crave for them.
So what do you think? Did we do a good job? My tummy thought we did 🙂
I’m sure there are other stalls/restaurants around Singapore that specialises in this dish, so feel free to share where you had the best Singapore Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodles (if you are from/have been to Singapore) 😉
Ok… adding this to the list. Bak Chang and hokkien mee!
Hahahah we really need to get the Boys to cook for us Girls 🙂
MMm love this dish! *sigh* I love Singaporean food! There’s so much good food for such a small place 🙂
There is isn’t there 😛 But There are very few dishes in Singapore that I actually crave for (spoken like a true Malaysian 😛 )
Lol. cant we just skip the animosity and work towards the greater good of enjoying good food?I agree M’sian food is good but S’porean food has it merits too. (spoken like a true singaporean.haha) Due to not being able to access the goodness of Wisma, Id have to try this recipe out to satisfy the cravings! good job on the write up btw.
Hahaha.. fair enough.. peace through food then 🙂
I’d never imagined that this dish can be made at home. Very nice!
And it tasted sooooo good!
Multiple noodles and multiple proteins! It’s noodeins extravaganza!
I love the word noodeins… Noodeins Nooodeins noodeins!
You definitely did a good job.. I haven’t had dinner and now I’m sad that I don’t have a plate of these prawn noodles ready to go!
I’m getting hungry myself looking at this!
Your prawn noodles look great! I went to the exact same store in Singapore. H and I didn’t quite know what we were lining up for. We just decided to line up with everyone else and ask the person in front what the store’s specialty was.
They actually have a branch in Pavilion in KL as well!
roughly how long will all this take?
20-30 minutes? Depends on how long you take to prep… its usually the preparation that takes the most time 🙂
That looks great! How many servings does that make?
About 1.5 serves (Although the both of us managed to finish it all up, so maybe 2?)
Wow !!!! I just did this recipe and it was amazing! Everybody loved it !
Yayy!!!
all I can say is i made this just added tom yum and had no fish heads so added tom yum paste to start and fish sauce too it was all done as u say apart from that and was the most miraculous thing ever tasted!!!!!!! honest ! (had no sambal chilli tho) it was fantastic!!!!!!! my pekingese dogs thought so too they had more than me! especially the belly pork which I got on the bone and cooked like that ! right up until I thought mmmm thats a funny looking nob on my pork belly! ???? what is that ?? it was then I realised NIPPLES!!!!!!!!!!! ARGH!!!!!!!
Oh Tom Yum? That makes it a completely different dish but still good! Hahahaha.. eeeeeewwwwww nipples!!!!
haha yes it was really nice thanks – and am gonna do it again (this time ex-nipples! for sure)
Yay!