Prawn Noodle (Hae Mee)

Italians have their pasta, and we have our noodles, which we can eat any time of the day - for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and supper! One popular noodle dish is Prawn Mee. Whilst we have tried a number of "famous" "hae mee" stalls including the ones at Adam Road and Zion Road hawker centres, my wife's favorite is the Whitley Road Big Prawn Mee @ Novena. There also used to be a decent prawn noodle stall in Hillview, before the hawker center was demolished. The one thing we remember is that it was cheap. One bowl of noodles cost only S$1.50. And for S$ 2, you get a big bowl.

We've prepared prawn noodles many times in the past. Back home, we would "save" prawn heads and shells and freeze them for months! And when the freezing compartment in our fridge is bursting with bags of the prawn heads, we will organize a "Hae Mee" party. Prawn mee is a very convenient dish for entertaining since the stock/ingredients can be prepared in advance. Also, your guests get to enjoy the fun of preparing and garnishing their own bowl of noodles. Prawn noodles are relatively easy to prepare. You can find the recipe on the internet. For example:

http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=430.

The secret to a good ‘Hae Mee’ is in the stock.

Stage 1- Prepare stock
Boil a pot of water. Add 1/2 a chicken, 1 chunk of lean pork, 1 onion and 3 cloves garlic. Boil 10 mins and simmer. Add salt to taste. Also, some recipe will recommend adding rock sugar to sweeten the stock, but I prefer to use fish sauce and soya beans.

Meanwhile, shell the prawns. Fry the prawn heads and shells until they are fragrant and caramelised (turning into red/pink color). Add them to the simmering stock. Most recipes would recommend pounding the fried prawn shells first, but I fing this only has a marginal effect.

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Stage 2: Assemble ingredients

Ingredients: 600g yellow mee, 300g meehoon (rice vermicelli), 600g prawns (blanched, deveined, and sliced), chicken and pork meat (remove from stocks after 30 minutes, cooled and sliced), sliced fish cake, hard boiled eggs (halved or quartered), bean sprouts, kangkong (green vegetable), and fried shallots.

Stage 3: Serve

Blanch required amount of beansprouts, kangkong and mee/beehoon in boiling water. Place them into a bowl. Garnish with meat, prawns and hard-boiled egg slices. Top up with the rich stock. Sprinkle some fried shallot crisps (Traditionally, cubes of crispy fried lard are added, but due to health reason, this is now less common).

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The dish is served with cut red chili, light soy sauce and sambal. This is where the S'pore version differs from the Penang version. In Singapore, most stalls will give you chili powder or cut red chillies. I grew up eating the Penang version, where a good prawn mee is always accompanied with sambal blachan and lime, to give the dish a kick. If not, I will feel as those something is missing.

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Some people like their prawn noodle dry, in which case a premium thick black soya sauce is added in place of the stock. A good place to eat the dry version of the Hae Mee is in an old coffee shop along Upper Bt. Timah Road (the row of shops adjacent to The Linear residential project).

Let's have a "Hae Mee" party when we return.

So, start "saving" the prawn heads!