Noodle Week

Living in the same building with an aunt who loves to cook is a God-send to a foodie like me. Every week, I get to enjoy old favorites from recipes handed down from my Amah, new concoctions she discovered thru cookbooks or cooking shows, or sometimes I would contribute my own. We usually eat together at dinner and most of the time we talk about food.

Last week was noodles week. First, she made us “lomi” (slow cooked noodle soup in pot). I remembered when I was young, I used to eat lomi in this old panciteria in Divisoria near the place where my grandmother used to live. It consisted of thick udon-like egg noodles, shelled shrimps, scored fish balls and julienned vegetables in superior stock, it was a rich, thick, one-dish meal that was hot and filling. I learned to eat it with a dash of chinese black vinegar, to cut thru the richness of taste and now I enjoy it with a dash of balsamic vinegar which gives it a decidedly new world flavor. Aunt Lily recreated this dish from scratch and it was delicious on a cool rainy day.

Every time I visited Singapore, the first thing I look for was laksa, a coconut milk based very spicy curry soup. The main ingredients for most curry laksa are tofu puffs, fish sticks, shelled-shrimps and bean sprouts. The best laksa I’ve had, that I can recall, was at the Empire Cafe of the Raffles Hotel Singapore.

Since flying to Singapore, every time I crave for one, is next to impossible, and the spices to create one is tedious and hard to fine, the next best thing I found, was Prima Taste’s Ready-to-Cook Meal kit for Laksa, which I bought in HK. Just follow the cooking instruction, add thick rice noodles (palabok noodles) and the other necessary ingredients and this is as close to the real laksa as I can get.