When I was young.... *HAIYAH*

When I was young, I insisted on doing things my way!  I thought that I was right and everyone else was wrong.  I wouldn’t take advice.  I listened to no one. 
I bled through my mistakes.  I ignore good advice.  I was a fool!!!

  Maybe stubbornness yielded some street wisdom and maybe it gained me some glee of peer acknowledgement which was SO important then.  SILLY!

  But did it help me gain more confidence?  Not much.
  Did it improve my lot in life? I don’t think so.
  Did it make life easier for me?  Definitely not.

  It was just so much wasted time and effort.  There were so many emotions spent and, too often, pain that I brought to people who cared about me.  Furthermore, I brought upon myself so much trouble and self constructed barriers.  In my vanity, there were so many opportunites lost simply because I chose not to recognize them.  I threw away chance after chance, all because I thought I knew it all!! 

 I see the young me in so many young people nowadays and I wish they would listen and not make the same mistakes I made.  "Hey Quay Po, you should be writing about food not something unrelated?"  Yes, this is about food LAH, "FOOD FOR THOUGHT", okay? LOL! Okay, maybe you are half right, I should be writing about "real" food so I am going to share with you today this recipe which I stumbled upon last week. This is one of my favorite dishes. I have never considered that I could make this myself. There are a lot of creations, that I love to eat, that somehow seem beyond my reach.  Don't all of us have foods like that? Somehow we come to believe that only a master could attain such culinary heights? I t is more likely not true.  Time to abandon self doubt, and try, try, try.  After all, there is always someone willing to teach, if we but listen.  For this one, I have to thank Shirley of Kokken69 for posting the recipe.  Hey, if you guys have not been to her blog, "Go Quick, Quick!" for you will thank me for recommendation.

Coincidentally, I had lots of fish bones from making several batches of otak-otak previously. Then, when I was browsing Shirley’s blog, I saw her fish head meehoon recipe, and I immediately jumped on the idea of using up all of the fish bones to make a big pot of fish stock.  Then, I found a thick piece of salmon fillet in the freezer and decided to use it up.  


I used to buy fish head mee hoon from a hawker store here in Kuala Lumpur. The proprietor was also from the same hometown, “Ipoh Mali”.  I love to give my support to people from my hometown and moreover, he deserved it because his fish head meehoon was super delicious without using a lot of MSG. You know it when the food has heaps of MSG in it because you will be ultra thirsty after eating it and the after effect is not pleasant at all. When I went there a few weeks ago, the store was gone! I was very disappointed. Fortunately now that I know how to make this at home, I can have it any time when I crave a bowl. With this recipe at hand now, you can too. I won't call my recipe fish head meehoon because I did not use any fish heads. This should please the Westerners who may attempt this recipe, though my Quay Lo would attest to the glories of true fish head soup. 

Fish bone soup vermicelli with deep fried salmon fillet chunks

Largely adapted from Shirley of Kokken69's with modification.

This dish was featured in Asian Food Channel (Official)
facebook page on 24 July 2012

Serving for 2
Main Ingredients:

400g fresh thick rice vermecilli (Bee Hoon)

cooking oil for deep frying

200g salmon fillet, cut into big chunks

200 g pickled mustard cabbage (harm choy) cut into strips

a thumb of young ginger, cut into thin slices ginger

2 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges

Ingredients for garnishing:

3 spring onion, cut into 2 ins long pieces

3 stalks of parsley, roughly cut

Ingredient to coat the fish:

½ C crispy flour for coating the fish

¼ tsp salt

a dash of white ground pepper

Ingredient for the Soup:

6 cups fish stock

1 tbs kosher salt

3 to 4 salted preserved plum, seeds removed

½ tsp ground white pepper

1 tbs Chinese cooking wine

1 tbs sesame Oil

¾ C evaporated milk

Method:

1. Bring a pot of water to the boil and blanch Bee Hoon until soft. Drain and set aside and divided into large serving bowls.

2. Heat oil for deep-frying over high heat. Season fish with a little salt and white ground pepper and coast with crispy flour. Deep fry until golden brown. Drain and set aside.

3. Heat 1 tbsp sesame oil in a wok slightly fry the ginger till fragrant. Add fish stock, pickled mustard cabbage and tomato. Bring to boil for 1 minute and lower to let it simmer for another 5 minutes and lastly add milk and bring to boil.

4. Place a few chunks of fried salmon on top of the vermicelli. Ladle hot soup into bowl over noodles. Garnish with spring onions and parsley and serve immediately with chili padi (bird chillies) in soya sauce.

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