Grandma Kitchen 2 ：Memory of Flour Noodle
Memory of Flour Noodle in my Hometown
Growing up, we often heard these remarks, “Coffee brings us up” and “Flour noodle fills our stomach”. This is because our late dad was a coffee seeds seller and mum’s favorite dish was flour noodle. We literally grew up having flour noodle every Sunday. It was our family tradition and we all love this dish till today.
Every Sunday, after returning from the market, mum began her ritual of preparing the flour dough. While waiting for the dough to rise, mum would cook the “ikan bili” (dried small fish) based soup with mushrooms, 3 to 4 big garlic and some slices of ginger. The children would help mum cut prawns, fish cakes and vegetables. Mum seasoned the prawns and fish ball or pork meats first, and cooked it in a wok.
When the soup was ready and boiling, we would tear small thin pieces of flour noodle from the dough and placed them into the soup. This required certain skill and mum would praise those of us who could master it. When the whole dough has been torn into pieces, mum put in the rest of the ingredients like prawns, fish cakes and vegetables into the pot. After boiling for about 5 minutes, the “flour noodle” dish was ready for consumption.
All of us enjoyed our lunch at the round table. We would eat the noodle with fried onion and chili sauces. Mum always smiled and laughed during such meals as she witnessed all her children enjoying the flour noodle.
Sometimes mum would invite our friends who happened to visit us on Sunday. They too enjoyed the flour noodle and praised mum for her hospitality. Now that we have grown up with families, we too continued this tradition and cook the flour noodle for our own family members. Our children enjoyed this dish too.
Ingredients:
Plain flour 200 g
Water 1 cup
Egg 1
Garlic 3-4 pieces
Ginger 1-2 small piece
Small fish (ikan bili) 100 g
Mushroom 5 pieces
Small prawn 100 g
Pork meat 100 g
Fish ball/cake 100 g
Vegetable 1 kg
Chilli 1-2, cut into slices
Small onion 3 pieces, cut and fried