Fried Beehoon With Scallops

One dish that I cook ever so often is fried beehoon (rice vermicelli). I love it for its versatility, since you basically have a freehand deciding what goes into the dish. You can add the most expensive ingredients and eat like a king; or you can throw in the sad leftovers from your fridge, and eat like a ... mommy. Either way, as long as I have a cup of full-bodied teh-si by my side, I'm guaranteed a happy meal.

Today though, I ditched the mommy version and treated myself to some fresh scallops. They are not often available, so when I saw them at the market, I immediately launched into "aunty" mode, snapped up 4 packs and haggled for a better price. Sheesh.



Well, this was lunch. Sadly, my photos don't do them justice. I was terribly hungry and didn't bother checking my (wrong) camera settings, hence the awful yellow hue in all the pics. I only realised something was amiss when I saw my uploaded photos, long after the last juicy morsel was devoured.

Ah, c'est la vie!



I don't have a proper recipe for fried beehoon. I've never cooked beehoon based on a recipe either. It's always done with intuition and observation. Besides, no two beehoon dishes are the same, seeing that I add whatever ingredients I feel like.

You need to soak the beehoon first, till they have softened, then drain dry before frying. I tend to favour beehoon from Thailand. For colour, you can use dark soy or kicap manis. Or you can leave these out and go for a "white" version.

In Chinese noodle dishes, all ingredients should mimic the long strands of the noodles/vermicelli. So, cut all ingredients - carrots, spring onions, mushrooms, omelette, firm tofu, cabbage, meats, etc - into strips of roughly equal lengths (as opposed to cubes or chunks).

For seasoning, I usually mix some fish sauce, oyster sauce, kicap manis, chicken stock and some water in a bowl, then use it to fry with the beehoon. And I use loads of garlic and shallots to flavour the oil.

As for the baby scallops, I marinated them briefly with some soy and Hua Tiao chinese wine - just a few drops of both. They were cooked last. The moment they turned opaque, I dished them out. They were amazingly sweet and plump. What a lovely weekday lunch treat! ;)