When it comes to food I can often be a bit impulsive (that’s an understatement). I love variety and have a hard time eating the same thing twice. Unfortunately, we have a lot of leftovers that never get eaten in our refrigerator, but on the plus side dinner time is rarely ever a dull moment at our house! To add to that, one of the many blessings I count is that I live in a place and time in which I can get almost any ingredient I want. Which is good because this particular recipe required a lot of ingredients.  

I loved all the vegetables in this dish.

As in the title I call this recipe Californian Singapore noodles. I did this for two reasons first off, the the original recipe I found was a bit too spicy for my family’s taste, and second, because I know I have now clue about how this dish was supposed to be made. I just kind of put it together, did my best, and surprisingly it came out pretty well.
First off you will need the following ingredients:
  

Main Dish:
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
8 dried or fresh shiitake mushrooms
6-7 ounces of Mai Fun, also known as rice sticks or vermicelli (one bag)
2 stalks celery, sliced thin
1 medium onion, sliced thin
1 cup bean sprouts, rinsed and drained
8 green onions, with ends trimmed, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 pound pork cut into thin slices
4 tablespoons hoisin sauce (Chinese barbecue sauce)
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
  

For sauce:
3 tablespoons curry powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 cup chicken broth
4 tablespoons soy sauce
4 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  

Steps:
1) Prep your food by cutting up all your vegetables.
2) If using dried shiitake mushrooms soak them in hot water (should be uncomfortable to the touch) until soft, then cut the stems then slice thin.
3) Put the mai fun into a bowl of lukewarm water (should be warmer than room temperature, but comfortable to the touch) for 8-10 minutes until the noodles get stringy, make sure the water covers the noodles. Drain noodles and set aside.
4) Marinate the pork in hoisin sauce and cook until browned. Then set aside.
5) Heat up 2 tablespoons of oil in a small pan over medium heat. Add the curry powder, the ginger, and the minced garlic, and saute until fragrant. Add the chicken broth, soy sauce, and sugar. Stir to combine and then cover and cook for 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and set aside.
6) Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large wok over high heat. Add in the remaining garlic and ginger, and stir-fry until the garlic starts to become golden. Add the celery, onion, pepper, sprouts, green onions, and mushrooms. Stir-fry for 3 minutes, until the vegetables start to soften. Set the vegetables aside in a bowl.
7) Heat the last 2 tablespoons of oil in the wok over high heat. Add in the shrimp and stir-fry until they start to turn pink on both sides. Add the barbecued pork and toss to combine.
8 ) Add in the noodles and the vegetables. Pour on the sauce and also add the oyster sauce. Mix the ingredients thoroughly to coat all the noodles and incorporate all the vegetables.
9) Serve hot.
  

The recipe serves about four and turned out great. One thing that really stood out to me was the taste of ginger in the recipe. Perhaps it was because I used fresh ginger, but it really stood out in this dish and gave it a kind of sweet mellow flavor. In general I loved the mixture of flavors in this dish. I want to thank Rasa Malasia for posting their recipe. I hope they don’t mind that I changed it a bit. As I mentioned before my family doesn’t handle hot spicy foods too well, plus the original recipe had too much noodles, when I made this dish I found myself having to take away noodles.  

AJ was very excited about the noodles.

  
All in all it was a great dish, I have never been to Singapore. I have never even met someone from Singapore, but with dishes like this I am very eager to go there one day and discover more about Singapore.