fishposting
Dried Chilli Shrimp Noodles
Made by Woh Hup
My local Chinese market stocks the usual dried packets of noodles, but has a rotating cast of more upmarket/interesting noodles. These (and their partner, the Chilli Crab Noodles) caught my eye.
Dried/instant noodles have a bad rap in the fancier culinary circles. And that's fair: basic offerings are full of palm oil and oversalted, over-MSGed spice packets. (There's nothing wrong with MSG, but a little goes a long way. There's plenty wrong with how we harvest palm oil, unfortunately.) But if you buy a little higher on the shelf, packet noodles can be a great deal. Momofuku's offerings are good (if a bit expensive, around $4/bag where I live). These come in a bit cheaper and are also good: real ingredients, no palm oil.
It is absolutely critical that you doctor up your noodles. Maybe it's just a chopped scallion. Here I threw in some 10/15 count gulf shrimp. It's easy enough: pull the shrimp from the freezer, remove the 'vein' (read: digestive tract) if it's visibly gritty, broil for 10min. You don't even need to defrost (though a quick soak in water, mirin, soy, and vinegar added some flavor and made it easier to cut through the shell). A soft-boiled egg seals the deal, nevermind the bad peeling job.
So how was the packet? The flavor is primarily dried shrimp, with a touch of sweetness from the soy sauce packet. There's real spice, too, but the foreground is really just shrimp. Texturally, the noodles are skinny and smooth. If you've never eaten dried shrimp before, I'd say go for the crab packet over this one.
macronutrition: 14g protein, 4.5g fat, 63g carbs in 350kcal for the noodles. the whole meal came to 52g protein, 13g fat, and 72g carbs in 622kcal.