KLIA Airport

Of recent, I have been travelling to Kuala Lumpur quite a bit, and usually, I go to the airport early to have their food ... And my preference is to stick with Sbarro's Pizza or Mac D's ... a little reminder of home I guess.

Expect the unexpected! I had been dying to try the Noodle House at KLIA, and one day I finally did...and to my disappointment, the food was not great and wasn't authentic at all! At least not the prawn noodles. I have in all my life, even in the US, never tried a fusion'd version of Penang Prawn Noodles (aka. Prawn Mee, Har Meen, Mee Yoke, Penang Hokkien Mee, 福建虾面). There was cauliflower and baby corn and cabbage in it! And seriously, I saw 2 little pieces of pathetic halved prawns in it. Further adding to my complaint is that they use the same laddle for their chicken herb noodle soup which completely killed the prawn mee taste! Mind you, it's not cause the noodles were halal and the soup base wasn't made with pork, but really ... it tasted like herbal chicken soup with essence of prawns.......................................... The only thing that didn't allow me to starve was the fried wantons... it's kind of difficult to mess up on wantons!

PRAWN MEE RECIPE (learned from staring at my mum and my aunties, and also revisting the recipe from Lynx's mum)

This is my recipe which I refuse to use cause I bought little packets of instant prawn mee paste cause I am lazy now ... You'll see why after you read the recipe!

To create stock do the following:

Pan fry with about 1 tablespoon of vegie oil a Ziploc bag of shrimp shells, inclusive of heads, after the shells become red in colour, add 15 - 20 cups of water, 3 kg of pork ribs (cut into pieces), and 1 bulb of garlic ... boil for 3 hours on low heat

To make the chilli paste, use 20 - 30 dried red chillis deseeded (do not forget to soak to soften and allow the aroma to come out), 10 - 15 peeled shallots, 5 peeled cloves of garlic, 2 - 4 tablespoons of garlic, and about a handful of rinsed preserved dried baby prawns blend until smooth and then stir fry in about 6 - 8 tablespoons of vegie oil until fragrant.

Other ingredients needed to complete your dish: yellow noodles, rice vermicelli, kang kong, bean sprouts, lean pork meat that is boiled and thinly sliced, about 1kg of boiled prawns shelled and deveined (cut in half if you are being stingy), 4 boiled eggs halved, and some fried shallots (you can buy this from the store or make your own, but most people will usually end up burning the fried shallots)

When your stock is done, strain the stock, you can throw everything out ... but if you really want, you can keep the pork ribs (put aside) to add to your prawn noodles later. After you have strained the stock, bring the stock to a boil again and add about 1/3 of your chilli paste. (If people want their prawn noodles spicer, they can add it in later when the prawn noodles are complete).

Serve by placing a portion of yellow noodles, rice vermicelli, water convolvulus and bean sprouts (optional) in a bowl, pour hot stock over, then add your pork ribs, lean pork slices, shrimp, and egg. Final toping will be fried shallots and/or extra chilli paste in the bowl if desired.

I really should have stuck with Sbarro's pizza or McD's!