Recipe: Fried Vermicelli Xiamen Style

If you cook a lot, you have to get creative with using up what's left over in your kitchen and fridge to prepare your meals. Last week I made Kerabu Bee Hoon in celebration of Hari Merdeka (Malaysia National Day). That being said, I now have a half pack of vermicelli remaining. What to do, what to do. It's the perfect time to try making Fried Vermicelli, Xiamen Style (厦门炒米粉）. I visited Xiamen earlier this year and fell immediately in love with the island and more importantly, the food. Located in the Fujian province, Xiamen is a beautiful island with abundant fresh produce and seafood. The food in Xiamen is very similar to the Chinese food in Malaysia since many of the early Chinese settlers in Malaysia came from the Fujian region. Other than rice, noodles and vermicelli are heavily consumed as daily staples. One of their common dishes is Xiamen Fried Vermicelli, a simple meal easy to prepare... The key to making great Xiamen Fried Vermicelli lies in Wok Hei, which translates literally to "The Breath of Wok." To get Wok Hei, your wok has to be super-hot. It's this high heat that gives your fried vermicelli that special taste and aroma. While it's not easy to have Wok Hei in an American kitchen without setting off the smoke detector, I managed to capture the essence with the generous use of cooking oil. Here is what I did: Ingredients: 1/2 pack of Vermicelli / Bee Hoon Some chicken breast meat (cut into thin strips) 6 shrimps (shelled and deveined) 2 stalks of scallion (cut into 2" length) 2 cloves garlic (chopped) 2 teaspoons of light soy sauce 1 teaspoon of oyster sauce 1/2 teaspoon of dark soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon of sugar A dash of white pepper powder A dash of sesame oil Some cabbages (julienne) Heat up the wok until it starts smoking (but before your alarm goes off!). Pour in generous doses of cooking oil and wait for the smoke again (again, before the alarm goes off!). Add in the chopped garlic and quickly stir a few times, then follow by chicken strips, shrimps, and julienne cabbages. Stir and mix the ingredients well with the garlic until you smell the sweet aroma from the ingredients. Add vermicelli, soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, chopped scallions and stir fry vigorously over high heat. Just when the vermicelli starts to burn, add in a dash of white pepper powder and sesame oil, stir for 1 minute. Serve hot with a spoonful of roasted chili paste. If you do not pay attention to these cooking directions, you won't have to worry about washing the dishes; the fire sprinklers will take care of that for you!