singapore style stir fried rice vermicelli 星洲炒米

This is a first culinary post that I started before a plate that I have in mind is made. I have half a bag of $0.99 mung bean sprouts left over from that I try to decide what to do with it. Monetarily it is $0.49 in value but I seldom throw away perfectly edible food matter. I consider driving to my neighborhood Japanese supermarket to buy another bag of Chinese stir fry noodles but it just does not make any sense at all. I like ICE but I care no less about our planet than hybrid or electric car owners.


All the frozen noodles that I have in the freezer just not suitable to make a dish that would use up these mung bean sprouts, until I let my mind to free roam given the constraints of the ingredients I have on hand. Bingo! A thought came to me in bed - a sight of genuine foodie. I realized I have just about all the basic ingredients on hand without the need to take a short car trip. I will make Singapore style stir fried rice vermicelli 星洲炒米.

Singapore style stir fried rice vermicelli 星洲炒米 is a lunch time favorite in traditional Cantonese Restaurant where you find the best of dim sum in the morning that ends at circa 10 am. The origin of the dish is not so clear for me but I have a hunch it is really a dish created in Hong Kong rather than the name suggests. By this I mean the version that I know very well that is considered authentic Hong Kong Cantonese restaurant dish. From my quick search the Singapore dish is called fried been hoon, with origin from street food and has no curry and has just a little bits of low cost ingredients.

Typically the Singapore style stir fried rice vermicelli 星洲炒米 has char siu, small shrimps, strips of onion, scallions, and mung bean sprouts. I don't have all the exact ingredients on hand so I just find some closest substitutes.

home made char siu 叉燒 (left), Gulf shrimps, sea scallops (right)

I also presoaked some dried chili peppers and saved the hot liquid; these suckers bring a lot of heat to the dish

I salted the peeled shrimps and then marinated them after cutting them up into small bits to approximate small shrimps

Shiitake mushrooms and scallops are not traditional ingredients for this dish; I blanched the scallops and slice them into thin slices; the mushrooms were also sliced into thin strips

the char siu 叉燒 also cut into thin strips

the rice vermicelli is also blanched lightly and drained

the purpose of mung bean sprouts is to bring moisture, and add a different texture; it is one most important ingredient for this dish

The challenge of making this dish is decide how vermicelli to use with respect to the amount of other ingredients. I planned to make a big batch so I prepared quite a bit of vermicelli. Because of the batch size, it was quite challenge to stir fry and distribute the ingredients evenly through out. Also normally a few strip of red bell peppers are use to brighten the appearance of the dish. I didn't have that so the dish looks a bit dull.

this is only one fifth of the amount that I made

I made this simple snack. It is an appetizer that I remember having in as a young adult. There are celery, carrot, dense tofu, shiitake mushroom, and abalone, seasoned with salt, soy sauce, white pepper, hon dashi, olive oil, and sesame oil. It is eaten cold and I believe it is a northern China appetizer dish. The abalone is just my spin since I have some canned one in the fridge.

it goes great with a cold beer

half way through I decided I would spice it up a bit by sprinkling some dried ground hot chili pepper; so much better with some heat and looks more interesting