Friday, April 17, 2009

What is Australian Chinese long, short and combination soup?

Are there moments when you sit down to a dish and would say “oh that’s not what I have ordered”? Especially when you are ordering from an unfamiliar menu and you have already formed a preconceived picture of the dish in your mind from the description by the waiter before it is served. You are not alone.

This is especially true, when you are travelling and unfamiliar with the local taste and eating habits. To make matter worse, you don’t speak the language. Even if you do, it may turn out not authentic to your taste. Nearly every food court in Sydney sells “Hainan Chicken Rice” (a popular Singaporean dish). No matter how long you have been living away from Singapore,but still have a clear idea about what real Hainan chicken rice is and because you know right away how authentic it is in your memory. I suppose there is no food other then what you grew up with that you know as authentic. In my family,I would say authenticity in food is quite subjective.

Likewise, my son who grew up eating Australian-concept of Chinese food from a young age would say “that’s not Chinese food” when he was travelling in China. Can you imagine the puzzled look on our Chinese host when we had dinner in Macau.
By the way, one of his all time favourite soups is a combination of long and short soup. You may ask what's that? It is simply by having wanton and noodle together in a soup. Commonly known in Singapore as wanton noodle soup. Before you can make this combination soup, here is the recipe for making wanton aka short soup.


Recipe For Short Soup (Wanton Soup)

Soup:
2 litre chicken stock
3 shallot finely chopped
1/2 tsp sesame oil

Wanton:
500g pork mince
1/4 small cabbage finely shred
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tbsp corn flour
30 wanton wrappers
1 egg beaten
salt and pepper tpo taste



Combined pork mince with salt, soy sauce, sesame oil and grated ginger. Place a teaspoon of pork filling slightly below centre of wanton wrapper. Brush around edges of wrapper with egg. Fold wrapper diagonally in half to form triangle. Press edges to seal around filling. Brush on the front right corner of each triangle and back each left corner, Bring the to two moistened corners together. Pinch to seal.
Drop the wantons into boiling water, cook until they float to the top, about 15 minutes; drain. Put the drained wanton in hot stock and top with shopped shallot.

13 comments:

  1. Hi Uncle Phil

    I am puzzled whenever I see the dish named Singapore noodle in Australia, you can’t order this in Singapore! Maybe you can show us the recipe for this dish.

    Cheers
    Lim

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  2. Hi Lim,
    I'm always amazed by the myth that this popular Aussie noodle dish is from Singapore. Just like Hainan Chicken Rice didn't originate from Hainan Island in China but only made famous by Singapore. In Papua New Guinea, a type of yam is called "Singapore" and the classic American chilli con carne is not from Mexico but is the other way around. It was the early Christian missionaries that introduced this dish to the Mexicans! Can anyone think of any other examples? Well I do not know where and how Singapore noodle gets it name. It appears in nearly every Asian restaurant here in Australia. I do have the recipe as it is a fair dinkum Aussie dish! Will post it soon.
    Cheers
    Phil

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  3. yo mr lim!!! i thought singapore noodle is the 50 cent char bee hoon at hawker centre or kopi tiam, but here they sell $6-$8!!!

    uncle phil so am i right??

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  4. Hi BY,
    Are you refering to the vegetarian char bee hoon? Or the fried bee hoon found in school tuckshops?

    Cheers, Phil

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  5. no.. i mean kopi tiam or hawker centre, my bad. maybe it's now price increase to $1??? i long time no eat..???

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  6. Hi By,
    If I am correct, you are refering to char bee hoon cooked with bean sprouts and dark soy sauce. I only paid 10 cent for a plate to the hawker during my time. Haha.
    Cheers, Phil

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  7. Hi YK,
    Hai, I prefer my noodle served seperately with a mixture of chilli, sesame oil, soya sauce with a bowl of wanton soup on the side. If ordering this favourite noodle dish in Singapore,you have to specified whether you like it dry (noodle with sauce) or wet(with soup). Singapore no Singlish kotoba desu.
    Cheers.

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  8. Hi Uncle Phil,
    Tried making the kueh from your previous post and the wanton soup, came out pretty good!Both me and hubby were in heaven! Taste better homemade!Also do you know what goes in the chilli sambal paste that is served with the wonton noodle? Sigh... almost like being back home!
    Cheers Joanna

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  9. Hi Joanna,
    Good on ya! Nothing taste better than your own homemade food :) What kueh did you make? I will post the the different type of sauces and sambals for you to make. Stay tuned.

    Cheers,
    Phil

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  10. Hi Phil,
    made the kaya kuih using the recipe that you had posted, was a very big hit!
    Cheers Joanna :)

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  11. Hi Joanna,
    It is nice to hear that. Angku kuih is in the pipeline. So stay tuned :)
    Cheers.
    Phil

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  12. For those don't already know, "Singapore Noodles" in Australia is simply fried beehoon with curry powder, and all the other "standard" ingredients like prawns, chicken, pork, carrots, and other greens.

    Talking about prawns.. I hate the cooked prawns in some of the "Chinese" restaurants here - they're unnaturally crunchy and glassy looking.

    ReplyDelete