Have a Virtual Meal on Me #2 -- 大蝦伊麵

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As many of you know, I love to eat!  I've "cooked" sausage rolls for you in the past and have shared with you my Mickey D's adventures.  (Who says foodies can't eat fast food?)

Last Sunday, for Father's Day, we took Dad out to eat.  But in May, for Mother's Day, my brother and I cooked for Mom and I wanted to share that meal with you.

I volunteered to make Giant Shrimp Stir-Fried E-Fu Noodles.  A lot of you will say -- wait a minute, it's usually Lobster Stir-Fried E-Fu Noodles.  You're right.  But I chose giant shrimp for two reasons:[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]

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1.  As tasty as lobster is, I've never been thrilled about having to extract meat from the shell.  There's much more satisfaction biting into "nothing but meat".  It's the same reason why some people prefer chicken breast over a drumstick.

2.  When I was at the wet market, they only had "miniature lobsters" for sale.  Now even though the fish mongers assured me that these lobsters were, by their nature, miniature in size, I was still not 100% convinced and was worried that I would be supporting the illicit trade of trapping baby lobsters that had not yet reached maturity.  (I am always weary of wet market merchants who say, "OK, lo problem, lo problem" to anything and everything just to make a sale.  It's pretty despicable.)

Although the steps below might look labor-intensive, the whole meal (prep + cooking) took no more than half-an-hour.

Let's get the party started

First, I'll need some help.  My very good bro Den was willing to lend a hand even though he was making two other dishes.  What are brothers for?The ingredients...Starring in tonight's lead role...[if gte vml 1]> /v:shape<![endif][if !vml][endif] [if gte vml 1]> /v:shape<![endif][if !vml][endif]I wasn't kidding when I said "giant".  These suckers were HUGE!!Off with their heads [if gte vml 1]> /v:shape<![endif][if !vml][endif]Cleaning the guts and drying the cut-up pieces with paper towel.Add a little corn starch for texture.Into the fireThe thing I love about crustacean is that it cooks very quickly.  Look at that lovely red color...Don't you wish computer monitors were scratch-n-sniff?Now to prepare the rest of the ingredients.First, the e-fu noodles...I used fish stock to add a nice seafood flavor.[if gte vml 1]> /v:shape<![endif][if !vml][endif] [if gte vml 1]> /v:shape<![endif][if !vml][endif]Then the shrimp go back in for finishing.The scallion adds a wonderful color.Plate it and we're ready to goI present my very first attempt at Giant Shrimp Stir-Fried E-Fu Noodles ([if gte mso 9]> u5:WordDocument u5:ViewNormal/u5:View u5:Zoom0/u5:Zoom u5:PunctuationKerning/ u5:ValidateAgainstSchemas/ u5:SaveIfXMLInvalidfalse/u5:SaveIfXMLInvalid u5:IgnoreMixedContentfalse/u5:IgnoreMixedContent u5:AlwaysShowPlaceholderTextfalse/u5:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText u5:Compatibility u5:BreakWrappedTables/ u5:SnapToGridInCell/ u5:WrapTextWithPunct/ u5:UseAsianBreakRules/ u5:DontGrowAutofit/ u5:UseFELayout/ /u5:Compatibility u5:BrowserLevelMicrosoftInternetExplorer4/u5:BrowserLevel /u5:WordDocument <![endif][if gte mso 9]> /u6:LatentStyles <![endif] 大蝦[if gte mso 9]> u7:WordDocument u7:ViewNormal/u7:View u7:Zoom0/u7:Zoom u7:PunctuationKerning/ u7:ValidateAgainstSchemas/ u7:SaveIfXMLInvalidfalse/u7:SaveIfXMLInvalid u7:IgnoreMixedContentfalse/u7:IgnoreMixedContent u7:AlwaysShowPlaceholderTextfalse/u7:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText u7:Compatibility u7:BreakWrappedTables/ u7:SnapToGridInCell/ u7:WrapTextWithPunct/ u7:UseAsianBreakRules/ u7:DontGrowAutofit/ u7:UseFELayout/ /u7:Compatibility u7:BrowserLevelMicrosoftInternetExplorer4/u7:BrowserLevel /u7:WordDocument <![endif][if gte mso 9]> /u8:LatentStyles <![endif]伊麵).  ENJOY!!!

Some of the other dishes from Mother's Day.Best,Dez