Labour (Intensive) Day

Ever since I attended the Mee Siam Workshop in March, my hubby has been asking me when I will make the mee siam for the family. Knowing that it requires a lot of work and effort, I put this off until I know I can "mass" make to feed a dozen people!

Since Labour Day is a holiday, and my parents and sisters are free for dinner, I decided to invite them over for a mee siam treat. That will also satisfied my hubby's craving for mee siam! Both himself and myself love to eat mee siam.

Beginning of the week, I had already started buying some ingredients for mee siam. One who has not seen the mee siam recipe, would not have known there are actually so many ingredients and steps just to prepare a bowl of mee siam with gravy. It was "The Day" for me today.

I started pretty early preparing the ingredients, weighing them out, cutting them, blending them and even frying the belachan. Gee, there was really a lot more work than I had thought. I had to start with the mee siam gravy, which included blue ginger, yellow ginger, chilli paste, belachan & many others to blend with! The rempeh had to be fried with oil, before mixing with assam and slimmer them for a whole 3 hours!! In between, seasoning and coconut milk were added. This was a lot of work!


Next, I moved on to cooking the sambal chilli. Again, blending of the ingredients include shallots, chilli paste, belachan and some other ingredients. I had to fry them till fragrant. Not only that, the chilli had to be submerged in the oil. Gee...that was really a lot of oil to be used!

Finally, it was the preparation of the mee siam noodles. Bean sprouts, chives, soya puffs were all prepared. Hard boiled eggs and blanching of prawns were done way before. All the small small garnish, the side dishes had to be prepared before had. Even frying of the mee siam needs patience and skills. Tongs has to be used to fry the noodles so as to prevent them from breaking.


The preparation of this labour intensive mee siam really took me the whole day. I didn't get my domestic helper to help me with all these as she was also busy preparing lunch and separately cooking fried rice for the kids for dinner. She was busy on her own tasks! I started at 9.30am, and didn't get to rest till 5.00pm after my mee siam was all prepared! I was really dead tired, just preparing ONE food!!

Fortunately, the busyness the day has brought was worth it, as all my family members commented that the mee siam was really really good. The gravy was very fragrant, the mee siam texture was good. It wasn't too sweet nor too salty. The only thing they said was, it was not spicy enough. They said that since it was not spicy, they can eat more! Had it been more spicy, it would have prevented them from eating too much, and I will have more leftover! I'm just glad that they enjoyed the food, even though they mentioned that buying from outside only cost $2.50 a bowl. I also agreed that with so much effort, it's really not worth it as it only cost $2.50 a bowl! However, the overall experience in this preparation, was really enjoyable.


I still have a bottle of my non-spicy Sambal Chilli. Anyone interested to buy? ;)

My domestic helper cooked us Wanton Noodles Soup for lunch. It was yummy! I've always like her wanton, be it fried or steamed, it has always been delicious!