Loh Shi Fun

The challenge: shiitake mushrooms.
The answer: Loh Shi Fun

I wouldn't claim to know anything about loh shi fun other than that I typed in 'shiitake pork shaoxing wine recipe' into google and found this recipe. It seemed to fit what I was craving, and gave me an excuse to try new things from the Asian grocery store that I had never cooked with. I was skeptical until it was about 75% complete, but by the time I plopped a poached egg on top of fresh pea shoots on top of a steaming bowl of pork (two types!) and noodles, I was very excited.

From what I've read, it's Chinese in origin but has been made famous by a street stall in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia. It's sometimes called 'rat tail noodles' because of the shape of the noodles, though I ended up only finding frozen Korean rice cakes (which worked fine, however unusual).

The original recipe, from Food & Wine Magazine, is here.

I added sriracha (rooster chili sauce), and had to find a substitute for the kecap manis, which the lovely propritor of the local market recomended (it tasted like a mixture of molasses and soy sauce- I'm still excited to find the real deal that is infused with star anise). Not having worked with Chinese sausage before, I may have bought the wrong one- what I purchased was uncooked, and I think the recipe calls pre-cooked. After a bit of poaching it worked out just fine, though- quite fatty and sweet but very flavorful.

The pea shoots, which we opted to not to add while cooking but use as a blanket between the hot stew and the poached egg, gave a pleasant lightness to the dish. Overall it was a fun experiment- one I look forward to replicating and exploring more.