TOP RAMEN MY WAY

Every time or most often when I shop at the Vietnamese supermarket, I always notice that most of the orientals buys instant noodles by cases. Of course this is no surprise...! Noodles is the mainstay of most of their dally diets. One has only to boil some water, open the package and dump tho contents...presto you have a snack or a meal.

Once in a while I had my share of "Top Ramen." This reminds me of my young days when I was in college. With the gang of classmates, we, at times ended in a Chinese eatery that specializes on noodles soup and steam BBQ pork buns or Sio- Pao. The two goes together all the time. "MAMON LUK" was the name of the place. The place is always crowded with customers, as a fact the place was two storey to accommodate them. We always go upstairs for our share of the meals. As I remember, the place is "dirty" to my standard nowadays. The bare wooden floor seem to have not been swept at all. When it is raining, mud is evident. At least there has been any one that got sick from eating there as I can tell. At least the "Mami and Sio-Pao were deliciously good!I am not sure it that place still exist. I read somewhere that the sons and daughters of the proprietor immigrated in the states and they have a stateside "MAMO LUK" somewhere in Northern California.

TOP RAMEN MY WAY

I follow the instruction on tho package but...I only use half of the seasoning that is included it the package. If I cook two packages, I just use one pack of the seasoning. I always have a few things ready to dump on the boiling water:

You can make combination to your hearts desire of the following:

pieces of leftover meat roast beef, pork chops even roast lamb.
shrimps
Chinese sausages or hot dog
cubed tofu
shredded carrot
pieces of vegetables, even lettuce on the last minute
an egg

Garnish with green onions or toasted crushed garlic.
I like mine with a lot of ground white pepper

"Mami" is one of the noodle soups that we acquired from the Chinese. It is easy to prepare and filling too. If you do not want to use the packaged "Top Ramen". you can make it with all kinds of noodles available in the market. The Japanese "udom," I found very satisfactory for this. Any fresh noodles is best than the dried one.
Use canned chicken broth if you are using chicken meat, beef broth with beef meats and Knorr's shrimp cube bouillons for fresh shrimps.

Make your own combinations...it is worth trying!

If you like to have the steamed BBQ pork buns...get it from any Oriental stores.

LANG-LANG

This is a combination using won ton wrapped ingredient, meat balls and "sotanghon," a transparent bean noodles. This combination is very Filipino all the way.

Mix in a bowl;

1/4 lb. ground lean pork
1 minced garlic clove
1 chopped small onion
1 teaspoon corn starch
salt and pepper to taste

Form into 1-inch balls, set aside

Meanwhile, cook and flake; save the broth and set aside:

6 cups of water
2 chicken breast
2 chicken bullion cubes

Saute!

1/4 lb. chopped fine shrimp until pink
1 small onion
salt and pepper to taste

Cool and wrap, teaspoon at a time in won ton wrappers. set aside.

Bring broth to boil, drop between two minute intervals;

The meat balls
Won-ton wrapped shrimp mixtures
1 package "sotanghom" (pre-soaked in warm water and drained)
1/2 cup "cloud ear" fungi* (pre-soaked in warm water)

*Note: Asian market sells them dried sliced or whole.

Flake chicken breast
1/2 lb. snow peas

Remove from heat and serve with;
Chopped scallions to
Toasted crushed garlic in oil