Penang Prawn Noodle - Hokkien Mee

Penang prawn noodle is a noodle soup franganced with chili spice paste and prawn broth. The combination of the chili paste and  prawn broth is just simply delicious. The broth takes a long time to cook, the longer it takes the better it tastes.

Back in my hometown, we can have a bowl of prawn noodle either as breakfast, lunch or dinner. It's available in most of the hawker food centre/ kopitiam. In Melbourne, we can get this in Malaysia crusine restaurant, however the taste is slightly milder. To taste a bowl of authentic penang prawn noodle, me and my sister either has to work hard to cook at home or fly back to penang :P

There are a few steps to make a bowl of noodle, but it's worth it when you can taste a bowl of authentic and flavoursome prawn noodle!

Chilie paste:
30 red chillies
10 dried chillies
20 shallots
10 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons of water
12 tablespoons of cooking oil

Stock Ingredients

1.5kg of prawn , peeled, devinded and keep the prawn head and shell seperately
1kg of pork neck/shoulder

Toppings/Others
1 package of yellow noodles
1 package of rice vermicelli
Kangkung ( water spinach)
Some bean sprouts
Hard boiled eggs
Some friend shallot crisps ( store bought)


1. Blend the chili paste ingredients.
2. Heat up the wok and add cooking oil. Stir fry the chili paste for until fraganced. Dish up and set aside
3. On the same wok (unwashed), add in a little oil and cook the shrimp topping. Add in a little chili paste, sugar, and salt. Pan-fried the shrimp until they are slightly burned. Dish up, let cool and sliced them into halves.
4. On the same wok ( unwashed), add in a little oil and stir fry the prawn shell and head until cook, add in water, bring to boil and simmer on low heat for 2 hours.
5. Drain the foam out regularly.
6. After two hours ,add in half of the chili paste, then add in the pork neck/pork shoulder (whole peice) into the broth and cook for another 1-2 hour on low heat until the pork is cooked. Take the pork out, set aside until cool. Slice the pork into pieces and used it for topping.
7. Add some salt and sugar to taste.

To assemble:
1.  In boiling water, cook the yellow noodle/ vermicelli, bean sprout and kangkung then place in a bowl.
2.  Assmble the pork slices, egg, and prawn on top of the noodle
3. Ladle hot soup over
4. Last and not least, sprinkle some fried shallot and add chillie paste to your taste.