Kway Teow Soup

In my life time, there have been many times when I have been right. For example:

When you go out without bringing an umbrella, it is 98.3% guaranteed to rain.

When you are in a rush and mumbling "excuse me" scrambling your way up the escalator to the train platform, it is 96.2% likely that the train doors will have just closed when you are 0.1 steps away from it.

When you are conducting an interview with someone very important and who you want to impress, that it is 99.7% likely you have visible dried up snot peering out of your nose. You will realise this only after the interview is over.

Not only do I try to be right, I also try to be precise about it.

But I am also grateful for the times when I have been wrong.

Such as, my belief that I hate vegetables 100%. I have been wrong once, and I am happy to be wrong again. Perhaps the advancing years have changed my taste buds, and vegetables on my plate have become less offensive. My 100% fondness for cakes, chips, and ice cream, unfortunately, have remain unchanged.

Still searching for simple recipes, I chanced upon The Little Teochew's Kuay Teow Soup and it seemed 94.7% doable for The Failed Chef.

Kway Teow Soup

3/4 cup chicken stock
3/4 cup water,
150g Kuay teow noodles (or other noodles)
100g vegetables (if you are vegetable-shy like me you will probably cut the leaves into smaller portions)
Fillings (meat, fishball, egg, yong tau foo, prawns etc - I used sliced mushrooms and peas because that is all I have)
Fried shallots (garnishing)

1. Boil water.
2. Pour some of the boiling water into a bowl and soak sliced mushrooms. I have no idea why I do this but I've watched my mom do it in the past. Probably to get rid of mushroom smell. Anyone?
3. Since I have just taken the kway teow noodles out of the fridge, I blanch it for 30s first in boiling water. Drain and set aside. I would prefer not to mix it with the soup in case I cannot finish eating the serving at one sitting.
4. Leave about 3/4 of boiling water in the saucepan, and boil it combining with the chicken stock.
5. Once your soup comes to a boil again, bring the fire on low.
6. Blanch the greens and fillings until cooked, set aside. Turn off flame.

By now I will have
(a) a colander containing the kway teow noodles
(b) a plate of vegetables and fillings
(c) a saucepan of soup.

This is a one-bowl dish but I have three separate dishes because I try my best to make things complicated 23.7% of the time. When I am ready to eat, I'll just take the appropriate amounts of fillings, vegetables and noodles and top it up with the soup.

For such a simple dish, this was really tasty! I ate it with 0.5 chili padi.

Oh, and by the way, I was wrong again.

This recipe...

Turned out to be..

100% doable!

What would The Failed Chef do next time?

• Stick with the basic formula and try out different fillings and meat.