Pancit Shanghai

I WENT to Shanghai but didn’t find lumpiang Shanghai.  I doubt if I’d find there “Pancit Shanghai” too.  But probably, something similar in a different incarnation or much different name.

Payless Pancit Shanghai! Gotta love those flat noodles.

I couldn’t sleep Sunday night, well into the wee hours of Monday morning.  So I got up and checked what I could have for midnight snack.  Usually, it would be steamed tofu that I would snack on.  I’d reach out to the back of the refrigerator for the jar of Hoisin sauce (Chinese sweet fermented soybean paste) to stain the sliced white blocks.  In the dead of the night, I’d sometimes find this act of spreading the sauce thinly on top of the steaming hot wiggly surface, therapeutic.  But unfortunately, I wasn’t lusting after tofu this one time.

I went to the cupboard and rifled through the pile of every imaginable instant ramen.  If you know me well enough, you’d know I love noodles to bits!  And right when I was about to give up after seeing every imaginable – usual – variant, there it was – Payless Pancit Shanghai.

Yes, the one Kim Chiu is hawking on national TV!

I had seen it days before at the supermarket, picked it up…  and then returned it to the shelf before I made my way to the checkout.  Something about it being endorsed by the said actress didn’t appeal to me.  I’m just not fond of personalities – save for those I honestly believe in (#18 here).  But truth be told, my mom loves Kim Chiu (sort of discovered her in “Tayong Dalawa”), and my brother just adores her.  Which – at that ungodly hour of the night – explained to me why packs of this Pancit Shanghai had made their way to our home.

I ripped open one foil pack and cooked it to package directions, except for the fact that I’d always cut down my cooking time for the noodles by at least 30 seconds.  I just couldn’t stand soggy noodles.  I noticed how convenient it was that aside from the separate packaging for the dehydrated vegetables and soy protein (meat substitute), all the flavorings had been mixed and put together in an oil-sauce pack!  Before serving, I just had to throw in lots of slivered onion leeks, blanched quickly to just temper the sharp onion taste.

The verdict?  I LOVED it!  I think what I had was the other flavor that’s not “Pata Tim” (Chinese Pork Leg Barbecue Stew).  The flat noodles turned out perfectly done – the 30-second trick always works! – and were a departure from the usual type of “curly” instant noodles.

I savored my hot bowl of noodles, leisurely eating with my deep brown chopsticks.  Before I knew it, it was way past 2:00am already.  And since I’m the most paranoid person there is on not hitting the sack right after eating lots of noodles, I flipped through year 2009 back issues of GQ before calling it a night.  A most filling one!

The sauce is very oriental and robust with the oil, soy sauce, hints of sesame, and something else... hmmm...