One of my favourite hawker food is big prawn mee at Zion Road Food Centre. Every time I visit the uncle will go, 美女，好久不见eh! Which is kind of embarrassing and funny at the same time. I've tried sending J to buy the prawn noodles when we're there, but then he doesn't seem to get as big a portion as I do for the same price. :| Anyhow, what I love about the Zion Road prawn mee is the aromatic broth, which is savory, peppery, and brimming with prawn-y flavor. Plus Uncle's cheerful and generous, sending me off with, 要汤可以来拿! I take up the offer and always go back for second servings of hot peppery broth. I have tried other prawn mees, including the famous one at Cambridge Road Hawker Centre, but I found the latter sweet, like there's a little too much sugar in it.
So there comes time when a girl starts getting nostalgic for some prawn soup, but is far from home and has to try making some of her own. This dish has been two months in the making, because of the sheer amount of prawn shells needed to cook up a good broth. For the past months I've been religiously accumulating prawn shells in the freezer. We've even switched to buying raw shell-on prawns even though they're inconvenient just so that I can collect shells. We managed to buy some nice biggish raw frozen prawns with heads on, and some exorbitant Californian Kang Kong from our local Asian grocery. Two lobsters were also sacrificed in this quest. First we stir-fried the prawn and lobster shells, then boiled up the broth with pork, shallots, garlic, white peppercorns and star anise. By the end of it, the broth had a concentrated prawn-ammonia-lobster bisque-like smell. The final product pretty much resembles the prawn mee I know and love. Yup, I went back to my pot for a second serving of piping hot broth.
