Chicken Noodle Slurp

Perth weather had a bit of a cool change recently. We wanted a hot dish, preferably one we can noisily slurp but without looking too uncouth.

We knew we couldn’t achieve this in public, so we threw together a simple dish to enjoy in the privacy of our own home.

Chicken drumsticks, star anise, cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom, ginger, onions, garlic, celery, coriander roots and vegetable stock bubbled away in our pot, filling our home with a therapeutic aroma. Rice noodles, roughly chopped coriander leaves and fried shallots completed the dish. The therapeutic aromas in the house changed into something quite different (think smelly old socks) when Mr decided he would try making a special topping, one he remembers fondly from meals at Blok M Indonesian café in Melbourne- sambal terasi or belacan!

Not one to take shortcuts, he decides to toast belacan (fermented shrimp paste) on the stove and pound the chillies, salt, lime juice and fish sauce, using mortar and pestle.

In the end, the cacophony and stink were well worth it. Slurp, we did.