Chef Stanley Recreates Cheung Hing Kee’s Shanghai Noodles

Ah, childhood cravings! Those irresistible temptations transport us back to a time of blissful innocence. For some of us, it’s grandma’s warm, buttery cookies. For others, it’s mom’s spaghetti and meatballs. But for Chef Stanley, it’s his father’s special Shanghainese scallion noodles that do the trick. Now, he tries to satisfy those cravings at the local restaurant Cheung Hing Kee Shanghai Pan Fried Buns.

“My father always used to make Shanghainese scallion noodles and one of the best ways to satisfy my craving for them in Cheung Hing Kee in Central and Kennedy Town”

Today, he recreates the dish with a modern approach with ingredients easily found at the local wet market.

“The Kennedy Town wet market has everything I need for this dish, and it provides it at a very reasonable cost. Plus, the vendors are very friendly!”

Chef Stanley starts by preparing the leeks, first chopping them, then thoroughly washing and drying them. He deep fries them into golden brown and infuses them with good olive oil. He simply can’t resist fancy garnish, so he thinly slices the skin of bell pepper and lets them sit on ice so it curls up.

Amongst the key components of this dish are Chinese rock sugar and black vinegar. Chef Stanley carefully blends them both, looking for the perfect balance between sweet and sour.

The next step is blanching the spinach to bring out its bright green colour, after which he squeezes out the moisture and chops it up so that the fibres don’t get caught up in the blades of the blender. As he blends it, he adds olive oil into the mixture for that added deep green colour. He then strains the mixture through a fine cocktail napkin to create green oil.

Then, he seasons and pan-fries Iberico pork chops and briefly blanches instant noodles.

And finally, it’s time to plate!

He tosses instant noodles in leek oil and adds crispy leeks with a drizzle of sweet black vinegar while reminiscing his childhood memories.