Fried Beehoon

I'm not being lovingly biased nor abusing the use of superlatives when I say that my mum cooks the best Fried Beehoon (aka rice vermicelli). At our family church in Perth, my mum's fried beehoon is one of the most requested homecooked dishes for potluck get-togethers. Rob is always hanging out to eat my mum's fried beehoon whenever we visit my parents, and I daresay that my mum's fried beehoon is his favourite of my mum's cooking. Indeed, all other beehoon always pale in comparison to the ones my mum makes, whether they be homecooked or store/restaurant-made. Many have requested the recipe, and her answer is always the same - she doesn't have a recipe. Like most of my mum's cooking, there is no hard recipe that she uses for her fried beehoon. Everything is in her head, and quantities of ingredients are never measured out (unless she's baking a cake), instead they are estimated through years of experience.

I recently requested from her the method of how she cooks this noodle, and I've estimated quantities based on her description. So just like my curry is a wannabe version of my mum's, my fried beehoon is not really like my mum's well-loved fried beehoon. Perhaps partly because I did not stick very well to the "use plenty of oil" rule which my mum insists is necessary to keep the noodles moist. However, upon taste-testing, I believe I have sufficiently made up for that with extra chicken stock. In addition, I use more vegetables and protein to make this a healthy and balanced one-dish meal.

This is my first run, and I hope to improve with further tries. Unfortunately I cannot post the recipe publicly because my mum has expressly requested me not to distribute what she told me to others. All I can leave you is this sorry-looking shot of the fried beehoon I just made - presentation and plating food prettily is not my forte. As long as it tastes good...