Sometimes desperation drives us to do things we normally wouldn’t do in the right frame of mind.
A few months ago our bedroom door got stuck shut and I couldn’t enter the room. I asked my husband to try and open the door but he couldn’t.
“What about using a screwdriver?” I asked him. After a few minutes of fiddling nothing happened. Now please understand that this happened on a Sunday afternoon and all I could think about was how my clothes were in the room and I would have nothing to wear to work the next day.
Desperate, I told my husband “I think you have to break the door down.”
So he backed up a few feet from the door… ran… straight INTO THE DOOR! BANG!
Nothing happened. We looked at each other and started laughing hysterically.
“Please try again!” I pleaded. He happily obliged. BANG! This time, a small crack on the door.
“I have a feeling, the next one will take it down.” He said.
“Yes! Yes! Please.” I replied.
And so he went, straight into the door and he finally managed to break the door down.
We were doubling over with laughter and to be honest, quite proud of ourselves for getting it open.
That is, until one of the people I mentioned this to came up with a very valid comment “Why didn’t you just call the locksmith?”
That’s desperation for you…
This dish too was brought about my my desperation to have Pancit Palabok. Now, in the Philippines you can get this noodle dish almost anywhere. It’s also very popular for birthdays. But in my desperation this weekend to have this dish, I had to make it from scratch. Pancit Palabok or Pancit Luglug (they are pretty much the same dish except Palabok uses a thicker noodle) is flavoured with a prawn gravy thickened with cornflour or flour and poured over rice noodles (bihon). What I love most about this dish are the toppings – it”s a matter of personal choice but the most common toppings include prawns, pork, hard-boiled eggs, smoked fish, tofu and my personal favourite, crushed pork crakcling (chicharon)!
Yes, that’s desperation for you, but luckily some acts are less destructive than others!
Pancit Palabok
- 500 grams rice noodles (bihon)
- 30 ml (2 tablespoons) cooking oil
- 10 grams dried prawns
- 5 cloves garlic, crushed
- 4 tablespoons flour
- 1 teaspoon achuete powder
- 600 ml shrimp stock (see recipe below)
- 30 ml (2 tablespoons) fish sauce (plus more to taste)
- salt and pepper
- Toppings: grilled squid, prawns, pork belly, smoked fish (tinapa), crushed pork crackling (chicharon), spring onions, hard boiled egg (quartered)
For Prawn Stock
- 500 grams fresh prawns
- To make the prawn stock, peel the prawns and place the peels (including the prawn heads) them in a pot and cover with around 600 ml of water. Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer. Make sure to press the peels as the stock is simmering to extract as much flavour as you can. Continue to simmer for around 30 minutes and set aside. The peeled prawns can be used for the toppings.
- Heat the cooking oil and saute the dried prawns and garlic until fragrant, around 2 minutes. Next, add the flour and the achuete powder.
- Add the prawn stock, a little at a time as if making a roux and mixing well after each addition. The sauce should now be thick (like a custard or a thick bechamel). If you prefer to make it thinner, add some water to dilute. Add the fish sauce and some salt and pepper to taste.
- For the toppings – this should be done to taste. Marinate the squid, prawns and pork belly in equal quantities of soy sauce and fish sauce for around 30 minutes then grill or pan fry.
- Fill another pot with water and bring to a boil. Add the bihon noodles and cook for around a minute until tender. Strain then place in a bowl Top with the prawn gravy, and the toppings (see above).
WOW!.this is so delicious pancit palabok I ever knew..heheh.. I’m craving to eat that pancit palabok.
thanks for the info ,happy new year ..
hi i would like to know the yield of this recipe?
where are you located? do you own a thermomix? I am filipino and living in Canada. I love your blog.
Hi Pauline,
THanks a lot! I am based in Australia and yes, I have a thermomix. Do you? It’s a pretty handy device!
kakatakam naman yang pancit palabok…:p
😀 I ❤ palabok…
wow ang sarap naman….
I’m totally falling in love with your blog!
I’m not Filipino (or Pinoy, is that right?) myself but I jump for joy every time I come across a food blog that is! I really enjoy learning about new cuisines and your beautifully polished blog here suits me just fine.
Hi Trissa! Sorry for not being in touch earlier (I’ve been unexpectedly quite busy even throughout the weekend) but I got the magazine and it’s GORGEOUS! Thanks so much for being a great friend and sending it to me. We don’t have much special in terms of food mags here, but please do let me know if you ever want anything from here. As for these noodles, they look so good that my stomach is growling just lookin at them. And I need to take lessons from you on how to get such perfect looking eggs ;p.
I don`t know much about Filipino dishes, but this one surely looks great! Thanks for the recipe! Trying it out sounds a lot of fun 🙂
Oh wow! such a fancy pancit palabok, I have never had it with grilled squid or gigantic prawns either, we usually just halve small shrimps – it looks mouthwatering!
Pancit Palabok is one of my favourite family dishes and can totally relate to the desperation story! hope the door has been repaired! Maybe- for the next time, breaking into a window will be easier option to fix!
Act of desperation can turn out quite ugly sometimes =P
This on the other hand, sounds lovely!
one of my all-time favorites!
Dan is hilarious! This noodle dish is sensational.
I have been dying to learn how to make palabok. I love the stuff. Thank you for sharing and I also wanted to present you the Stylist Blogger award. I admire your work so much and I find inspiration in your posts.
Haha! You know, if there had been a bowl of this waiting in the bedroom I think your husband would have been able to break the door on the first attempt! 🙂
agree with u Conor 😀
Trissa is so good at cooking and telling story.
Looks like the mee siam that I know! But yours look so pretty.
Beautiful pictures, and those eggs look perfectly cooked. Pancit palabok is my favorite out of the pancit pantheon. The bright contrast of colors, the textures of the toppings…sarap!
What a comfort and beautiful dish!
An amazing story about desperation. But may I ask if your door could lock up in the night?
Hahaha great story, mmmm that looks soooo good. Your blog will finally help me cook Filipino food since I know nothing about anything! Awesome photo too 🙂
Oh my, Trissa this looks so good. The chicharon topping is my favorite as well 🙂 Now I am craving for some pancit palabok…. again! 🙂
LOL .. Triss, you are hilarious!!! :)))
but completely get that desperate craving! it can really make one go crazy making things from scratch 😀 been there done that
Palabok was always my favorite food growing up. Now we have a Phil-Am in my town so I stop by to eat it anytime. I’d love to try this recipe out though!
Wow that’s one delicious looking pancit palabok! Great looking pictures!
Best ever!!! Yummy!
wow! stunning picture of pancit palabok!
WOW! This should be in a food magazine, your photos are so vivid..you’re really,really good! 🙂
Palabok is my mom’s favorite..hope to make this for her when she comes for a visit. 🙂
My sister loves this so much! All I know is you have to eat it fast or it will spoil — my sis was happy to oblige! Yours look delish.
Your stories always crack me up! I can’t believe you did that to a door! LOL! What I do believe is in your ability to cook your native dishes so deliciously well. Now you have me craving noodles so early in the morning!
*Bookmark*
That looks amazing. (As all your recipes do!) You’ve now made ME want to make this ASAP. I got a whole bunch of crackling last time I went to the butchers but had nothing to make with it! So I might well be making it from scratch as well!
We had a similar incident on Christmas Eve when my boyfriend’s car keys got stuck in the car lock as he tried to unlock it as we prepared to go home from relatives. All I could think about was that if we couldn’t get home, we were going to have to gatecrash my cousin’;s Christmas, the cats would be starving and the duck, that was out to defrost, would go off and everything would be ruined! He spent two hours in the coldest winter in thirty years actually trying, in desperation, to cut through the inside of the door, removing the lining and everything that secured it to realise the car lock was kept in place by a heavy duty amount of reinforcements that we could not get through. Eventually my dear cousin drove us an hour home so he could pick up the spare keys, and back again and we were able to drive back in time for Christmas with the car door hanging half off. It was only the next day we realised we should have called the RAC, he was insured for lock protection after all!
Oh, yummy! As always, your photos are simply fabulous!
Such a vibrant looking dish! Why was your door stuck??
I hear you. We don’t normally get good pancit palabok where we live and have to make it at home when craving hits us. 🙂
Your photos are beautiful.
This looks delicious- I am definitely going to make! Cute story too! Hope your hubbie’s not too sore from the impact!
Haha you and your husband do have the funniest stories to share! I had pancit in the Phils but it looks nowhere near as delicious as yours!
Trissa, it’s like you read the minds of half a dozen people in Twitterverse. A few of us have been craving palabok for weeks and have decided to have a palabok party very soon. Yours looks AMAZING! I’m all about the toppings, too, especially the egg and the chicharon. If you get even more hits than usual on your page today, it will be me coming back to drool on this beautiful plate. 🙂
Very nice… I ll try it soon.
Hi Trissa – that is great looking Pancit Palabok with that Mighty Prawn taking the center stage. As always, simple but elegantly styled. I love it!
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I love pancit palabok! neither my mom or I can make a good one from scratch. I’m not even sure if I can find dried prawns in town. aaaah! I’m so hungry. I wish I were in the Philippines right now.
HAHAHA TRISSA! your poor husband and poor door! HAHAHA oh how this story has made me laugh!
Great story 🙂
It always amazes me how you make everything you photograph look so beautiful!
This looks wonderful! The only Filipno dish I make at home is Adobo. This inspires me to try more. Thank you so much for sharing!