Shrimp Mei Fun is a classic Chinese noodle dish. It's made with shrimp, thin rice noodles, an assortment of veggies, and a flavorful sauce that is very easy to put together. As you can see, I made it with thicker/wider rice noodles, but you can use vermicelli if you prefer.
Stir-fried noodle dishes are one of my wife's favorite foods. She doesn't really request it often but maybe once a year she will have a craving and ask me to make it. I personally do not like making it that often because it's a hassle to prep all the different vegetables, and you only use a little bit of each one so you end up with lots of leftovers. That said, I'll always make whatever my wife asks me too 🙂
Important steps and ingredients
Dried rice noodles: Traditionally, mei fun is made with vermicelli, but I actually prefer the texture of wider/thicker noodles. I also find wider noodles are less prone to breaking when you stir-fry them, so I'm using that today. Here is a picture of the noodles I'm using:
Soaking the rice noodles: All rice noodles need to be soaked in cold or warm water to soften them before using them in a stir-fry. There should be instructions on the packaging, and most noodles take about 10-15 minutes. Since I'm using the wider noodles, mine actually took closer to 30 minutes to soften.
Veggies for mei fun: I'm using onions, carrots, cabbage, and scallions. The important thing is to slice them thinly. I find thinly sliced veggies are much easier to eat with noodles.
Cooking in a nonstick pan vs. wok
I highly recommend cooking rice noodles in a nonstick pan rather than a wok (unless your wok is nonstick). The reason being rice noodles tend to stick to anything that isn't nonstick. Here is a picture of the first batch I made that stuck to my carbon steel wok:
As you can see, not very appealing. A lot of the rice noodles got stuck, and they ended up tearing into small pieces. If possible, use a large nonstick pan instead.
Shrimp Mei Fun
Ingredients
For the sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon powder
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ⅛ teaspoon MSG (optional)
For the shrimp mei fun
- 5 ounces dried rice noodles (traditionally, this is made with vermicelli, but I'm using wider rice noodles today)
- 2 tablespoons oil (divided)
- ½ pound shrimp
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 cup sliced onions
- 1 cup julienned carrots
- 1 ½ cups sliced cabbage
- 2 scallions (julienned)
Instructions
- Soak the rice noodles in a bowl of cold water until softened. Thin noodles usually take 10-15 minutes but thicker ones will take up to 30 minutes.
- Combine all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl.
- Heat a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat until it is medium-hot. Add 1 tablespoon of oil. Add the shrimp and cook both sides for 1 minute until pink and cooked through. Remove the shrimp from the pan, leaving the oil behind.
- Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil.
- Add the minced garlic and onions and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add the carrots and cabbage and cook for two minutes. By now, the veggies should be pretty soft.
- Transfer the soaked noodles directly from the water to the pan. Add the sauce and scallions and cook for 1 minute until everything is evenly coated and the noodles are heated up.
Mari
Made per recipe, but I didn’t have Oyster Sauce, so I used Hoisin Sauce. I used packaged Coleslaw mix for convenience. This made a delicious dish ready easy to make. Husband and I both loved this. I will definitely make again.
Grumpy
Hoisin sounds good. Glad you guys liked it!