When CHU Collagen co-founder Ethel was a little girl, she used to bond over makan (Malay for “food”) trips with her father, film director Jack Neo. A familiar favourite was prawn noodle soup. As the Neo family used to live in the east, Jack would bring her to his favourite prawn noodle hawker stalls located in the eastern and central parts of Singapore.
Over steaming bowls of red stock with succulent prawns and slippery noodles, father and daughter would have heart-to-heart talks – even while being frequently interrupted by passers-by who wanted Jack’s autograph.
Until today, the taste that Ethel experienced as a child with her father is what she considers the definitive taste of local prawn noodle soup. On the palate, the rich stock tastes sweet, savoury and slightly spicy. Such a flavourful broth with the right consistency could only be obtained by boiling down a large pot of prawn heads for a good two to three hours.
While it was challenging for Ethel to accumulate such a massive amount of prawn heads to road test the winning recipe at home, the most difficult thing to replicate about the soup was the taste of nostalgia.
But nothing could daunt this bold home cook-slash-entrepreneur, who counts lobster rolls and hae bee hiam (Hokkien for “spicy dried shrimp”) pasta as two of the favourite dishes she likes to whip up at home.
After experiencing success with CHU Collagen’s Premium Chicken Collagen Soup, she has now created Premium Prawn Mee Soup as her second flavour.
Spiked with sambal for that spicy kick, CHU Collagen’s Premium Prawn Mee Soup has been endorsed by celebrity YouTube channel Ryan Sylvia (Night Owl Cinematics) as “Food-King good!”.
And now, with Ethel’s prawn noodle soup available in convenient frozen packs, you can follow her recipe below and recreate the good old prawn mee that she and her father used to slurp up.
Click here for the Ultimate Prawn Mee Soup Recipe.