Rice Vermicelli with Abalone - expensive Fried Bee Hoon!

Other than dishes that symbolize the Lunar New Year, there are ingredients such as fish, Chinese leeks and shrimps that never fail to appear during the Chinese New Year - for the same reasons that they "sound" auspicious (when translated in Mandarin or some other dialects). Another luxury item deemed auspicious and lucky is ABALONE. Some like it for the rubbery texture while others shun away from it for the same reason. Why lucky? Not sure if I am right but if pronounced in Mandarin, abalone is 鲍鱼 (Bao Yu) ...sounds like 包 余 Bao Yu- which means "guaranteed abundance" ?


Here in Singapore, we usually get the canned version with abalone origins mostly from either Australia or Mexico. This new year, it was not abalone congee. Rather, it was our usual home-style fried bee hoon (rice vermicelli), topped with thinly sliced abalone and sprinkled with fried golden shallots. Psst....the fried golden shallots were meant to garnish and flavor the vermicelli, not the abalone. But well, the entire dish turns out delicious. Alright, this is how you can turn a simple fried bee hoon dish into LUXURY! HA!

Other abalone ideas:
Rice with braised chicken and shitake
Chicken congee

Tag: Chinese New Year, abalone