Pancit Palabok plus
Pancit palabok 
This was one of the first recipes my lola taught me. We pounded shrimp heads, chopped garlic and onions, ground the chicharon, cooked all the seafood, flaked the tinapa…with the instant mixes I guess the only thing different is the elimination of the messy shrimp head pounding,soaking in hot water and straining. The thickener(cornstarch) and coloring(annatto,atsuete) are all in the packet as well. I hope this doesn’t mean cooks in the Philippines don’t do the traditional method anymore but it sure helps to have our favorite Mama on hand, especially when sometimes the only shrimp you can get are peeled, deveined and headless.
For the sauce, stir fry garlic and onions, squeeze some shrimp roe from the heads, and 1/4 cup of flaked tinapang bangus(smoked milkfish); 2 tbsps each of crab paste in soya oil (bottled, from Thailand) and “taba ng talangka” (bottled, from “back home”). Add the dissolved Mama Sita mix in 2 1/2 cups water and simmer a few minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
For the noodles we used a thick dried rice vermicelli. We were going to use fresh, but the ones we got were too chewy. Had to toss it, quite inedible.
For tonight’s dinner I had as the “palabok” (embellishments?): frozen New Zealand mussels(thawed & blanched), smoked oysters (Geisha brand, rinsed), blanched shrimp, flaked tinapa, peeled chopped limes (no kamias here *sigh* ), cilantro, spring onions, finely ground chicharon and hard boiled quail eggs.
If you like squid, add thinly sliced adobong pusit. Gilding the lily,ha.
October 12th, 2004 at 8:09 am
I miss palabok so much! Thanks for this post. I am sure that before winter sets in, my Filipina friend Ana and I are going to Portland where the nearest Asian store is located. Now I will have this in my list.
October 12th, 2004 at 3:57 pm
Hi Manang! I think palabok is one of the unique Pinoy dishes don’t you agree? I hope you find some bangus tinapa,flaked into the Mama Sita mix, kasi I think that’s what made this last variation of mine really yummy. In the supermarkets you might find some smoked fish in the deli aisles, they are a bit dry pero puwede na.
June 30th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Glad that you’re back with a vengeance Stel !
Sarap looking yung double chocolate layers cake. Hmmm. 
Congratulations to Max on his graduation.
Now comes the serious business of university.
Is he going to live at home or in a dorm?
June 30th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
how did you land in this old post celiaK? oh right the link nga pala…teka double double photo ng palabok ah…
yes you must try the choc, cake, it’s butterless but so deliciously moist and crumbly and dark….i will make it again soon! for fourth of July perhaps….
hallo to your brood too ha 
yah #1son is going to try the dorm for a year…he’s pretty psyched about it all especially he’s been assigned to nice housing–a suite instead of dormroom….kelan ba tayong makapag kwentuhan ulit mummysan!?