The Sugar Bar

I can with great ease wax poetic about prawns: king prawns, tiger prawns and littler shrimps (in fact, anything of distant relation like the crab and lobster all pretty much are seafood I adore), but if I did I might be accused of bordering on psychopathic/obsessive/taking on a pseudo-romantic stance about and on (respectively) shellfish. Maybe even compared to the likes of Grenouille of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer on the level of a perturbing and deeply frightening obsessiveness. Not one to ever fear for being eccentric (I doubt I really am, or am I?), that’s not a reason to stop me but more like the fact that I don’t think people will understand insanity — my insanity to be specific and some might even call me mock heroic if I would devote the language to the adoration of something like prawns. So, let’s chuck that ambitious side of me away for a bit and focus less on the main ingredient of the day but the overall outcome of the salad of yours truly.

I was slightly disappointed with the king prawns I’d purchased from Sainsbury’s. Suppose I should’ve gone somewhere else if I wanted massive king prawns but these were alright for a student budget and not too tiny (I’m just greedy and over-demanding). Flavours were great together and once again, very light and citrusy. The herbs all work great together for a Vietnamese tastebud journey. When I was preparing this, I suddenly thought of my uncle’s wife who is Vietnamese and they have the cutest daughter! She has an American accent too (she gets slightly confused when I speak to her since I ramble on in Brit speak) and is ‘in love’ with my nephew. They are the best of pals and I think she secretly likes him. I wouldn’t be surprised if she proposed to him at, hang on how old is she?, 7? Kids these days. I would like to let out a theatrical sigh right now but I’m no one to talk since I’m a young adult myself.

I haven’t been getting too bored with whipping up Japanese-inspired dishes but I realized I’d somehow had way too much coriander and spring onions in the fridge. To use as much as I can of it in an omelette seemed a right shame to me so it was great to veer off into something refreshingly new. I’ve had Vietnamese food before but I’ve never prepared it myself since I really like hanging about in my comfort zone of Japanese, English, Italian and Chinese dishes.

This dish is more Southern Vietnamese than Northern as again, it’s quite a fusion one. Cuisine of Southern origins are usually influenced a little by Chinese cuisine due to the Chinese immigrants in the region and so things like wrapped food and dried salted fish is quite popular. If you want to find out more about Vietnamese cuisine and the differences between the regions, check out this link for more info. I quite like my salads a little sweet most of the time. The sugar and sultanas help bring out a lot of flavour, and in this case the flavour of the prawns. I reckon I deserve a good pat on the back because this was delicious, if I can say so myself.

If you’re a light-eater or on a diet (which I know, makes everything dreadfully stressful ain’t it?), this might seem a little big a portion for 1 person. I was hungry and it really isn’t so much a light salad but a cold noodle dish that’s great as a salad so you can adjust the recipe as to however you like it just try not to cut anything out because I swear these flavours were pretty SPOT ON! Also, it’s not really a great big of a deal to use green spinach noodles. I thought it worked well with spinach leaves and the colours were a great green combo so it was hard to resist. If you are finding it difficult to source it, use any other noodle you have around – pad thai noodles or preferably white rice vermicelli. I do not recommend egg noodles or spaghetti as it might border on the heavy side. If you’re willing to up this baby and not too worried about calories and all that shizzle, try garnishing this with toasted bashed peanuts. Gives it a great Southeast Asian twist.

Cold Vietnamese King Prawns & Spinach Noodle Salad
Ingredients

1 serving of dry spinach noodles
1/2 cup king prawns, peeled & deveined and cooked
2 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs rice vinegar
1 tsp sunflower oil
2 spring onions, chopped
a handful of coriander, chopped
a handful of spinach leaves
2 tsp sugar
1/4 lime, sliced into 2 wedges
2 tbs sultanas
black pepper for seasoning

Place the cooked prawns in a bowl. Add the fish sauce, 3/4 of the chopped spring onions, coriander, vinegar, oil and sugar. Give it a good mix. Squeeze one lime wedge into the bowl. Mix. Add the tiniest bit of fresh ground black pepper and taste. If more lime juice is needed, do go ahead and adjust this to your taste. Cover in clingwrap and leave in fridge to marinate about 30min.
Heat a saucepan filled with water till it boils. Add the noodles and let it cook. When done, drain and return to saucepan. Leave a little of the water in the pan so the noodles do not dry out as they cool.
When it’s cool enough, remove the bowl of marinating prawns from the fridge and mix into the noodles with the fresh spinach leaves. Add the sultanas and give this a good stir. Place in a bowl and leave it to keep chill in the fridge. It should be ready for eating in about 20min.

Serve with the reserved wedge of lime and some coriander leaves. Just before tucking in, squeeze that lime wedge all over then slurp it up.