Pancit Malabon

PANCIT Malabon (aka Pancit palabok)

Some people interchangeably call this dish Pancit Malabon or pancit palabok. I call it pancit Malabon because this is how I grew up enjoying this particular noodle dish. For somebody who grew up in Malabon, this dish made us popular throughout the rest of the country, other than Dolor's kakanin, of course (which is another story).

Anyway, here's the recipe:

2-3 lbs of pork (ground)
1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 big onion, minced
Patis
1 – 2 cups cooking oil
1 atsuete powder
1 packet of Mama Sita palabok mix (mixed in ½ cup water)

2-3 tbsp tinapa flakes, deboned ( in small bags)
½ cup ground chicharon (in small bags)
4 hard boiled eggs
½ lb shrimps, boiled, peeled and deveined
Lemon or lime juice (or better, calamansi juice)
Green onion, sliced thinly for garnish

Rice noodles (use either one made in PI or the Chinese version, or spaghetti/angel hair if that is what you have in your pantry)
Cooking tip: some Chinese rice noodles needs to be soaked for a hour or so before use.


Fry crushed garlic in cooking oil until it browns. Remove the garlic when done, and set aside. Add the onions and cook until transparent. Add the ground pork to the oil and cook for several minutes. Add patis and the atsuete powder. Add the tinapa flakes to the mixture. Make sure the meat is evenly cooked before adding the Mama Sita mix (mixed in cold water). Set aside.

Cook the rice noodles according to instructions, in a big pot of boiling water. Make sure you don’t overcook the noodles.

In a big bowl (preferably a pasta bowl), transfer the drained rice noodles. Add 1/3 of the cooked ground pork mix on top. Add the lemon juice, patis, pepper, chicharon, sliced vegetables (see below) and some of the sliced green onion. Mix well. You can always add more of the ground pork mix and oil if your pancit looks dry. Garnish with quartered boiled eggs, shrimps cut in halves, fried garlic and more green onions.

You can always freeze the unused palabok mix for future use.

Variation:
If you want vegetables, add sliced celery to the hot noodles. You don’t need to cook the veggies. Sliced Chinese cabbage is also good but use the white crunchy parts only. If you slice it thinly, you just need to blanch in noodle water for few seconds.
If you do not have Mama Sita palabok mix, try using, 1 can of Campbells mushroom soup or chicken condensed soup to your pork palabok