Singapore Fried Noodles

The funniest thing about Singapore fried noodles (singjou chawmei) is it doesn't seem to be a Singapore dish at all. The first time I came across this dish was in Canada, and it was ordered by a friend from Hong Kong. It was the typical delivery/take out order for Asian students along with gonchaw ngowho (dry-fry flat rice noodles) for snowy winter nights. And until today, I have never tasted good Singapore fried noodles in Malaysia or Singapore. In fact, Singapore fried noodles is not available in most restaurants here and even if they oblige you, you'll regret ordering it because it usually is plain and bland.

My friend K of Ohio, USA has requested for a recipe for Singapore fried noodles. This makes me even more convinced that this dish was probably cooked up by some chinese restaurant overseas for undiscerning western people. Whatever it is, I cooked this dish a few days ago and although it tasted better than what we get in the restaurants here (because I used lots of prawns and cha sao and scrimp on the oil), it made me wishing for some good old Canadian/American Singapore fried noodles.

Basically, you just fry each of the items (see pic) separately in a little bit of oil and salt. Then heat up some oil, add 1 T curry powder + 1 t tumeric powder (for color) and fry till fragrant, and then add the noodles (mifun) and some oyster sauce and sprinkle some water and fry until noodles are of desired softness and then add all the other fried ingredients and toss thoroughly. Please adjust the ingredients, K, because it's been so long since I had a good plate of authentic North American singjou chawmei.