Short thick round rice noodle resembles a rat’s tail or some call it rice pin noodles or silver needles noodles is served with delicious minced meat smothered on top is a specialty of Hakka noodle you need to try.
Lau Shu Fun Medan (Rice Pin Noodle)
Breakfast is an important meal of the day they say. I am truly grateful for my parents who never failed to feed us like kings in the morning. Breakfast in Asia rarely involved cow’s milk, pancakes, and waffle. Not back in my childhood at least. Noodles and rice are staples for breakfast. Dad would walk into the house with food he brought home from shops that have opened early in the morning. Lau shu fun was one of my very favorite breakfasts he brought home often.
WHAT IS LAU SHU FUN (老鼠粉)?
Lau Shu means rat and Fun usually refer to noodle made with starches. Lau Shu Fun is made with rice flour and has a round and short shape like a tail (I guess you know where they get the name now!)
DIFFERENT NAMES FOR LAU SHU FUN
Lau shu fun is also known as silver pin noodle, bee tai bak, loh see fun, lo cu pan in different dialects, Banh Bot Loc in Vietnamese, but they all mean the same thing.
My dad often told me that lau shu fun was Hakka’s specialty. My mom is a Teo Chew and dad was a Hokkian, but they both love Hakka’s cooking 🙂 I love all of them, to be honest!
There are so many versions of how people cook lau shu fun. In Medan where I grew up, lau shu fun is not stir-fried like in Singapore and Malaysia, which is called bee tai bak/mee tai mak. It is usually served with braised ground meat, sometimes hard-boiled eggs and soup on the side. The lau shu fun my dad bought though, If I remember it correctly, the meat has a much pale color. It didn’t seem like it’s been braised in soy sauce. The version I made here is much darker because I braised them in soy sauce. But nevertheless, it brought back a memory of my late dad 🙂
Uncooked Lau Shu Fun
After cooked
I love slurping in this smooth, yet short noodles!
Did you make this Hakka minced meat lau shu fun recipe?
I love it when you guys snap a photo and tag to show me what you’ve made 🙂 Simply tag me @WhatToCookToday #WhatToCookToday on Instagram and I’ll be sure to stop by and take a peek for real!
Hakka Minced Meat Lau Shu Fun / Loh Shi Fun
Ingredients
- 1 lb Lau shu fun noodle
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil
- 3 cloves garlic (peeled and finely minced)
To marinate meat:
- 500 gr minced pork
- 1 tsp corn starch
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- ¼ tsp sugar
Seasonings:
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce or more to taste
- 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 Tbsp dark soy sauce
- ¼ tsp ground white pepper
- ½ cup chicken stock
Simple soup:
- 4 cups chicken stock
- Salt to taste
- Pinch of sugar
Garnishes:
- 1 stalk green onion (finely chopped)
- Small bunch of cilantro leaves
- Crispy fried shallots
Instructions
- Marinate the meat for 15 minutes while you prepare other things. Put ingredients for the simple soup in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Have a taste and season to your preference
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Blanch the Lau Shu Fun noodle in a boiling hot noodle briefly until it turns soft and lightly translucent. Refresh with cold water. Remove and portion them into the bowls
- Preheat oil in a wok/skillet. Saute garlic until fragrant. Add the pork and break the clumps as you stir fry. Cook until the pork starts to turn color. Add seasonings and let the meat braise for about 10 minutes or until the liquid slightly reduced and thickened
- Portion the meat mixture with some gravy over the noodle. Garnish with green onions and crispy shallots. Serve with the soup on the side and sprinkle some green onions on the soup
6 comments
Love silver noodles! Marv! These noodles are difficult to find in the Asian markets here too. Think I might give Eileen’s idea a try and go for the homemade version as there is something so addictive about these noodles! We know exactly what you mean about food bringing up memories and I’m sure your dad would have enjoyed several bowls of your delicious noodles. Take Care
yes..I love this silver noodle too. Short and slippery 🙂 I have yet to try to make this myself. I want to try it out one day too.
I wish you still live in OK! I would totally self-invite myself to your place with all the great food you cook! I absolutely adore Indonesian food, and somehow it’s just impossible to find any here. We drove 4 hours down to Plano, Texas just to eat Singaporean food on my birthday in August.
I asked someone at the Asian supermarket yesterday, and they do sell the rice pin noodles here! The same brand you have is out of stock, so I’ll just wait. My husband doesn’t like to eat white noodles, so I don’t really want to make it from scratch just for myself. (He’s fine with egg noodles but not the white ones. No idea why, and he doesn’t like most soupy noodles too.) Here’s the recipe: http://www.guaishushu1.com/homemade-silver-needle-noodles-%E8%87%AA%E5%88%B6%E5%AE%B6%E5%B1%85%E9%93%B6%E9%92%88%E7%B2%89%EF%BC%89/
I’m so excited to try your recipes! Going to make Mee Hoon Kueh today. Hopefully my husband is ok with it. I need to make Otak soon too. Do you skin and debone the mackerel fillets yourself, or do you used the canned ones? Or is there a place that sells boneless skinless mackerel fillets?
Hi Eileen, so sorry for my late reply. I would totally invite you over too if I’m still in OK! I know what you mean though with having to drive to TX just to eat our favorite Southeast Asian food ha..ha..
Maybe it’s the texture thing with the white noodles! Because egg noodle usually have gluten and texture is better compare to white rice noodles. I’m a noodle head. I like both! Thanks for the rice pin noodle recipe. I like guaishushu recipe too, very traditional!
Well, I didn’t debone it myself, but you can ask the fishmonger to do it for you. That’s what I do at the Asian store, I asked the guy to debone it for me and paid a little extra.
Hi Marvellina, I’m so glad to stumble across your blog from Discover.wordpress.com! I was just craving for lau shu fan! (I’m a Singaporean living in Oklahoma). I’m not sure if I would be able to find the rice pin noodles in the package though. Either way, I’m going to make it even if it’s from scratch. I just found a recipe for that.
Also, most of the noodles I have tried from the Asian supermarket here have not been really good. I haven’t found any that I like other than the hokkien noodles from (ironically) Walmart. Would you be able to recommend your favorite brand of noodles for each variety like flat noodles (kuey teow), wide flat noodles (hor fun), ramen?
P.S. I love those tiny spicy chili too! Grew lots of them this summer. lol
Hi Eileen,
Thank you for stopping by. Wow, I didn’t even know I was featured there LOL! Thank you for letting me know. And btw, I used to go live in OK for almost 9 years 🙂 Good for you for trying to make the rice pin noodle from scratch. I still have not attempted yet. I remember buying rice pin noodles from Cao Nguyen before if my memory serves me right. But if you recipe works well, please share with me, I’d love to try too.
I agree with you on some of the noodles, can’t say I like them all. I will have to take a photo of the brands that I bought for all these different noodles. Bare with me, I’ll get back to you on this one!
I have no luck with growing things 🙁 No green thumbs! How I wish I can grow my own chili too, they just don’t survive me for some reason LOL!