I was originally planning on writing a Top Three piece on the best instant noodle soups found in Shanghai convenient stores. We’ve all been there – it’s the end of the month and we haven’t gotten paid yet, and we only have a few coins on hand for dinner. In most places, buying a meal may seem impossible with so little money, but in Shanghai, less than 5元 gives you plenty of options for some instant noodle bliss.
But I’ve scrapped the idea of writing about the Top Three Instant Noodle Soups, and instead, want to share with you the three ways I like to eat my single favorite bowl.
One bowl, three different ways to enjoy it
1. My absolute favorite way to enjoy this bowl of instant soy braised beef noodle soup (which costs 4.6元 at my nearest convenient store), is with a fried egg. Although the soup is flavored with soy-braised beef, there are no actual pieces of it to be found – except for those small unidentifiable and dehydrated brown bits at the bottom of the bowl. The egg adds a nice source of protein and is deliciously flavored with the cilantro and dried spices from the soup.
2. The most decadent option for serving this dish is to add a few slices of red Cantonese BBQ pork. It is outrageously delicious. When in the mood to add some of this to my soup, I wander over to my neighborhood’s wet market, where there are a few vendors selling roast ducks and other Cantonese favorites. If I’m buying a bunch of things, I can usually score a few scraps of the pork for free.
3. My third preferred way to enjoy this soup is to add some dried mushrooms from either a wet market or even Carrefour. Usually I buy the shrooms, add them to a bowl of warm water to let them plump up, then roughly chop them up and add them to the bowl. This option, to which I also sometimes add a little bok choy, makes me feel a little less guilty about eating this sodium-plagued dinner (if adding bok choy, I let the noodles and the added vegetables sit covered in the boiling water for a little longer before I dig in with my chopsticks and spoon).
So when you’re scrounging around for hidden coins in the couch and you come up short for that Sherpa’s order, head down to any convenient store, grab a pack of your favorite noodle soup, and discover how best you like to eat it.
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