Ingredients
- 1 pack (1 lb) rice noodles (bihon)
- **Sauce**
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
- 1/2 lb ground pork
- 1 tbsp anatto powder
- 3 cups pork broth
- 1 piece shrimp cube
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- **Toppings**
- 1 cup boiled pork, thinly sliced and cut into small pieces
- 2 pieces fried firm tofu (tokwa), cubed
- ½ cup tinapa flakes (smoked fish) * Optional
- ½ cup chicharon (pounded)
- 2 hard boiled eggs,sliced *Optional
- ½ cup cooked shrimps (boiled or steamed)
- 1/4 cup green onion or scallions, finely chopped *Optional
- 3 tbsp fried garlic
- 2 pieces lemon, sliced (or 6 to 8 pieces calamansi)
Directions
- Soak the rice noodles in water for about 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
- In a large pan. Pour-in the cooking oil. When the oil is hot enough, put-in the ground pork and cook for about 5 to 7 minutes or until brown.
- Add in pork broth with dilute the annato powder and bring to a boil. Add the shrimp cube and stir and simmer for 3 minutes.
- In a small bowl, create a mixture of flour and equal parts water so it becomes like thick soup. Stir with your finger or a spoon and make sure it’s smooth and liquidy.
- Pour in flour mixture while constantly situring.
- Add the fish sauce and ground black pepper then simmer until sauce becomes thick. Set aside.
- Boil enough water in a pot for the noodles. Put in Noodles once boiled and let it cook as instructed in the packaging. It is usually around 7-10 minutes but will vary depending on your noodle.
- Once cooked, Remove and strain noodle from the pot.
- Place the noodles in the serving plate. Pour the sauce on top of the noodles then arrange the toppings over the sauce.
- Serve with a slice of lemon or calamansi. Enjoy!
Pancit Palabok is a traditional Filipino noodle dish topped with shrimp sauce and a variety of toppings. It’s a simple yet complicated recipe mainly due to the amount of little topping pieces you add to it. You technically don’t need to add anything on top, as a bare minimum i would at least add the chicharon and tofu to give it a bit of variation. It’s one of my favorite classic Filipino dish and something i would usually order. Overall it’s a great dish, it’s one of those dish thought where having plenty of sauce is beneficial so feel free to double the sauce if you like.
