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Guest Recipe: Pancit Canton

By Katherine Spiers
December 4, 2012
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Jun Belen cooks, photographs, and blogs about Filipino food in the Bay Area. One of his biggest challenges up there seems to be sourcing the same ingredients he grew up with, those that are easy to find in the Philippines but pose a greater challenge in Northern California.

The obvious solution, of course, is for Jun to move to L.A. and check out some Eagle Rock grocery stores. Barring that, we'll let him stay up in Oakland, as long as he keeps telling us -- and the world -- about the food of the Philippines. Below is his recipe for a variety of the popular noodle dish, pancit.

Pancit Canton
4 to 6 servings
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1/2 pound shrimp, shelled with tails on, and deveined
1 boneless chicken breast, boiled and shredded
1 medium carrot, thinly sliced crosswise, about 3/4 cup
1/4 pound sugar snap peas, ends trimmed, about 1-1/2 cups
2 to 3 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 8-ounce package dried pancit Canton noodles (Packaged, dried Canton noodles available in most Asian stores are made of flour. Fresh Canton noodles are made of eggs. Use less chicken stock when cooking with freshly made noodles.)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 calamansi limes

Heat oil in a wok or large pan over medium-high heat. Saute garlic until lightly browned. Add onions and saute until fragrant and softened. Add shrimp and stir fry until cooked. Add chicken and stir fry until well combined. Transfer meat to a large bowl and set aside. Add more oil to the hot pan. Add carrots and stir fry for a few minutes. Add sugar snap peas and stir fry for a couple minutes more. Transfer vegetables to the bowl with the meat and set aside.

Pour chicken stock into the pan and bring to a boil. Add Canton noodles, soy sauce, and fish sauce. Turn the heat to medium and let the noodles simmer, stirring frequently until approximately 1/4 cup stock remains. Add the meat and vegetables back into the pan and stir fry everything together until all the stock has boiled off. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a squeeze of calamansi.

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