Garlic Vermicelli Shrimp (Suan Rong Fen Si Xia)
Shrimp on a bed of garlic-soaked glass noodles — the banquet steamer dish that impresses with three ingredients.
The story
This is the steamer dish that anchors Chinese banquet tables: shrimp curled over glass noodles that have soaked up garlic butter and soy. The noodles are the secret star — everyone fights for them.
Ingredients (6 + pantry staples)
- Frozen peeled shrimp — 1 lb / 450 g
- Dried glass noodles (vermicelli) — 3 oz / 85 g, soaked 10 min
- Garlic — 6 cloves, minced
- Soy sauce — 2 tbsp
- Toasted sesame oil — 1 tsp
- Scallions — 1, sliced
Pantry staples used (don't count toward the 6): sugar (pinch), cooking oil (2 tbsp). Not stocked yet? See the pantry page.
Steps
- Soak noodles and lay them in a heatproof dish as a bed.
- Fry half the garlic until gold; mix with the raw half, soy, sesame oil and sugar (this "two-stage garlic" is the Cantonese secret).
- Shrimp on the noodles, garlic sauce over everything; steam 8–10 minutes. Scallions on top.
Swaps
Scallops, fish slices or tofu on the same noodle bed. Add chili to the garlic for the Sichuan version.
More 30-minute dishes
Chaoshan Daikon & Pork Soup (Chao Shan Qing Tang)
The soup this whole site was built around: a whole chunk of pork and a daikon, half an hour, then celery and salt. That is the recipe.
Steamed Fish with Ginger & Soy (Qing Zheng Yu)
The Cantonese gold standard of "let the fish be fish" — steam 10 minutes, smother in hot oil and soy.
Corn, Carrot & Pork Soup (Yu Mi Hu Luo Bo Tang)
The sweetest soup in the Chinese canon — corn does all the flavor work while you do nothing.