Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Noodle Soup

A comforting Chicken noodle soup that will leave you slurping your bowl like no one’s business!

What is Pancit Lomi?

Batangas Pancit Lomi is one of those dishes that was influenced by our Chinese neighbors. As an example, In 1968 a businessman called To Kim Eng came to the Philippines and settled. He passed his recipe to his wife ‘Ka Talia’ and until today she still makes Lomi in her hometown where the dish began (information from KaSarap tv). There are many Filipino-Chinese dishes started this way using local ingredients available in the area and evolved to what we know today. Traditionally Lomi is cooked with pork and topped with kikiam (fried pork and prawn sausage wrapped in bean curd sheets) and thickened with rice flour. There are many variations to this dish as it became popular. Filipinos go to a ‘Lomihan’ which are dedicated Lomi restaurants or noodle house just to eat this dish. 

My Papa ‘Pepe’ taught me how to cook Filipino food, at the beginning I watched him cook and eventually he let me help from peeling vegetables, to cutting, then eventually he would let me cook something simple by myself. I have always cooked but I didn’t get into it as much until my papa passed away. My passion for cooking and feeding people grew while I grieved for my loss. Batangas Lomi is close to me, not only that it came from my papa’s hometown; Batangas, Philippines and it is de-li-cious! Don’t take my word for it, you can make this chicken noodle soup in the comfort of your own kitchen.

What do you need?

I used fresh noodles that are readily available in any local supermarket in London. It’s important that you use fresh noodles, you can make some noodles too if you are able. For this recipe I used chicken as my meat because for my audience in London it is the more popular meat. If you want to use pork, you can use pork belly or ribs, this is the magical thing about cooking, you can take a recipe and make your own version that suits you. In this recipe I didn’t add any liver but if you like liver, like I do, you can certainly add that to your lomi too. Soy sauce, eggs and onions are readily available in your local grocery shop. I didn’t use any thickening agents with this recipe as I like to ‘higop’ (sip) the soup, it’s thick enough but not gloopy. 

Let’s talk toppings

You can go crazy with toppings! In this recipe I kept it simple because I want to leave you with some space for you to be creative! Usually we would add ‘kikiam’ which is fried pork and shrimp sausages wrapped with beancurd sheets. I haven’t seen this here in London yet so alternatively I used fish balls and beef balls. I also chopped some spring onions to add to my toppings and some lemon as an alternative to kalamansi. Filipinos love condiments so you can serve your lomi with some soy sauce and chili on the side too. You can even add some crushed pork crackling for some crunchy texture!

What to do if you have any chicken bones?

If you have some chicken bones don’t throw them away, you can make some chicken stock in advance. You will need 1 litre of water, 1 large onion, 3 cloves of garlic and the chicken bones. Put all the ingredients into a cooking pot and let it boil on high heat. Turn the heat down and simmer for 1 hour. Turn the heat off and let the stock cool down. Leave it on the side for later or keep it in the fridge for 3 days.

To thicken the soup

In my recipe I didn’t make my soup thicker as they do in Philippines as I wanted to actually sip the soup. Hahaha!!! But if you want yours thickened a little more. You can mix 60ml cold water and 5 tablespoons of cornflour together. Pour the mixture into the soup at the end. Make sure you stir while pouring the mixture into the soup.