Pancit Bihon for the win!

It's been awhile since I made this...

Could it be as good as my (gasp) mom's?

I've made pancit bihon (also spelled with a "j" as seen on the noodle package) a handful of times. It's time consuming prepping the ingredients but once you get started, it goes by pretty quickly. Most of the time, my pancit comes out decent, but I haven't gotten close to my mom's version. Until today.

Pay no heed to the recipe on the package. I tweaked it a bit here and there.

Pancit Bihon
 (CC's version)

Ingredients:
1/8 cup cooking oil (I didn't use too much oil since there is a lot of oil already in the Chinese sausage)
4-5 garlic cloves - smashed and chopped (I like it garlicky)
1 small onion - sliced thin
1 small cabbage - sliced thin as well
2 or 3 small carrots - peeled and cut as rounds (I also used some leftover julienned pieces)
soy sauce (to taste)
1 1/2 cups of chicken broth (I used my roasted chicken base with water since I had no broth)
2-3 celery stalks - sliced thin (I didn't have 'kinchay', or Chinese celery, so I used regular celery)
soy sauce (that was my salt - you can also use oyster sauce instead)
patis (you can also use this sparingly to give it some umami)
3 or 4 Chinese sausage (lap cheong) - sliced thin
shrimp (I defrosted about 30 small, pre-cooked shrimp)
shredded roasted chicken breast (rotisserie from Costco dudes)
 *1 package of Japanese fish cake - diced (It's called Chashu-Tenpura and is rectangular shaped; sold in blocks of two by Marutama brand. I used the pork  flavor.)
*1/2 package of Kamaboko  - sliced into strips (I didn't use the pink edged one)
1 16 oz. package of bihon noodles (make sure to pre-soak in hot water and drain before using)
black pepper (to taste)
chopped green onions for garnish
sliced kalamansi to squeeze on top (you can substitute with lemon if you have no kalamansi)

**These were my additions. Totally optional. My mom doesn't use cabbage since she thinks it's just filler. She puts more carrots, kinchay, and sliced green beans.

Helpful hint - prechop and slice all of your ingredients beforehand. This dish will go a hell of a lot faster if you do. Also, pre-soak the noodles and drain them before you add into the wok.

Directions:

•  Saute the onions and garlic in the oil
• Add the Chinese sausage and cook for several minutes
• Add the carrots, celery and cabbage
• Season with soy sauce and freshly ground black pepper
• Add the chicken broth and cover and simmer until vegetables are cooked
• Add the rest of the meats (shrimp, chicken, kamaboko, fish cake)
• Mix in the soaked and drained bihon noodles (if they're too long, you can cut the noodles)
• Season again with soy sauce and black pepper
• Garnish with sliced green onions and squeeze kalamansi on top

**Note - Warning! This makes a TON OF PANCIT! Like, Godzilla size party time portion! If you want to make this on a smaller scale, simply halve the recipe. The Filipino/Asian markets also sell 8 oz packages of pancit bihon. I have no loyalty to the brands. I recently tried this, the Sarap, as well as UFC and I like both.

Holy shit - this came out pretty good!

We had the pancit with some of the rotisserie chicken. TC enjoyed the leg with some sweet chili sauce. This is TC wearing a vintage football shirt with a Bruce Lee iron-on! Guess whose shirt this was? It used to belong to Bert's older brother, so this is at least from the mid 70's. The shirt was plain red with yellow and white stripes at the shoulders.  However, Bert got the Bruce Lee iron on at Crazy-Tee at Plaza Bonita in 6th grade. We are talking 1980-81!!!  Heeeyahhhhh!

Bert picked some fresh kalamansi from our tree...(my nailpolish is silver underneath with a black "crackle" effect on top):

Ooh, do you see that drop? 

I was pretty happy with my pancit this time...

I still don't think it's quite as good as my mom's but it's pretty damn close! Cue the theme from Rocky...