Typhoon Shelter Style Instant Noodles? What a cool name for an instant noodle! My first thought was that it was some kind of emergency ration you would get in an evacuation centre, but I realized later that it was a gourmet treat. This dish wasn't familiar to me even if I might have had a similar style of fried shrimp dish before. Typhoon Shelter style cooking isn't usually for an instant noodle, but I had to try it out after seeing the name!
This dish is a spicy, garlicky dish composed of fried crab or shrimp tossed with lots of stir-fried diced garlic, panko bread crumbs, ginger, and chilies. The original was a crab dish, but it is common to see shrimp now too. This is a very aromatic dish that smells just amazing. The popularity of this dish has spread beyond Hong Kong as this instant noodle originates in Taiwan.
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Small boats and a house boats in the background moored in Hong Kong.
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The dish originated in Hong Kong in Typhoon Shelters for boats and one
source I looked at indicated it started in the Causeway Bay Typhoon
Shelter. These sheltered harbours provide protected mooring when a big
storm sweeps over island. When I was 10 years old I visited my family
who lived on Ap Lei Chau (Duck Tongue) Island and I saw all of these
small boats and house boats moored in Aberdeen Harbour there. These
were all working boats and homes for families and if a typhoon were to
hit Hong Kong, they would move to the Aberdeen Shelter.
I’m curious why it originated in a typhoon shelter. Was it someone cooking it up to cheer people up in the middle of a storm? Was there crab that needed to be used up and they had tons of garlic and chilis kicking around? Or was it to celebrate the end of the storm? It is such an interesting name so I hope there is an interesting story.
Some links to Typhoon Shelter Crab/Shrimp.
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Front of the package of noodles. It contains three instant noodle sets. The colouring of red over black is very distinctive and represents heat or spicy chilies. The bottom half of the package shows a some twisty crackers being broken over a noodles that are coated in a spicy looking red sauce. The noodles look dense and delicious.
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Back of the package. There are cooking directions. You boil the noodles for three minutes and then drain all the water. The condiments are mixed together in a bowl and the noodles are mixed in with them to coat the noodles. This is like a stir-fried noodle dish. You can then break up the crackers and add them on top.
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One of the three sets of noodles inside the package. There is a package of garlic crackers/chips and a noodle block with condiments for each set.
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Back of the set.
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The noodle block out of its packaging with the three condiment sachets. There is a soy sauce based flavouring sachet, flavouring oil (garlic) sachet, and a dry sachet of chili powder/garlic bits.
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It was a bit a of work tossing everything together at the end, but I managed to coat the noodles nicely. I crushed up the crackers to have them spread better throughout the noodles.
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I was really curious to see how these noodles would taste. The air-dried noodles were thin, and well cooked in the three minutes. They did cling together a little more than I liked so mixing in the condiments was a little harder than it should have been. There was a bit of a musty seafood odor to the final sauce. I'm pretty sure it was from the mix of fried garlic and shrimp seasoning in the sauce. The sauces was a bit like a rich soy/oyster/xo sauce type mixture. There were little bits of reddish garlic(?) spread throughout the noodles from the dried condiment
pack of chili powder too. A bit of green onion was also in the mix too.
The spice level was mild with definite heat from the chili oil and you could really taste the garlic. Do not kiss your loved one unless they have some too! The pea crackers were slightly garlicky with a definite crunch to them, but were airy like a deep fried shrimp chip. The crackers mixed with the noodles provided some nice crunchy texture to them which was enjoyable.
This was a really interesting noodle to try. Not a UFO stir-fried noodle or anything like that, but the taste was pretty good with the blend of chili, soy, and garlic. I'm not sure this variety would be a favourite, but eating the other two packs of noodles won't be a chore. It definitely makes you want to try to real thing in Hong Kong.
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Closeup of a pea cracker and noodles.
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