Filipino soup

Birthday Misua Soup with Chicken and Patola

Name: Birthday Misua Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Filipino
Ingredients: 160 g Super Q Misua (one pack); 1 chicken breast or 2 chicken thighs; 7 cups water; 1 medium patola (sponge gourd), peeled and sliced; 4 cloves garlic, minced; 1 medium onion, sliced; 1 thumb ginger, sliced; 2 tbsp fish sauce; 2 tbsp cooking oil; Salt and ground pepper, to taste; 4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled, one for each bowl; Spring onions and fried garlic, to serve

Long strands for long life, a round coil for family coming together. The bowl to cook on a birthday.

Misua soup with chicken and patola, made with Super Q Misua. Long strands for long life, and a whole egg in every bowl for the birthday celebrant.

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Prep: 15 min
Cook: 35 min
Total: 50 min
Serves: 4 servings

Two packs of Super Q Misua beside a bowl of misua soup with shredded chicken, patola and spring onions

Misua is a birthday noodle. In Chinese tradition its long strands stand for long life, and the round coil it is formed into stands for family coming together. Super Q Misua is a fine wheat-flour noodle shaped exactly that way.

It cooks very quickly, so the whole soup is built first and the misua goes in last, just before everyone sits down.

Ingredients

160 g Super Q Misua (one pack)
1 chicken breast or 2 chicken thighs
7 cups water
1 medium patola (sponge gourd), peeled and sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, sliced
1 thumb ginger, sliced
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp cooking oil
Salt and ground pepper, to taste
4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled, one for each bowl
Spring onions and fried garlic, to serve

Instructions

1
Make the broth
Simmer the chicken with the ginger in the water until tender, about 25 minutes. Lift the chicken out, shred the meat and keep the broth.
2
Sauté
Heat the oil in a pot and sauté the garlic and onion until fragrant. Add the shredded chicken and stir for a minute.
3
Season the soup
Pour the broth back in, add the fish sauce, season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
4
Add the patola
Add the patola and simmer until just tender, two to three minutes. It should still hold its shape.
5
Add the misua last
Lower the heat and add the Super Q Misua whole. Stir gently so the strands stay long, and cook only as long as the pack directs. Misua cooks very fast.
6
Serve straight away
Ladle into bowls, put a whole peeled egg in each one, and finish with spring onions and fried garlic.

Tips

On a birthday, do not break or cut the misua. The long, unbroken strands are the wish.

Misua keeps drinking the broth as it sits, and the soup thickens. Cook the noodles only when everyone is ready to eat.

Cooking it for someone you love

Wake someone up on their birthday with a bowl of misua and an egg. It is a small breakfast that says a big thing: live long, and keep coming home to us.

Cook it for a parent, a lola or a lolo. For the people who taught you this tradition, it is the bowl that means the most.

Selling it: misua soup pang-negosyo

Misua soup is quick to serve because the noodle cooks so fast. Keep the broth hot through service and cook the misua per bowl as orders come in.

Offer a "birthday bowl" with a whole egg for customers ordering for a celebrant.
Keep the broth and the misua apart until each order, so the last bowl is as good as the first.

Buying noodles in bulk for your business? See wholesale and distributor orders.