Pancit Canton Tales

There was a time in my life that I eat Pancit Canton almost everyday…. hello college days! Mura kase eh.. imagine how much Pancit Canton was during my college years (1998).. 5 Pesos if I am not mistaken or less? A toyomansi seasoning plus a cup of rice and lunch (or dinner) is done. That’s a little over 10 Pesos for a meal! And there was a time too that we had siomai for lunch or dinner.. and Spanish sardines too.. haay college life.. so simple and so tipid life!

Anyways, college life is not the main focus no (dahil pag iyon ang kinwento ko, ay maloloka kayo sa mga kalokahan ko dati hehe).. let’s give Pancit Canton the space it deserves. I stopped eating Pancit Canton when I joined my sorority. Kase naman, after cleaning pots with maggots, we were asked to cook pancit canton, on the same pots! Argh!!! super duper mega kadiri! Sinumpa ko talaga na hindi na ako kakain ng Pancit Canton ever! After 6 years (I think) I finally tried eating Pancit Canton again, but never without ice cold coke in hand.

Let me just make it clear ha, the pancit canton I am talking about is the instant pancit canton.. not the laborious pancit canton aka birthday noodles. And we all know that instant pancit canton is not a good option for meryenda (although it can be a good camping partner, imagine nemo tents plus hot pancit canton on a cold weather), specially with kids..so we try to avoid it as much as possible.. siguro we had it once every three months lang.. and yesterday was one of the rare moment we had canton for meryenda:

And while I was preparing it, I remembered a few notes on how to cook your instant pancit canton perfectly.

First, of course, is to read the instruction on the packaging. If it says cook it for 3 minutes, do not over cook it. Trust me an overcooked pancit canton is a junk.

Another thing you must know, is you should not lower the heat. Wait until the water is boiling then drop the canton and DO NOT lower the heat. Use a timer if you must, just so you can stick to 3 minute cooking time. And while waiting for that 3 minutes, start preparing the seasoning in a bowl, mix and mix.. Drain the canton and pour in the seasoning, mix it and enjoy with ice cold coke.

It’s also nice to add boiled eggs on pancit canton. Before, we used to cook the eggs together with the canton (to save cooking time).. but realized that’s just gross.. specially when you think where the egg came from! eweeeeeee Now, what we do (in order to save time pa rin) is boil water in large pot. When the water boils, we transfer half on another pot, which will be used for the eggs and the remaining half will be used for the canton. The cooking time and prep time is just enough to cook the eggs 🙂