If ever there was a subject close to my heart (well, my stomach is close to my heart - especially when I overeat), it is noodle soups.

I guess that I eat a noodle soup or stir fried noodle dish about 8 times a week, and the repeat cycle is about 3 months. However, they have a nasty tendency to read rather repetitively: the techniques and basic principles involved come down to 4 or 5 "signature" dishes, of which this is one.

When a soup is described as a "yam", it means that everything is just tossed into the stock as it simmers. This soup is also sometimes called Kaeng Jued Wunsen (Kaeng Jued implies a rather bland soup - by Thai standards!).

This can be made with a variety of ingredients, but the most interesting are probably pork (as here), beef, chicken, shrimp, meat balls, fish balls, shrimp balls, or "monkey balls" (a mixed meat ball ~ not actually made from monkey meat!), or one of the various Thai sausages, as well as vegetarian options (for a quick veggie variation try marinating some tofu in dark sweet soy sauce for about 3 hours and then using that instead of the pork).

Maggi sauce is a dark (nearly black) sauce made by the Maggi corporation, and widely available...

Method: Mix the marinade ingredients, mix with the ground pork, and make the pork into small meat balls, then set aside and leave to marinate for 3 or 4 hours.

Soak and drain the noodles.

Bring the stock to a boil and add all the ingredients except the noodles, and continue to boil until the meatballs are cooked through, when they will float.

Remove from the heat, pour into a serving bowl and add the noodles (note the immersion in the near boiling soup is enough to cook the noodles).

Serve with the usual Thai table condiments (nam pla prik [chilies in fish sauce], prik dong [chilies in vinegar], sugar, prik phom [ground chilies], and ground peanuts. Colonel Ian F. Khuntilanont-Philpott Systems Engineering, Vongchavalitkul University, Korat 30000, Thailand

Chile-Heads Digest V2 #270

From Glen Hosey's Recipe Collection Program, hosey@erols. Com