If your youngest daughter tells you that you have just made the best tea ever it is worthwhile making a note of what was cooked in case of being asked to do it again.

Cora has always loved noodles. Some of the most memorable that we have had were at Hong Kong Airport on the way to Australia. We were stopped there for a couple of hours and arrived in the very early morning. We were bewildered with the lack of sleep. Galen had a milk shake and Cora and I settled down to two big bowls of chicken noodle soup. It was very sustaining and the best meal we had in the 28 hours from when we left home until we got to Melbourne.

This was a vague approximation of that soup from Hong Kong Airport.

I heated some groundnut oil in a large pan and threw in a chopped knob of ginger, a couple of sqashed cloves of garlic and the green leaves from a bunch of spring onions. I then dropped a small whole chicken into the pan a let it brown for a few minutes in the hot oil. As I was doing this I added some pungent fermented prawn paste and tamarind water.I had already boiled a kettle full of water and I poured it over the chicken until it was just covered. I brought it all back to the boil, put a lid on and let it simmer until the chicken was cooked through.

Whilst that was cooking I finely sliced the rest of the spring onions and roughly chopped up some baby sweet corn, mange tout and a small red chilli.

After the hour was up I checked that the chicken was done. It was then lifted out onto a large plate to cool for a few minutes. I strained off the stock and poured it back in the pan. It still tasted a bit bland so I boosted the flavours with some more shrimp paste, a good dash of fish sauce and a couple of tablespoons of sugar. If there had been one to hand the juice of a lime would have gone well.

Using a sharp knife and a fork I stripped the meat from the chicken cutting away the skin as I went.

To finish off I added the chopped veg to the simmering stock and let them cook through for a few minutes. I then stirred in a few packets of noodles breaking them up with a fork. Finelly I added the chopped chicken and decorated it all with some finely chopped coriander.

I served it out of the pan at the table and we ate it with spoons and forks making a mess as we went. I told the kids about the scene in Tampopo where a group of Japenese business men are eating in an italian restaurant. they are all nervous as to what to order until their most junior member does it for them in perfect Italian. When the spagetti arrives they try to ear with the a spoon and a fork like you would noodle soup. The same office junior shows them how it is done twirling the spagetti round his fork using the spoon as a base.

Having just had a look at the scene on YouTube I have of course got my memory of the scene mixed up and completely wrong. It is still worth having a look at them eating noodles…