Very often, the urge that leads me to a new recipe is a craving. And usually the only thing stopping me is either lack of ingredients or utter lack of knowledge when it comes to food preparation.

In the case of pancit, I had never made it before, and I had never cooked quail eggs before! But we’d been having a lot of pork, and I wanted something different. I’d seen my mother cook quail eggs, and she said they were super easy to boil. So I went ahead and gave it a try!

Ingredients

• Egg noodles – I can’t find a picture of the noodles I used, but I know they’re from Vietnam and come in rolls. I used four (or was it six?) rolls.
• Pork cubes – I had menudo cut pork, about 200 grams, in the freezer. I had boiled them and stored them
• Carrots – peeled and chopped into matchsticks
• Quail eggs
• Sesame oil
• Soy sauce
• Black pepper

Procedure

1. The pork was already boiled and tender. I just boiled it in about a cup of water, since it had come from the freezer.
2. I removed the pork from the broth and put it in a strainer. Then I put it in the air fryer and cooked it on high for 20 minutes so it would get crunchy.
3. In the pot with the broth, I added the noodles and carrots. I just let it simmer until the noodles and the carrots were soft.
4. Season with sesame oil, soy sauce and black pepper.
5. In another pot, bring water to a boil. When the water is boiling, add the quail eggs. Boil for about 6 minutes.
6. Remove the quail eggs from the boiling water. When cool enough to handle, peel and add to the noodles.
7. When the pork is ready and crunchy, take half and mix with the noodles. The other half can be sprinkled on top just before serving.
8. Serve hot, with calamansi on the side.

I didn’t really get to prepare much for this dish. I would have liked sliced baguio beans in it, and maybe mushrooms or sliced cabbage.

Other people might suggest baby corn or snap peas (sitsaro, I believe they’re called locally), but I’m not fond of those. Other options for meats are shredded chicken or even chicken liver, but I’m not fond of those either.

Cooking time would have taken longer if I didn’t have the pork and the carrots in my freezer, chopped and ready to use.

The best part: Lucas loved the quail eggs!