Easy Shrimp Mei Fun

You will love this easy version of Shrimp Mei Fun. It’s a delicious Asian noodle stir fry that tastes just like your favorite Chinese takeout. What’s even better is you can make this Easy Shrimp Mei Fun at home in about 35 minutes.

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This dish is one of my absolute favorites!

I am always excited when I can share a recipe consisting of one of my favorite cuisines featuring one of my favorite foods.

If you’ve checked out some of my other recipes, you will know I am talking about Asian dishes featuring shrimp!

Other Asian Recipes Featuring Shrimp On SeasonalCookbook.com

Just in case you’re interested, here are some other similar recipes on this site:

Fresh Spring Rolls Without Noodles – a flavorful and fun appetizer, stuffed with shrimp.

Easy Shrimp Kabobs – a summer grilling favorite with a Polynesian Flair, featuring grilled shrimp and pineapple.

What Is Mei Fun?

Mei Fun refers to the long, thin, delicate rice noodles that comprise the bulk of this recipe.

You may see these noodles in your favorite Asian Market, or online, as Rice Vermicelli noodles.

So, Mei Fun is a certain type of rice noodle, but Mei Fun also refers to the dishes, or recipes, that feature this particular rice noodle.

This Easy Shrimp Mei Fun is a perfect example!

What Is Shrimp Mei Fun Made Of?

As discussed above, Mei Fun is a rice noodle or a dish that prominently features that particular type of rice vermicelli noodle.

So, Shrimp Mei Fun is made of these thin, delicate rice noodles and shrimp.

I guess, technically, you could say that’s what Shrimp Mei Fun is made of: Rice Noodles and Shrimp.

But that wouldn’t be the most exciting recipe, would it?

Nor would it be 100% accurate…

Mei Fun Recipes Typically Contain Vegetables And Fried Egg, Too

Most Mei Fun recipes also contain vegetables, the most common Mei Fun vegetable use in Chinese cooking being Napa Cabbage.

Napa cabbage is similar to Green Cabbage, but has leaves that are significantly whiter.

Mei Fun dishes also include fried egg.

The fried egg gives this dish another layer of flavor and some added texture.

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Where these recipes can become a bit more unique are in the additional vegetables used, as well as in the ‘wet’ ingredients.

Many Mei Fun dishes feature Napa cabbage, as well as carrots, onions, purple cabbage, scallions.

And the ‘wet’ ingredients can include sesame oil, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, chili oil, you name it!

How Are Shrimp Mei Fun And Shrimp Chow Fun Different?

Chow Fun noodles are often wheat-based and, typically, much thicker than the thin and delicate rice-based Mei Fun noodles.

Mei Fun noodles are lighter and less chewy, while Chow Fun noodles are wider and have more of a chew to them.

So, the main difference between Shrimp Mei Fun and Shrimp Chow Fun is that each dish features a vastly different type of noodle.

What’s The Difference Between Mei Fun And Lo Mein?

As discussed above, Mei Fun recipes use the thin, delicate rice vermicelli noodles.

Lo Mein dishes feature egg noodles, made from wheat flour, that are chewier and thicker than the rice vermicelli noodles.

The noodles used in traditional Lo Mein recipes are more similar to the noodles featured in Chow Fun recipes.

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What Does Shrimp Mei Fun Taste Like?

This can vary from one recipe to another depending on which vegetables are included, as well as which ‘wet’ ingredients are used.

But, in general, Shrimp Mei Fun tastes light, brine-y, nutty, and savory and features multiple, diverse textures.

The shrimp is soft and slightly chewy and the vegetables can range from very crunchy (carrots/purple cabbage) to slightly soft (Napa cabbage/onions).

While the delicate Mei Fun noodles act as the perfect vehicle over which to feature these various ingredients.

These various textures are one of my favorite things about this Easy Shrimp Mei Fun Recipe!

Finally Sesame Oil provides a nuttiness to this dish, while Dark Soy Sauce provides a bit of a salty/savory kick.

To sum up what Shrimp Mei Fun tastes like in one word?

Delicious!

What Makes Your Shrimp Mei Fun, Easy?

For one, I’ve reduced the ‘usual’ number of ingredients down to really just the essential ingredients – as you’ll see below.

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I’ll also discuss some very key Prep Steps that you can do to have all of your ingredients handy and ready for cooking.

Finally, I have a few suggestions that will really help speed up the Preparation Time.

Why You Will Love This Easy Shrimp Mei Fun

Besides the fact that Shrimp Mei Fun is absolutely delicious, here are a few other reasons why I think you’ll love this recipe…

A Favorite Chinese Takeout Dish

Shrimp Mei Fun is a very popular Chinese Takeout Menu Item!

This recipe has all of the great, delicious qualities of the takeout version, but with considerably less sodium, no cornstarch and more shrimp.

Quick To Cook

My version of Shrimp Mei Fun is extremely easy and quick to cook since, ultimately all the ingredients go into one skillet (or Wok if you have one).

The key to cooking this dish quickly is preparing the ingredients ahead of time, which I will go into more detail about below.

You Have Total Control Of The Ingredients

One nice thing about cooking meals at home versus getting takeout is the ability to control the precise ingredients.

Don’t like onions? Leave them out!

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Want a Spicy Shrimp Mei Fun? Add Chili Oil!

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Easy Shrimp Mei Fun – The Ingredients

You’ll notice that I separated the recipe ingredients into Essential Ingredients and Optional Ingredients.

Essential Ingredients

• Frozen Shrimp (Fresh is even better if you can find it!)
• Rice Vermicelli Noodles (Mei Fun)
• Napa Cabbage
• Dark Soy Sauce
• Rice Wine Vinegar
• Olive Oil (Spray or Typical)
• Egg
• Ground Ginger Powder

Optional Ingredients

• Carrots
• Purple Cabbage
• Scallions/Onions
• Curry Powder
• Sesame Oil
• Hoisin Sauce

There are certainly more ingredients in this recipe than in some of my other recipes on this site.

Several more than in my Blackened Swordfish Recipe, for example.

But not every single ingredient is absolutely essential.

You’ll notice that I’ve separated the Essential Ingredients from the Optional Ingredients above.

The Essential Ingredients are the ingredients that provide the foundation for this Easy Shrimp Mei Fun.

As such, the Essential Ingredients shouldn’t be skipped, if you can help it.

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The Optional Ingredients are ingredients I used in this recipe in addition to the essential Ingredients.

The Optional Ingredients helped give this recipe some additional depth of flavor and an appealing array of colors.

The Optional Ingredients included things I like, such as Sesame Oil and Hoisin Sauce.

And they also included colorful vegetables like carrots and purple cabbage that I thought would enhance the food photos!

Even though I used more ingredients than I usually do, I still tried to continue my theme of using the fewest ingredients possible.

While, at the same time, still achieving good representations of the dishes I do share with you.

To that end, I think you’ll notice my Easy Shrimp Mei Fun uses fewer ingredients than almost any other similar online recipe.

What Ingredients Did I Skip?

I mentioned that I thought my version of Shrimp Mei Fun used fewer ingredients than other, similar online recipes.

Here are just a few of the ingredients I thought it would be okay to leave out:

• Cornstarch
• Light Soy Sauce
• Fish Sauce
• Chili Oil
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• White Pepper
• Vegetable Oil
• Shallots

And some recipes use even more ingredients!

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Just a couple notes on my rationale for leaving some of these ‘standard’ Mei Fun ingredients out of this recipe:

I find Soy Sauce (especially, Dark Soy Sauce) salty enough for my taste.

I don’t use pepper in any of my Asian recipes.

And, In general, I do not cook with vegetable oil.

Recipe Equipment Needed

This Shrimp Mei Fun recipe does not require much cooking equipment.

The essential pieces of cookware I used, include:

• Large Saute Pan (a Large Wok like this one is a perfectly acceptable substitute)
• Large Pot
• Pyrex Bowl
• Small Bowl
• Pyrex Measuring Cup
• Egg Beater
• Silicone Rubber Spatula
• Sharp Knife

Several small plates are also useful for placing your prepared ingredients on before cooking.

I don’t usually consider plates as recipe equipment but I just wanted to mention that having a couple small plates handy will also be useful during prep time.

Is a Wok Essential?

A good Wok is a great piece of cooking equipment to have in your kitchen, but not essential to this recipe.

Woks are great because they heat quickly and retain heat very well.

They are also great for any type of Asian Stir Fry recipe because their smooth cooking surfaces make it very easy to move (i.e. stir) all of the ingredients around.

And the higher sides of a traditional Wok, allow for the rapid stirring of everything without ‘losing’ some food over the edge!

I’m not (too) embarrassed to mention that I *may* have lost a shrimp or two during this recipe!

Preparing The Ingredients

The KEY to this Easy Shrimp Mei Fun is in the preparation of the ingredients

Why Preparing The Ingredients Ahead Of Time Is So Important

Preparing your ingredients ahead of time is key, because then they are ready to add to the hot skillet or Wok in quick succession.

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Without having everything ready to go, it is very easy to overcook the shrimp, for example, if you get side-tracked chopping vegetables.

Preparing The Shrimp

I used pre-cooked, frozen shrimp in this recipe, so I needed to thaw them prior to cooking.

To do this, just add very warm water to a small bowl and submerge the shrimp until they become soft.

One trick is to – not only feel the shrimp for softness – but test the water, too.

The water will become cold to the touch.

If the water gets too cold before the shrimp are fully thawed, just drain the water and re-fill the bowl with warm water.

Then feel the shrimp again a few minutes later for softness.

Finally, once the shrimp are thawed and soft and pliable, de-tail them by squeezing the tails firmly between your thumb and forefinger until they ‘pop’ off.

Preparing The Vegetables

Believe it or not, I found that preparing the vegetables is one of the most time consuming preparation steps of this recipe.

Here a a few tips I highly recommend to make preparing your vegetables easier:

• Use a bag of mixed/chopped vegetables that includes, at least, some of the vegetables included in this recipe

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If you cannot find an appropriate bag of mixed/chopped vegetables, then I would do the following

• Use a julienne slicer to julienne the carrots quickly (mine was missing in action!)
• Wash, peel and stack the cabbage leaves together so that they can all be chopped/diced together
• Use onions (or scallions) that are already diced or chopped ahead of time

Simply by doing one or more of the things above, you will dramatically reduce the Prep-Time necessary to create this dish.

I chose to use a combination of vegetables that were fun and colorful for my Easy Shrimp Mei Fun.

Preparing The Mei Fun (Rice Vermicelli Noodles)

Mei Fun (rice vermicelli) noodles are very thin and delicate.

As a result, they are very easy to overcook.

They are, actually, very similar to the thin, Japanese Somen Noodles that I used in my Vegan Somen Salad Recipe.

In fact the Mei Fun noodles and the Somen Noodles are prepared in the same fashion!

Simply, soak the Mein Fun noodles in warm water for about 10 minutes.

Another alternative to speed up Prep Time, is to bring a large pot of water to a boil, remove from heat, then soak these Mei Fun noodles in the hot water for about 3 minutes or until soft.

Just like with the Somen noodles, it is important to then immediately submerge these rice vermicelli in cold water to stop the cooking process.

Preparing The Eggs

This step really needs no explanation, but just for the sake of completeness here it is!

Crack 2 large eggs into a small mixing bowl or Pyrex bowl like this one.

Beat/whisk the eggs thoroughly and then set off to the side.

At this point, you will have the necessary ingredients ready to add directly into your saute pan or Wok for cooking.

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I have provided a photo in the next section that demonstrates exactly how my Shrimp Mei Fun ingredients looked once I had them prepared.

Make Sure To Cook The Ingredients In The Correct Order

Having the ingredients prepared and ready to cook makes this Shrimp Mei Fun much easier to cook (see photo below)!

Here is a quick visual of the order in which I cooked the above ingredients:

Onions/Scallions> Carrots > Cabbage > Shrimp > Egg> Noodles (Mei Fun)

One thing to mention is that the rice noodles were already ‘cooked’ in very, very hot water and then submerged in cold water to stop the cooking process.

These delicate noodles get added to the skillet (or Wok) last really just to warm them up again.

Tips & Substitutions

If you’ve checked out any other Shrimp Mei Fun recipes online, you may have noticed there is a huge variety in the exact ingredients each person uses.

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Feel free to add your own spin to this recipe.

Shaoxing Cooking Wine Can Help Reduce The ‘Fishy’ Taste Of This Easy Shrimp Mei Fun Recipe

Shaoxing Cooking Wine, also known as Chinese Cooking Wine, can hep to reduce the ‘seafood’ taste.

Now, I like the smell of cooked shrimp and the brine-like taste, but I know not everybody does.

Using Shaoxing Cooking Wine will help neutralize some of that flavor.

Shaoxing Wine can also be substituted for Rice Vinegar.

I also found that by eliminating fish sauce, the ‘fishy’ taste of this Shrimp Mei Fun is less pronounced, so I simply omitted fish sauce.

Use Pre-Chopped or Pre-Diced Vegetables

I mentioned this above, but if you can find even one of the vegetables already prepared for you ahead of time, use it.

It makes the Prep Time much faster.

Substitute Fresh Shrimp

I used pre-cooked, frozen shrimp so I had to thaw them ahead of time.

One nice thing about using pre-cooked shrimp is that they have already been cooked.

But, there is nothing like fresh shrimp so if you can get fresh shrimp, these make an excellent alternative.

If you are going to use fresh shrimp, it is a good idea to cook them separately and then add them in later – just to warm them back up.

Substitute Green Cabbage

If you cannot get the more traditional lighter, brighter Napa cabbage, you can substitute green cabbage.

I prefer the lighter, Napa cabbage and am fortunate that I live near an Asian Market that has many of these ingredients.

Use A Wok

Since Woks become hot quickly and retain heat so well, substituting a Wok – in place of a Saute Pan – can speed up this recipe even more.

Additionally, the smooth cooking surface of most Woks helps make mixing the ingredients a breeze.

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And high sides of Woks help contain all of the ingredients.

Do You Have Any Tips Or Substitutions For Your Own Easy Shrimp Mei Fun Recipe?

If so, please share them in the COMMENTS SECTION below!

Now, let’s get on to the recipe…

How To Store Easy Shrimp Mei Fun

If you have any Shrimp Mei Fun left over, which is rare in my household, just use a plastic storage container like the one shown below.

Typically, if I have more of the rice noodles than I need, I will store them separately as seen below

These Pyrex food storage containers can be purchased on Amazon.com right HERE.

How Long Does Shrimp Mei Fun Last In The Fridge

Using air-tight plastic food storage containers, Shrimp Mei Fun can last 1-2 days in the refrigerator or about 1 week in the freezer.

I prefer NOT to freeze this because I think it just tastes different after it’s been frozen.

Don’t Be Intimated By The Number Of Ingredients

While this Easy Shrimp Mei Fun recipe certainly uses more ingredients than the typical, fun, healthy, seasonally-inspired recipes you’ll find elsewhere on SeasonalCookbook.com, the recipe itself is very easy!

And if you don’t like scallions, for example, or you don’t have Hoisin Sauce, or you can’t get purple cabbage or Rice Vinegar, don’t worry!

You can still create a delicious, healthy, and fun version of this Shrimp Mei Fun!

Could You Do Me A Quick Favor?

I would love to have you as a member of my mailing list. Just Click The BIG GREEN BUTTON Below. I’ll even send you a FREE COPY of my Seasonal Mediterranean Diet Ingredients Shopping List printable PDF.

I don’t spam my subscribers and you’ll only hear from me when I have a new recipe or post to share.

So What Did You Think Of This Easy Shrimp Mei Fun Recipe?

I would LOVE to know what you thought of this recipe!

Are there different ingredients you prefer in your Shrimp Mei Fun? Please let me know.

Simply post a Comment in the Comments Section below and share your thoughts and suggestions.

Until next time…

Happy Cooking!