Lomi (Pancit Lomi) with Quekiam

Posted byNoriePosted inLegumes, Pancits, Pastas and Rice, RecipeTags:

Here is another kind of Pancit that is popular in the Philippines that was a take off from Chinese noodle dishes.

Since the name “Lomi” is similar to the American Chinese noodle dish Lo mien or Lo mein, I wonder if Lomi is really Lo mien, Filipino style?  Possibly, except the method of cooking and the ingredients are different.  Besides, Lo mien means boiled noodles, and Chow mien is fried noodles.

I am guessing that because Chinese words have no alphabetical equivalents, different people from different countries copied the phonetic sounds differently, thus it sounded “lomi” for the Filipinos and “Lo Mien” for the Westerners.

One of the main ingredients in this dish is “kekiam” or quekiam. They use this ingredient in a lot of Chinese dishes. It is nothing different than the meatballs that I make often as in Meatball Soup and also the Sho-mai, the steamed dumplings or meatballs in wonton wrappers except that it has chopped or ground fish or shrimp or combination with the ground pork. 

The main ingredient was the kind of noodles I did not have but I figured any noodles would do.  It would have been better if I used fresh noodles or the packaged noodles specially made for this dish maybe sold at the Asian store but I only had the packaged Canton noodles.  It turned out OK.

  • 8 oz. wide Chinese egg noodles, fresh or dried
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed or minced
  • ½ med. Onion sliced thin
  • 1 stalk celery, sliced thin diagonally
  • ½ chicken breast sliced thin and cut in strips (optional)
  • 4 or 5 Kekiam (click on the link for recipe)
  • 1 TBS. Light soy sauce
  • 1 TBS. Oyster sauce (optional)
  • 1 tsp. Aji Mirin (optional) or 1/4 tsp. sugar
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • ¼ tsp. black pepper
  • ¼ c carrot sticks
  • 1 c shredded cabbage or Chinese cabbage
  • 1 can chicken broth or 1 ½ c homemade chicken stock
  • 1 tsp. sesame oil
  • ½ tsp. MSG (optional)
  • 1 egg slightly beaten
  • 1 TBS. cornstarch dissolved in 1/2 c water
  • 1 TBS. cooking oil

Pre-soak or pre-boil the noodles in water according to package direction while preparing the rest of the ingredients, then drain.

Sauté the onion and garlic until onions are soft.  Add the strips of chicken and cook until white.  Add the chicken broth and stir in the salt, pepper, soy sauce, oyster sauce, Aji Mirin, and sesame oil. Stir in the slightly beaten egg then drop in the kekiam.  Boil, then drop in the noodles, stir and drop in the vegetables. Cook for a couple of minutes until thick then add the dissolved cornstarch if not thick enough or add a little more water if it is too thick.  Transfer to a serving dish. 

Garnish with lemon wedges or calamansi.

Another substitute for the noodles is the noodles in the Ramen soup packages.  Use the powdered soup mixes for another time. You can also use Linguine.