Transport of delight

On very rare occasions something strange happens when I eat food: I can only describe it as 'being transported somewhere else'. I start to eat a dish and find some time later that I have eaten and been absolutely oblivious to time, people, sounds or anything else: the food has taken over my entire being. I can remember it happening when eating a few dishes in restaurants, some humble, some at the peaks of gastronomy, but I don't think I can remember it happening when I cooked something for myself. But yesterday it happened. I started to eat and then a short while after, I realised that I had been eating, but had been absolutely oblivious to everything else.

I started off making a dish I could describe as 'chilli prawn noodles', but that's the only concept I had in mind as I started to cook. I developed the recipe as I went along, and the result knocked my socks off. I'm not making any great claims to gastronomic pinnacles, but here it is, anyway:

I was cooking for myself, so the portion is for one. You can easily grow it to feed more people.

160g raw king prawns
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 onion peeled, halved and cut into thin half-moons
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed with the flat of a knife
Splash of Soy sauce
half a red chilli cut into rounds
one green chilli, cut into rounds
half a packet of stir fry vegetables (mine had cabbage, onions, edamame beans)
Third of a packet of bean sprouts
2/3 packet of fresh egg noodles
2 tablespoons of oil (I used arachide, but sunflower would be fine)
2 spring onions, cut into 3 cm. pieces

Put the oil in a wok and add the cumin and coriander. Fry the spices for a minute to release their aroma. Add the half-moons of onion and fry until soft, but not too coloured. Throw in the garlic and stir it in. Add the shredded stir-fry vegetables and the chillis and stir-fry for about 2 minutes, flipping them over regularly to make sure they're all cooked down a bit. Add the prawns and bean sprouts, stir-frying for about 2 more minutes, until the prawns go pink. Throw in the soy and spring onions. Stir for a few seconds. Add the noodles and stir to heat them through.

Eat and be transported.