Almondigas Wannabe

i used to order this all the time at pancake house. the strange name was what enticed me to try it. i thought that the meatballs might have almonds in it, he he. Until now i have no idea what almondigas means except that it is a Spanish word [anyone care to enlighten me?] but i have come to love this light but hearty and very comforting soup.
i decided to try my hand in recreating this soup from memory and of course with some revisions due to pantry constraints. it turned out not quite like the one pancake house serves but not bad either.

Ingredients:

ground meat
1 egg
soy sauce or salt
patis (fish sauce)
freshly ground pepper
flour
oil
4 cloves garlic - minced
2 small onions - 1 finely chopped, 1 sliced thinly
1 carrot - chopped [optional]
soup stock [I used shrimp stock]
2 bunches of vermicelli noodles [you're supposed to use misua]
scallions – chopped [I didn’t have any]

1. Mix ground meat [ i used pork], egg, half of the minced garlic, chopped onion, most of the chopped carrots in a bowl. season with soy sauce, salt, and pepper, to bind add some flour. form into meat balls make them dance a little on a hot frying pan with a little oil just enough to get that golden brown color, set aside. [note: in the original recipe, you don't fry the meat balls but drop them into the boiling soup, they come out pale]

2. In a pot heat oil and saute remaining garlic and sliced onion. Cook until onion is translucent. Add the remaining chopped carrots and pour in shrimp stock and bring to boil.

3. Add meatballs to the soup to fully cook them and season with fish sauce, bring to a boil again, lower heat and simmer until meatballs are cooked, add vermicelli and cook for about 2 minutes.

4. Serve hot with lemon and soy sauce or patis (fish sauce).