Vietnamese Prawn Pho

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This is an altered version of the beef Vietnamese noodle soup, also known as Bun Bo Hue.
I was in a nostalgic mood this week and since it used to be my daily lunch when I was working somewhere around Kingsland Road a few years ago, I decided to cook it at home.
We were organising a very tight budget film festival back then, we were all very tired and the spiciness was always the best kick to keep the team going. We had actually renamed it 'Raise The Dead' soup. I miss those guys so much!
Here is the seafood version of it.

3 cloves of garlic, thinly chopped
1 stick of lemongrass / 2 teaspoons of lemongrass paste
4 birdseye red chillis chopped
2cm piece of ginger squashed slightly
6 spring onions trimmed and sliced diagonally
600 ml fish or vegetable stock
3 tablespoons fish sauce (optional) 
400g cooked king prawns (other seafood like squid, mussels and scallops can be used of course)
250-300g rice noodles
200g bean sprouts
lime cut in wedges
hand full of coriander leaves ( I used parsley instead)

You can play a bit and add other ingredients like babycorn, green beans, soya beans, cabbage etc.
Pour the stock into a medium size pan, add the lemongrass, garlic, ginger and two of the chillis and briskly boil for about 15 minutes to create the basic broth. Taste it and if neccessary add the other two chillis. Turn down the heat, cover the pan and leave to simmer for a further 15 minutes. This will allow the flavours to really develop. 
Add the prawns to the soup, and add three of the spring onions, the fish sauce and the herb of your choice. Reserve a little of the herb for garnishing. Put the lid back on the pan.
In a pan of boiling water, cook the bean sprouts for 1-2 minutes, or until they are just tender. Drain them and add them to the soup. Place the rice noodles in the boiling water and cook for as long as the packaging instructions indicate.
Divide the cooked noodles between bowls. Pour the soup over the noodles. Garnish with a little of the coriander or parsley leaves, a few slices of red chilli and spring onion. Serve with a wedge of lime. Mint can also be used, I just do not like it.