Noodles 面 (mian) have been a staple food in the Chinese culture for at least a thousand years. There are a lot of different types of Chinese noodles including lai fun 濑粉, lo mein 捞面, rice noodles 米线(mi xian) and many more! Today we made two types of Chinese noodles: cold noodles 冷面 (leng mian) and ramen 拉面 (la mian). I was sooo excited because those two are actually my personal favourites :). Let's get started!
Ingredients:
- green onions
- cilantro
- garlic
- carrots
- tofu skin
- tall mushrooms
- mushrooms
- baby bok choy
- ham
- sesame paste
- peanuts
- green peppers
- snow peas
- mushrooms
- ginger
This is rather a simple recipe. First take a bowl and put some cooked ramen noodles in it. Then, before adding in the soup, you can put whatever you like in it! For me, I've put baby bok choy, carrots, tofu skin, ham, cilantro, green onions...literally everything that was on the table. Once you're done choosing, pour in hot chicken broth into the noodles. The water should be hot enough to cook the vegetables (and the quail egg if you have one like me). Technically this dish is already done! But if you prefer a stronger taste, you can also add in soy sauce, chili oil, pepper or others to spice it up! :) Enjoy!
Cold noodles require a little more work than ramen. With cold noodles, we need to make the peanut dressing to mix with the noodles. And so you will need:
- 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/3 cup warm water
- 2 tablespoons chopped peeled fresh ginger
- 1 medium garlic clove, chopped
- 2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons Asian sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
Now that you have your peanut dressing, you can mix it up with your noodles! Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to make my own cold noodles today; but here is a picture to give you an idea of how it looks like! This is an awesome dish, especially in the summer time! It's yummy, satisfying to the belly, and cools you down! And, like the ramen, you can customize it according to your own liking! If I made my own today, I would also add in some chili oil! Mmmmm :)
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| Courtesy of http://jeanetteshealthyliving.com/ |
Noodles may seem like a simple dish, it is, but it also has an important, cultural significance. In the Chinese culture, noodles have a relevance to longevity and birthdays (寿面); it is generally bad luck if you cut the noodles. Noodles are also really difficult to make. Today, we made our own dough and tried to pull them into strings of noodles. As expected, didn't turn out really well hahah :0. Thank goodness for packaged dried noodles or else we'd all be starrrrrving.
I was satisfied with the food we made today. But I'm still leaning more towards the dumplings we had yesterday :). If I had a chance to make ramen another time, I would add in some corn, fish cakes, and seaweed! Ahh, this food talking making me hungry again.
I think it safe to say that noodles is probably my favourite food, ever. Yes, even more than rice. There aren't any noodle dishes that I don't like (when they're made probably of course haha). I love pasta, lasagna, ramen. In my family, we like to make what we call "soup noodles" 汤面 (tang mian). It really is just the same steps as making ramen. My mom is Malaysian, so she would make a soup base called 冬阴功 Tom Yum. This is my all time favourite! It's spicy, sour, and very very appetizing! Throw in some mushrooms, chives, green onions, muscles, tofu....mmmmmm :P.
Thank you for reading and good luck cooking!! :D
Evann
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