Who wants to go noodling?

My favourite food in the entire world is noodles. It is the ultimate comfort food for me. Instead of birthday cakes, my mom would make noodles on my birthdays. The long strand in Chinese culture symbolizes longevity.

Noodles have been staple food around many parts of the world for a long time. It probably has the longest history in China. A 4000 year old bowl of noodles was unearthed in northwestern China about 6 years ago. The first recorded account of noodles dates back 25 AD during the East Han Dynasty.

Noodles is such a versatile food. There are so many different types of noodles and different ways the noodles are made from. Not to mention too-many-to-count ways to cook and eat them. So do you like your wheat, rice, egg, mung bean or sweet potato noodles cooked in soup, stir fried, steamed, or cold mixed in sauce?

Handmade noodles are by far the best and are typically made just from wheat flour, salt and water. This type of noodles can be formed by pulling, cutting and peeled. This ancient art form is not easy. Check out this funny video of Gordon Ramsay Learning to Make Noodles. Noodle masters usually spend over 10 years to prefect their skills (they have incredible arm strength!) and the best noodle masters are from Lanzhou located in central China.

When cooked, handmade noodles should be chewy and it can absorb all the flavour of the sauce and other ingredients. The other way to tell noodles is handmade and made with love (once a friend told me anything handmade is made with love) is the each noodle strand should look a little different from each other.

For more noodles fun:

* "The Story of Noodles" is a great book to read to your future noodle enthusiast.

* My signature noodle dish recipe. A great summer vegetarian dish that serves 3 to 4.

Ingredients: 6 cups of noodles, 1/2 tbsp of vegetable oil, 2 tbsps of diced green onions, 2 tbsp of light soy sauce and 1 dry or fresh diced red chili pepper.

1. Boil noodles in large pot of unsalted water over medium heat until barely tender and still firm. Drain immediately and rinse with cold water until cold.
2. for the dressing: Put green onions and red chilli pepper in a ceramic bowl. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan until it bubbles and pour hot oil into the bowl. Add light soy sauce into the bowl last. Mix with a spoon.
   
3. Pour dressing all over noodles and toss until it coats all the noodles.
4. Meat or seafood option: stirfry 1 cup minced meat or diced shrimp in 1 tsp of oil and add them into the noodles before the dressing is poured.
   

* Funny Noodle related inventions:

left: Noodle cooler chopsticks
Right: Noodle face protector (actually I don't know what it is suppose to do)