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)

Chinese Food Culture

Anyone who knows me knows I am a big foodie. After all, loving food is part of my culture and is part of who I am. Chinese food culture is over 5000 year old and is laced into every facet of Chinese person's life.

Every dish served at a Chinese dinner table has to have good symbolism. Instead of a birthday cake, the Chinese eat birthday noodles on their birthdays. The long strands symbolize longevity. For Chinese New Year feast fish is a must since the word sounds like the homophonic word for abundance. The Chinese also love to give their dishes very poetic names (but sometimes really confusing when translated into English directly). Chicken forms part of the a good luck symbol of the phoenix, so the well known dim sum dish Chicken's feet is actually referred to as "Phoenix feet".

Meatballs are referred to as "Lion head". A Sichuan dish called "Ants Climbing a Tree" is just minced beef with bean thread noodles.

The Chinese believes the main meat ingredient of the dish will help you improve particular parts of your body. For example: eating pig's liver will make your liver healthier. In Beijing, there is a very famous restaurant named Guolizhuang (锅里壮) which can be directly translated as "Manliness in a pot". It specialises in animal penises. Yes, you read correctly. You can imagine what this body part is suppose to help you with. This is very popular with the gentleman customers.

(deer penis on a gold platter garnished with lettuce!)

When cooking an animal is important to the Chinese not to waste anything that is edible. Keeping the body of the animal whole is also very crucial. You will see fish, chicken and duck heads and feet all make it to the table along with its body. The head is not only believe to be the tastiest, but also often reserved for the eldest or most honoured guest at the table.

We even greet in terms of food. The phrase "你吃了吗？" which means "Have you eaten yet?" is equivalent of asking someone "how are you?". Instead the reply of "I am fine", you say "I have eaten." no matter what time of the day.

When I hosted my wedding rehearsal dinner last year, we had prepared just enough food for everyone. However, this was to my mother's horror: no leftover meant the guest did not have enough to eat. Having plenty of food is showing respect for your guests. Here are other dinner table etiquette/culture such as:

• must try everything (even just a little bit) on the table
• never take more than 1 item at a time
• sometimes Chinese diners will slurp their soup or burp after a meal. You can too.
• when offered the last piece in the dish, you should always decline at least 2 or 3 times before accepting it
• it is ok to answer the phone during dinner
• it is ok to stand up and reach for food
• never stick your chopsticks upright in the rice bowl (actually don't play with your chopsticks at all including air drumming)

(Photo courtesy of Xinhua)

Fantastic Foods of China

China has over 5000 years to perfect its cuisine. It is no wonder it is one of the most popular cuisine in the world. Food is very important to the Chinese people. All important occasions are celebrated with food. People socialize over food and business deals are made over a good dinner. The Chinese pay a lot of attention to what they eat and love dishes that has a meaning or a great story to go along with it. They believe whatever animal part you eat will benefit that particular part of your body. It is no wonder that restaurants that serve animal penis became very popular in recent years, more popular than Viagra.

China is a large country and its food is very different from south to north, not to mention, its 56 different ethnics all have their unique take on food. Chinese cuisine is divided into 10 types according to regions: Beijing (京), Shanghai (沪), Anhui (徽), Cantonese (粤), Fujian (闽), Hunan (湘), Jiangsu (苏), Shandong (鲁), Sichuan (川) and Zhejiang (浙). General rule of thumb is cuisine from northern regions is usually spicier and saltier dishes accompanied with lots of noodles and cuisine from Southern regions is usually lighter and sweeter dishes that are preferred to be eaten with rice. Although I was born and raised as a Southern girl, I have taste buds for the northern dishes which I find much more flavourful.

Making a (very) short list of must try dishes in China is very difficult for me since there are so many great dishes!

1. Peking Duck 烤鸭 (Beijing) - probably the most famous Chinese dish, the Peking duck is usually served at table side with the chef thinly slicing the duck skin off a whole roast duck onto a plate. Then the skin wrapped in a thin rice pancake, hosin sauce, cucumber and green onion slice is eaten.

2. Steamed Soup Bun 小笼包 (Shanghai) - this miniature steamed pork bun is famous for the very mouth-watering soup inside. There is definitely a technique to how to eat these little guys. The trick is to place bun in a soup spoon first, nibble a small opening on the bun and suck the soup out first before popping the entire bun in your month.

3. Hot pot 火锅 (Chongqing) - It is noted for its peppery and hot taste, scalding yet fresh and tender. This is the quintessential Chinese social meal which people gather around a small pot filled with flavorful and nutritious soup base. Thin sliced raw variety meat, fish, various bean curd products and all kinds of vegetables are boiled in the soup base. You then dip them in a little bowl of special sauce. Be careful since the spicy soup base is burning hot.

4. Hairy Legged Crab 大闸蟹 (Shanghai) - If you love seafood, this is a must try! Ironic, this crab with the scary name is a fresh water creature. When it is steamed and dipped in soy sauce, you will find a flavour explosion in your mouth.

5. Candied Haw Berries 冰糖葫芦 (Beijing) - Any dessert that involves the word candy is an instant favourite of mine. The berries are dipped in molten sugar which is left to harden in the cold and sold on a stick. You can also find variations with oranges, grapes, strawberries, and bananas, or dipped in crumbled peanuts as well as sugar.

6. Salted Duck 盐水鸭 (Nanjing) - This delicious and tender duck dish is rich in flavour yet not greasy.

7. Broiled Chili Fish 水煮鱼 (Sichuan) - the fish is broiled and presented in a mini wok, completely covered in liquid with floating chillies. There are tons of napa cabbage, Chinese celery, mushrooms and lily.

8. Cross-Bridge Rice Noodles 过桥米线 (Lijiang) - a plate of thinly sliced raw meat (chicken, pork and fish), vegetables (beansprouts, chives and beancurd slices) and noodles are first served. Then mix and stir the raw ingredients into a bowl of hot piping soup. The noodle soup dish can be eaten once the meat is cooked and trust me the meat will cook in the hot soup.

9. Cumin Lamb Skewer 羊肉串 (Xijiang) - lamb meat is cut into very small bite size, grilled to perfection, slight charred and crispy on the outside seasoned with cumin and chili.

When in China, one just need to be very opened minded and not pass up any opportunity to taste everything.