Good luck has never been so simple: Just three ingredients and a sauce is all you need to get a hearty Chinese New Year’s meal, AND a long life.
This looks more like a place for Low Life Noodles.
A Patron
This classic Chinese dish is usually eaten on birthdays as well as Chinese New Year (aka Lunar New Year), which is this week! It is considered lucky because the long noodles represent a long life, and each one should be eaten whole to maximize the effect.
Taste test!
Let me make a very important note right out the gate: From my experience, dried Yi Mein can taste quite different depending on the brand. The Thai brand I usually get at my local market (see picture) already contains 8% salt. This is why the recipe calls for no salt in the water, no salt in the sauce, and not that much soy sauce. If your Yi Mein are less pre-salted, feel free to add some more soy sauce and/or salt. Check the packaging, taste a noodle right after cooking, and when they’re coated in the sauce to be sure.
Don’t sever the thread
Yi Mein Noodles are supposed to be eaten whole and not broken apart before you eat them because the long strands represent a long life. Unfortunately, they’re impossible to separate when still dry without shattering to pieces, so I always adjust the serving amount to whatever size package I happened to get. Just make a bigger portion and eat it again tomorrow, or freeze some of it. If you’re European like me, let me put it this way: You wouldn’t break your spaghetti in half either, would you?
Yi Mein (Long Life Noodles)
Ingredients
- 200 g Yi Mein dry weight
- 3 large shiitake mushrooms dried
- 100 g Chinese chives aka garlic chives
- 2 tbsp neutral oil
For the sauce
- 1/8 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp light soy sauce
- 0.5 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 0.25 tsp sesame oil
- 1/8 tsp ground white pepper
- 0.5 tbsp water
Instructions
Prepare ingredients
- If using dried shiitake, you need to reconstitute them first. Put them into a heat-proof bowl and bring enough water to a boil to fully cover them. Put a lid or plate on top so they stay submerged and the heat can't escape as fast. Let sit for 20 minutes.
- While it's heating up, wash the garlic chives. Chop them into 5 cm long strips and separate the lighter stem from the darker leaves. Set aside.
- Once the shiitake are done, squish them lightly to get the water out, then cut into thin strips and also set aside.
Prepare sauce & noodles
- Put a large pot of water on the stove over high heat for the noodles. Do not add salt!
- Once the water boils, cook the noodles according to package instructions, or rather a little shorter than that as they will continue to cook later in the wok. Drain and set aside.
- Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl.Note: If your Yi Mein come out of the package barely or not at all pre-salted, feel free to increase the amount of soy sauce and/or add some salt now or later while stir-frying. Do some taste tests to be sure.
- Prepare a small pan or pot over medium heat and pour in the mixed sauce. Let it simmer for a bit and keep stirring until well-integrated. Take off the heat.
Stir-fry
- Spread oil around a large wok over high heat and let it heat up for a minute or two.
- Add the sliced shiitake and the lighter parts of the Chinese chives. Stir-fry for half a minute.
- Add the noodles and stir-fry for another minute.
- Spread the pre-mixed sauce around the wok evenly and keep stirring until everything is well-coated.
- Add the light green parts of the Chinese chives and stir-fry for another 2-3 minutes.
- Take off the heat. Enjoy!
