Xi'an Style Noodles And Flirting With Forty

"I don't wanna regret doing nothing cause of a tomorrow that might never come." - Simon, Gurren Lagann

I don't like eggplant. As far back as I could remember, I don't like eggplant. It's one of those things where my mom would force me to eat it and I eat it. Don't get me started with bitter melon, it's terrible. Now that I'm an adult, I get to decide what to eat. And I'm finally at that place in my head that I'll try eggplant. I even bought some last year at the farmers market. They were okay. I don't hate eggplant anymore but I wouldn't buy and cook with them. What kind of person are you? I'm just mostly flowing down a river. I've gone through most of my life always wondering the "what ifs". What if I had done that instead of being afraid to open up? I'm a shy person and rarely does much outside of my comfort zone. Moving to NYC helped a lot though. I was forced to interact with strangers and make new friends. To be honest, I'm still a little shy but once in a while I'll do crazy things like being on Time Out NY's 2013 Date These Singles (hi, slide #8).

I just watched a movie for work, starring Heather Locklear called Flirting with Forty. Forty used to sound old and now that I'm slowly inching towards forty I'm getting a little scared. The random body aches remind me that I'm getting older but if you ask my mom she will say cause I don't exercise enough. My sister is 42 and she likes being over 40. I freaked out a bit when I was 29 but then 35 was awesome. Now 38 is scaring me.

While watching Stranger Things few weeks ago, it made me felt nostalgic. Thinking about my childhood in the 80s (and even if they reboot He-man it will never live up to the original) and the 90s. If I was in that show, I would've probably been that one kid where I would've been too scared to go look for my friend or do anything reckless (aka staying in my comfort zone) and most likely get picked on. I did get picked on in junior high but that was mostly my fault (actually my parents for buying my clothes) for wearing stupid shorts that said HONDA, KODAK.....ESPIRIT. Not sure why my parents thought that was cool. It's all about being cool, man.

So what does all this have to do with Xi'an style noodles? I'm not too sure except that this was my first time making any sort of noodles from scratch and really should've done it a lot sooner. I know making noodles from scratch isn't anything earth shattering but it's a start. You gotta start somewhere so why not noodle making? I keep thinking that I want to travel back in time to high school and redo everything. Ha, I spend a lot time regretting the things I didn't do in high school. I wasted too much of my youth worrying about this and that. I could've learned how to make noodles and could've given eggplant a try instead of straight up rejecting it. Be a stronger person than a shy/quiet high schooler. Be open to things a lot sooner rather than now as I'm flirting with forty. Oh gosh, forty.

The point, don't wait. Time doesn't wait and you shouldn't too. Have an idea? Something you're interested? Go learn it, go do it.

"Just don't be distracted by the what-ifs, should-haves, and if-onlys. The one thing you choose for yourself, that is the truth of your universe." - Kamina, Gurren Lagann

Love anime wisdom

---

This idea came to me while attending Valentina's matcha crepe workshop. I wanted to incorporate matcha into things and came up with this idea to borrow Lady & Pups' Xi'an style noodles with matcha powder. Also cause I've been craving for the cold matcha noodles at Mission Chinese.

But anyways, I like to start off by saying.......FORGET the matcha powder! It wasn't enough to give the noodles any flavor and probably it would've been more effective if I had just dusted some afterwards. Also, I don't think I got the correct flour. My dough didn't want to stretch that much like Mandy said it would and after boiling them they weren't smooth like actual noodles. But I'm going to try again and again until I get it right. The fire has been lit. I can feel my cosmos. Burn cosmos!

Find the Xi'an style noodle recipe over at Lady & Pups.

For my version, instead of spicy cumin lamb, I did grated garlic, grated ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, mirin, and salt + pepper.

1 tbsp grated ginger

1 clove of garlic, grated

1 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tbsp sesame oil

Dash of mirin

Pinch of salt + pepper

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients together. Let it sit while the noodles cook. Once the noodles are done, drain them and toss the noodles into the bowl while still warm. Mix well.

At this point, the bowl of noodles is pretty darn good but I thought it would be a little boring so I made some marinated mushrooms (recipe by Marc from No Recipes) to go with the noodles also cause I had bought some mushrooms at the farmers market.

Stir Fried Cellophane Noodles With Beef Balls

I grew up eating cellophane noodles aka fun-c in Cantonese (translates to noodle threads). It's a must for hot pot! They're awesome in soups but I really love stir frying them with shacha sauce (Chinese barbecue sauce). This recipe is super easy and quick. I prefer using the brand of noodles in the pink plastic wrap because they come individually bundled. All you need to do to prepare the noodles is soak them in water for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, drain, and pull the noodles apart. If not, they will clump together when you stir fry them, happened to me few times.

Serves 1 Things you'll need: Cellophane noodles (The package comes in 8 separate bundles of noodles each tied with a string. 1 bundle is perfect for 1 person) 1 package of beef balls (Or squid or fish or cuttlefish or slices of chicken or slices of beef or pork belly...you get the idea) Vegetables (Basically whatever green stuff you feel like eating) 1 tablespoon shacha sauce (I got mine at my local Chinese supermarket) 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 clove of garlic, sliced Sesame oil Cooking wine (Or mirin) Salt + pepper

Steps: Put the cellophane noodles in a bowl and top it off with water. Let it soak for 10mins then drain then pull it apart and set it aside.

While the noodles are soaking, prepare your beef balls (I sliced them in half) and vegetables (rinse and chop).

In a hot pan on medium heat, drizzle about 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and toss in the garlic. Cook for about 30 secs or until you can smell the garlic.

Toss in the beef balls. The beef balls are already cooked when you buy them at the store, you're just heating them back up. Cook for a minute or two then add your vegetables. I used yu choi because that's what I had in the fridge. Napa cabbage is great too! Cook for 2 mins or until the stems are tender.

Add the cooking wine, about 2 tablespoons. Mix mix mix.

Add in the noodles, stir stir stir.

Add soy sauce and shacha sauce. Stir to mix everything and cook for another minute or so.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup

I love spending Sundays making stock. Such a relaxing thing to do and makes the apartment smells so nice. Also if I wanted to eat instant noodles on a Wednesday, I can use my own stock instead of using the powdered soup base. Or use it to cook lentils instead of water. Or add cooked rice to make a really quick congee. So much possibilities!

One of my favorite soups that my mom makes is the chicken and snow fungus soup. It's sooooo comforting. I've never used snow fungus but I was in a Chinese market and decided to pick up a pack. I just like eating them as I slurp the soup. My mom adds a bunch of other Chinese herbs and stuff which I'm not familiar with but......using the snow fungus for the first time is a small step forward, I guess.

While I was in the Chinese market, I also got a bag of these Shanghai style noodles. These are pretty awesome. Cheap and usually it takes about 1 - 2 minutes to cook. Talk about a quick meal, eh?

-------------------------------------------------------- Stock 1 whole chicken 1 daikon (roughly chopped) 1 onion (cut in half) 4 scallions 1 knob of ginger (skin on, lightly smashed) 1 snow fungus (soaked for 1 hour, rinsed, and roughly chopped) Soy sauce Sesame oil Salt and pepper

Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup 1 pack of noodles Scallions (sliced into thin strips) Cilantro Miso paste Chili oil Bok choy

1. Put the whole chicken into a large pot and fill it up with water. Bring the water to a boil, lower the heat a little and let it simmer for 15mins. This removes the impurities for a cleaner stock. 2. Take the chicken out and rinse it. Clean the pot and place the chicken back in. Also put in daikon, onion, scallions, garlic, and snow fungus. Add enough water to cover everything and bring it to a boil. Once it's boiling, lower the heat to low, and let it simmer away. 3. After an hour, take the chicken out (keep simmering the stock). When it is COOL enough to handle, pull all the meat out. Return the bones to the pot and simmer for another 30mins. 4. After 30mins, taste it. Season it with soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, and pepper to taste. 5. In another pot, bring water to a boil and cook the noodles according to the package. 6. While you wait for the noodle water to boil, add a tablespoon of miso paste to your soup noodle bowl and add a ladle of chicken stock. Stir and mix in the miso paste. 7. When the noodles are done cooking, add the bok choy into the pot along with the noodles and cook for 30secs. 8. Take the noodles and bok choy out of the pot and into the noodle bowl. Add the chicken meat and top it off with cilantro and thin slices of scallions. 9. Ladle in more broth and add chili oil.

My New Addiction

This is my current obsession, the plate of chili sesame noodles at No Name Bar by Chef Lindsay Salminen in Greenpoint. While I find the noodles to be a little bit too al dente (not your usual silky and smooth noodles from Chinese joints), I do love the sesame flavor, the SUPER wideness of the noodles and the seasonal greens on top. Also the intimate feeling I get while sitting at the counter directly outside of the kitchen.

One of my dream is to go to Japan during winter time. Find a random ramen cart, get a bowl of ramen and slurp away while it is snowing outside. So the basement of a bar in Greenpoint is far from being a roadside ramen cart in Japan but it'll do for now until I get my butt over to Japan.