Bon-awe-petit: Noodles with Chicken Shreds

by Cara Dong '2023

#bon-awe-petit

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📷 Dish Photo

“People who love to eat are always the best people.”  —Julia Child

✌️ Chef’s Name: Cara Dong

🍜 Food Type: Chinese

📖 Recipe

Ingredients

Steps

1. Precook the chicken breast in boiling water, with 2 slices of ginger and 1 teaspoon of cooking wine; put the chicken breast aside for later use

2. Peel, cut cucumber and carrot into shreds; tear chicken breast into shreds

3. Cook the noodles to the softness you like

4. Wash the noodles with cold water (you can skip this step if you would like to eat it hot)

5. Grind 2 slices of garlic and cut 1 piece of green onion; put them aside for later use

6. Put 1 teaspoon of chili powder, 1 teaspoon of garlic smash, 1 piece of green onion (you prepared in the previous step), 1 teaspoon of white sesame into a bowl

7. Pour a layer of hot cooking oil into the same bowl

8. Put 3 teaspoons of soy sauce, 2 teaspoons of white vinegar, 1 teaspoon of oyster oil, 1/2 teaspoon of white sugar, 2 teaspoons of sesame paste, 2 teaspoons of water into the same bowl, stir the sauce well

9. Put noodles at the bottom of another bowl, then put the shredded carrot, shredded cucumber, and shredded chicken breast whatever way you like

10. Pour the bowl of sauce that you prepared before on the top

💓 Make It Your Own Dish

I never had this dish until I came to college. I used to be the only one in my family who did not like spicy food, so my mother has been very careful to avoid dishes as spicy as this one when preparing meals. However, as I move farther away from home and to college, I have a stronger tendency to try out new things that I’ve resisted before, especially spicy foods — partly because I have always? wanted to know more about my parents’ eating habits and discovering novel things out of them while I am away. During quarantine, I started to search for recipes, and “Noodles with Chicken Shreds” was the first one that I found, labeled with 2 stars of difficulty. This was the first time I tried spicy noodles but it turned out to be relatively delicious. I have to admit that I began to love the hot and slightly burning taste on my tongue. My mother was laughing really hard over the phone when I showed her my homemade meal. I could see that she was truly happy and amazed.

Make your own dish someday! Who knows if your brand-new creation will become a special connection to your family?

💬 Birth of Noodles with Chicken Shreds

There is no authentic origin for this dish, but it is said to be a Sichuan style quick dish with more than a thousand years of history. The spicy taste is typical in all dishes that originated in this area. Because it is extremely hot in summer yet extremely wet in winter, people came up with two versions of this noodle dish, one for each season. The cold noodles version is more popular during hot days for it satisfies the Sichuan eating preference—spiciness—and alleviates the suffering from eating hot dishes. Hot noodles serve well in winter because it allows Sichuan people to still have spicy food and while staying warm.

⚠️ Caution

  • Don’t cut yourself while you are shredding the carrot and cucumber.
  • You can use less chili if you are afraid of the spicy flavor.

😊 Food Meme

About the Author

Cara is currently a sophomore student intending to major in Data Science and Comparative Literature who is interested in applying data analysis to environmental issues. She enjoys cooking, reading and making traditional Chinese paintings.

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