Lo mein

This is a special one for our family: my dad made this as part of his 75th birthday feast, and days before, my sister got engaged! So much to celebrate!

Here's the video for a walkthrough.

In Chinese tradition, noodles are a symbol of longevity, and it’s typical to celebrate birthdays, weddings, and big life milestones with noodles. The connection is simple - noodles are long, so they’ve become a metaphor for a long life, a long marriage, and longevity.

This dish will always hold a special place in my heart, and will always remind me of birthdays and my dad's epic 12-course feasts.

𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙎𝙏𝙊𝙍𝙔

I've always wanted to honor my parents and capture the hundreds of recipes that my dad's perfected over 50 years as a Chinese chef. I want to celebrate their legacy and epic journey of making something of themselves here in America, and pass it down to our kids.

𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙍𝙀𝘾𝙄𝙋𝙀

• Prep Time: 15 min
• Total Time: 30 min
• Yield: 4 servings

𝙄𝙉𝙂𝙍𝙀𝘿𝙄𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙎

𝙄𝙉𝙎𝙏𝙍𝙐𝘾𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉𝙎

Step 1 - Cook noodles

Cooking our fresh egg noodles should take about 10 minutes in total. There's a lot of waiting involved, so we'll be doing this in tandem with chopping our veggies and mushrooms.

• Set your stove on high heat, and boil at least 4 cups of water in a pot. The amount doesn't need to be exact, as long as it's enough to eventually submerge your noodles.
• When the water is boiling, add the noodles to the pot and stir constantly for 30-60 seconds to prevent the noodles from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Cover the pot, and wait for it to boil again (about 3 minutes).
• When the noodles are boiling, remove the lid, set the stove to a simmer, and stir the noodles for about 30 seconds. Cover the pot again, and cook for another 5 minutes.
• Once the noodles are done, drain the pot into a colander, and rinse the noodles in cold water for 10-15 seconds.

Step 2 - Wash vegetables & mushrooms

In a bowl of water, gently scrub all of our mushrooms and veggies to wash away the dirt and impurities.

For our enoki mushrooms (3 oz), we'll chop off the roots before we wash them. All we need to do prepare is separate them from one another.

Step 3 - Chop vegetables & mushrooms

We'll chop our shiitake mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms (2 oz), carrots (1.5 oz), broccoli (2.5 oz), celery (2.5 oz), red bell pepper (2 oz), green onion (1 piece), and garlic (1 clove).

For most of these, my dad is cutting them into slices. Refer to the video to see exactly how he does it.

Step 4 - Heat wok, add oil when hot

Set the stove to its highest heat, and let the wok heat up for 2-5 minutes (depending on the strength of your stove). When it's hot enough, add vegetable oil, and swirl it around the wok.

If you want to save a bit of time, you can start boiling water (1 cup) for later.

We dive into this a lot more in our video, but it's important to let your wok heat up.

• There's a concept in Cantonese cooking called "Wok Hei", and one of the main prerequisites is extreme heat (generally hotter than what our home stoves can output.)
• The Cantonese word "hei 气" is more commonly known by its Mandarin equivalent, "qi", which we all know as our breath, our energy, our life force.
• Wok Hei has a lot of different meanings, but author Grace Young puts it beautifully as "The Breath of the Wok" (also the name of her amazing book on the subject)
• /u/J_Kenji_Lopez-Alt also has some great writing and videos on the subject:
  • I can't post more than one link, but these are worth Googling:
    • "The Elements of Wok Hei"
    • "Kenji - Vegetable Lo Mein" - Kenji makes Vegetable Lo Mein with a blow torch!

Step 5 - Cook garlic, vegetables

Add the garlic, and cook for about 20-30 seconds until you start to smell the garlic's aromas.

Then, add the vegetables and cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.

Step 6 - Add boiled water, cover wok, prepare slurry

Add boiled water (1 cup)​ to the wok, and cover for 2-3 minutes until it starts boiling again. While we wait, we'll mix cornstarch (1 tbsp) and water (3 tbsp) into a slurry.

Step 7 - Add flavors, noodles, cover wok

Uncover the wok, and add light soy sauce (0.50 tbsp), dark soy sauce (0.50 tbsp), oyster sauce (1 tbsp), sugar (1 tsp), and salt (1 tsp) into the wok.

The dark soy sauce gives noodles a slightly darker color, as well as a subtly different taste profile.

Stir the flavors around with the vegetables for a few seconds, then add the noodles.

Cover the wok for about 3 minutes, just until it's about to boil again.

Step 8 - Add cornstarch slurry

Stir the cornstarch slurry for a few seconds, and slowly pour it into the wok.

This step is what differentiates my dad's lo mein recipe from a lot of other chefs, who would typically add the cornstarch to the vegetables before adding the noodles.

By letting the noodles stew in the juices and flavors for a few minutes, we're essentially marinating the noodles and allowing the noodles to absorb more of the flavor internally. If you add cornstarch early, it acts as a thickener and binding agent that prevents the noodle from absorbing the flavors.

Step 9 - Add bean sprouts, green onions, sesame oil

Add bean sprouts (3 oz), chopped green onions, and sesame oil (1 tsp). Stir everything around for 60-90 seconds.

Step 10 - Plate the noodles!

We're ready to eat! Plate the noodles into your favorite dish and call your loved ones over.