Shanghai Spring Onion Scallion Noodles 葱油拌面

This is my favorite Chinese cold noodle dish!  At first glance this noodle dish seems unbelievably simple, just fried spring onions topping noodles mixed with soy flavored sauce.  But when made right it's also unbelievably yummilicious!  

So much so that I always, always order this noodle when we go to Shanghai restaurants.  The sucky thing is that these days this noodle dish is badly made in the many restaurants and comes out tasting meh.  Which it shouldn't, cuz made right this Shanghai Spring Onion Scallion Noodles 葱油拌面 is absolute noodle perfection, the flavor of the fried onions intense, caramelized and delightfully chewy crispy and the al dente noodles just coated with heavenly flavor combo of sweetened soy and spring onion infused oil. 

So what is a girl to do if she can't get her noodle fix at the restaurants?  That's right, we make it at home now, just the way we like it!  It's actually a pretty easy to  make dish once you get the hang of it.

Vietnamese Lemongrass Beef Noodle Salad Bun Bo Xao

When it gets hot and muggy (yup, that's right, it feels like summer already here in Hong Kong), there's nothing like a chilled bowl of noodles, amiright? But at the same time why not go for a refreshing green salad? Heck, why not have both at the same time?! 

One of the best kinda noodles /salads for when you want to cool down and you're in the mood for lots and lots of fabulous flavor is a chilled bowl of Vietnamese Beef Vermicelli Noodles or Bun Bo Xao : tender, chewy noodles cradled in a bed of baby greens, dressed in a tangy sweet spicy sauce and topped with more luscious greens (including mint and basil!), strips of oh so flavorful grilled lemongrass marinated beef and, to top it all off, sprinkled generously with crushed peanuts and crispy fried shallots.

Green Bean Licorice Prickly Heat Herbal Tea 生地綠豆甘草茶

Do you ever think about how much beverage we buy and lug home to drink?  Water, juices, sodas, etc.  Heavy to lug home, liquid in bottles is heavy, amiright?  We buy beverages too, but it's been humming in the back of my mind for a while that there must be a better option.  

What, for example, did people used do for everyday for cool and refreshing drinks in the days before the invention of modern packaging?  They made their own drinks, of course!  

So recently when my little girl's eczema flared up again due to the already humid weather descending over Hong Kong, I decided to cook up a big ol' pot of Green Bean Licorice Prickly Heat Herbal Tea, or 生地綠豆甘草茶.  A cool, inexpensive, refreshing sweet Chinese beverage that makes a great everyday drink and soothes itchy skin and prickly heat.

Chilled Bigeye Fish - Chiu Chow Style 潮州凍大眼雞

The thing about spring in Hong Kong is that it lasts only a few cool windswept weeks and then it's gone forever.  BAM! and just like that we're right in the midst of hot summer heat.  Yuck!   If there is one thing that I could do without it's those endless summery months!  

And yet one must soldier on nevertheless and thus we find our thoughts turned longingly towards those delicious cold dishes in the Chinese repertoire. We've posted about several Northern Chinese style cold dishes like the crunchilicious Chinese Cold Cucumber Salad and the cold Chinese Spiced Beef Shin.

Today I want to share our latest obsession, a Southern style Chinese cold dish, the very easy to make and really, really amazingly fresh and sweet Chilled Bigeye Fish - Chiu Chow Style, or 潮州凍大眼雞.  This cold fish dish is so tasty and it keeps so well in the fridge that we're making batches of it so we can have it all the time! It's that good!

Chinese Chilled Crab with Vinegar Dip 凍花蟹

In the long hot months of the summer, there are few things more pleasurable to serve for dinner than a cold dish.  Actually I love Chinese cold dishes.  I have always found the taste of food chilled overnight to be especially tasty.  

Even when I was a little girl I would sneak midnight snacks from leftovers in the fridge: a cold soy sauce chicken wing, an icy wine flavored shrimp, a cool knob of fatty pork.  YUM!  Literally finger licking good!  My grandma used to always yell at me for this habit of eating straight out of the fridge.  'No, no, that's not the Chinese way!' she would say, exasperated and confused by my strange behavior.  

I guess what she meant was that Chinese food was meant to be eaten hot (and at a table!).  Which Chinese food is most of the time and properly so too.  Chinese cuisine is based on things like 'breath of the wok' after all.  But luckily there are many Chinese foods which are meant to be eaten cold, like this delicious and very easy to make Chinese Chilled Crab with Vinegar Dip, or 凍花蟹.  It's the perfect seafood dish to serve on a hot summer's night!