Homemade Kadayif Noodles

Round and round and round we go...  These are the delicate paths we follow to the making our own Homemade Kadayif Noodles!  And just what are these kadayif noodles, you may be asking?  

Well, have you ever heard of 'Dubai Chocolate'?   Ever tasted the creamy, crunchy pistachio filling in a Dubai Chocolate?  Well, you need these fine kadayif noodles if you're going to get that exquisite crunch!  My little girl introduced me to Dubai Chocolate and we quickly became hooked onto that incredibly nutty, creamy, crunchy pistachio filling inside the chocolate.  We wanted to try making it at home!

We soon realized that, while pistachio is fairly easy to obtain, pre-made kadayif noodles are 1) hard to obtain and 2) kinda expensive.  Luckily, after some research, we realized that these delicate kadayif noodles can be made at home with a wee bit of effort and time!

Vegetarian Mushroom Ramen Soup Noodles 素食蘑菇湯拉麵

Savory, rich, filled to the brim with lip-smacking, noodle slurping, umami yummy-liciousness!  Dearest noodle lovers, we're making a bowl of veggie ramen noodles today for all those plant lovers out there!  A bowl of chewy but firm ramen noodles topped with meaty aromatic shrooms and just cooked tender veggies, nestled in a hot and savory umami packed veggie soup.  M oh man, we love us our noodles!

Homemade Ramen Noodles 自製拉麵

Going noodle-crazy here at The Hong Kong Cookery!  After making homemade udon, and having so much fun, we decided to march right on and try making ramen at home!  Turns out that it's not hard to make at all and homemade ramen is sooo good!!  

Darn it, wish that someone had let me know about making ramen years ago...

Flounder Fish Soup Noodles 甫魚麵

Sometimes you just want to appreciate a little bit of something exquisite, a slurp of delirious deliciousness in a bowl, ya know what I mean?  Well, here's the perfect thing to satisfy that desire: Flounder Fish Soup Noodles 甫魚麵, a bowl of the most yummilicious noodles soaked up with stock and sprinkled with umami packed roasted flounder fish powder.  Ready to slurp down in a quarter of an hour!  Sounds simple, dear readers, but don't be deceived.  This seeming humble bowl of noodles packs a powerful punch of flavor and satisfaction!

Seafood Udon Soup Noodles

A simply scrumpious bowl of seafood noodles to slurp and gobble down!  What could be better than a few select treasures from the sea afloat a comforting bed of thick and chewy noodles all tucked into a hot savory soup?  Hummm...not much that I can think of!

Noodles for dinner is always lots of fun cuz it's easy to put together a pretty well rounded and spectacular looking bowl of noodles fast.  Minimal effort for maximum yummiliciousness, amirite?  Plus noodles are so scrummy to gobble down!  Try our easy Seafood Udon Soup Noodles and see if it doesn't make you happy!

Homemade Udon Noodles 自製烏龍麵

Every time we go to the library I always end up with a pile of food books to take home and devour.  Recently I picked up a Japanese cookbook about simple Japanese home cooking and, while idly flipping through it, discovered a recipe for homemade udon.  YUMMY...we love udon noodles!  Hummm...but wouldn't making udon noodles be the opposite of 'simple'?

Turns out that it is really simple to make homemade udon!  Who knew, amiright?  And not only is it easy to make, but this homemade udon tastes SO GOOD: thick, firm and chewy, so slurp-able and freshly noodle-licious!!

Truth: I'm a wee bit addicted to these fabulous and fresh noodles...

Liangpi Cold Skin Starch Noodles 凉皮麵

Our homemade wheat gluten 麵筋 post is a popular one, many of our readers enjoying the magic of making delicious wheat gluten, also known as seitan or kao fu, from just washing the starch out of a simple flour and water dough.  

One recurring question that comes up, however, is what to do with all the starch that is washed out when making wheat gluten?  Well, here's the answer!  With all that goopy leftover starch and a good bit of effort you can make these Liangpi Cold Skin Noodles 凉皮: thin, white, smooth noodles that have a delightfully chewy texture and a neutral taste that is perfect for absorbing the flavors of the sauces it's mixed with.  

Once the homemade Liangpi Noodles are made they are traditionally mixed with thinly sliced vegetables and various aromatics then tossed with a kick ass sauce of soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and chili oil.  If you like yummiliciously flavorful cold noodles then you're in for a treat!

Chinese Crab Sauce Noodles 蟹肉醬麵

This Chinese Crab Sauce Noodle is a dish to impress, no doubt about it, and it's perfect both to amaze with its gorgeous sexy looks as well as its sublime knock it out of the ball park taste explosion of ultimate crabbiness.  Luckily for us the ones we most like to impress with good food is ourselves...meaning me... because we're making this for my birthday!  (I'm a summer baby.)  

It's the Chinese custom, for those of you who don't know, to have a bowl of noodles to celebrate a birthday and what better celebration of my wonderful self (hehe) and our love of pure foody goodness than this bowl of sinfully decadent Crab Sauce Noodles 蟹肉醬麵, slippery chewy noodles smothered with a generous golden dollop of rich umami packed crab meat and roe sauce.

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.

Shanghai Pork Chop Noodles 上海豬排麵

Folks nowadays are so into instant noodles...I see families at the supermarket fill up their shopping carts with packets after packets of instant noodles!  And don't get me wrong, we love instant noodles as much as the next guy.  (My favorite flavor is the seafood curry!)  

But let's go back in time a bit, and consider, what came before instant noodles?  Well, I imagine it would be some like this...a quick and yummilicious bowl of soft slurpable noodles that fills you up with tasty crisp protein as well as hot and nourishing soup.  

This old classic noodle dish, the traditional Shanghai Pork Chop Noodles 上海豬排麵, is not only easy to make but yummy and satisfying to the tum as well!

Homemade Silver Pin Noodles 自製銀針粉

Lovely, slippery, chewy, homemade, hand rolled traditional Chinese noodles!  Easy to make, these traditional Homemade Silver Pin Noodles 自製銀針粉 will have you feeling like you've time traveled to a past when folks gathered around the table, rolling the dinner noodles deftly with a clever quick hands, all the while chatting and gossiping of this and that.  

Really, while it's actually quite easy to make these noodles, you might want to make sure you have a few friends or kids to help you out, make it a noodle rolling party!

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.

Wonton Noodles Mobile Hawker Stall 雲吞麵小販攤檔

One side for making the wonton and storing food supplies and eating implements,
the other side for the broth filled cooking pot and the charcoal brazier beneath

It often fascinates me how much the world has changed in the last, say, six to seven decades.  That sounds like a long time but it really isn't, it encompasses the lives that my parents grew up living (which doesn't really exist anymore.)  Thru the advent of modern technology and science, etc., the world has really changed so much that many of the older generation, like my dear 爸爸, are often times at a loss to cope.  

For myself it's a different kind of problem, I often find a hopeless grey fog in front of me when I try to imagine or reconstruct the way that things used to be done in the past.  I mean how the hell did things get done before the invention of machines that churn out endlessly to meet our every need nowadays?

How, for example, did people make ice cream before ice cream machines?  Or even before electricity for heck sake?!  With such thoughts often in the back of my mind, I was pleasantly surprised the other day when we stumbled upon a display of an old time 1940's Wonton Noodles Mobile Hawker Stall, or  雲吞麵小販攤檔.

Chinese Shrimp Roe Noodles 蝦籽麵

This is a classic Cantonese Noodles dish, the Shrimp Roe Noodle, or 蝦子麵.  It's a traditional chinese noodle dish that has fallen out of favor in recent years because...well, actually, I don't really know why!  

It is a stunning, simple yet complex, gorgeous to look at, and extra super yummy noodle dish (if made correctly!)  Plus, I don't know of any other noodle or pasta dish quite like this. If that ain't enough to make this Shrimp Roe Noodle dish a super star, I don't know what is!!