Oil noodles or cooked noodles is a type of Chinese noodle. It is sometimes used in Cantonese cuisine.

Production

Oil noodles are made of

wheat flour Wheat flour is a powder made from the grinding of wheat used for human consumption. Wheat varieties are called "soft" or "weak" if gluten content is low, and are called "hard" or "strong" if they have high gluten content. Hard flour, or ''bread ...

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

, egg whites,

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

, corn oil, and

sodium benzoate Sodium benzoate is the sodium salt of benzoic acid, widely used as a food preservative (with an E number of E211) and a pickling agent. It appears as a white crystalline chemical with the formula C6H5COONa. Production Sodium benzoate is commo ...

. In

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, this is called ''yow mein'' if it is cylindrical in shape, and has a circular, or roundish cross-section. If it has a squarish cross-section, it is called ''mein''. In

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, this is called ''mee''. Used in Malay and Indonesian dishes, it is called ''mee'' after the

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages ...

pronunciation of the word. It is also a popular dish in Burma and the dish was introduced by Burmese oversea Chinese community. It is usually seen in china towns in Yangon and Mandalay and many cafes. ( It is called ဆီချက် in Burmese which literally means oil noodles). In

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

, this type of noodle is often served with seafood or

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, ...

and

pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved; ...

, while in

and in China, it is often served In street food and street carts called

chei zai main Chei may refer to: People * Chei or Chae, Korean surname * Chei Byung-yong (born 1982), South Korean baseball player Places * Bicaz-Chei, Romania Other * Cholinesterase inhibitor Cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs), also known as anti-choli ...

, or "

cart noodles Cart noodle () is a noodle dish which became popular in Hong Kong and Macau in the 1950s through independent street vendors operating on roadsides and in public housing estates in low-income districts, using carts. Many street vendors have v ...

". It is never served with

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adu ...

in Hong Kong. In

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, as in Mandarin-speaking China, it is known as mian. In native Taiwanese Hoklo, it is known as ''mi'', as opposed to ''bee'' which means "rice grains" that is uncooked.

Preparation

Oil noodles requires 15 minutes to cook and are relatively easy to make. First, some noodles and seasonal vegetables should be boiled in the same pot; then, they should be transferred to a

bowl A bowl is a typically round dish or container generally used for preparing, serving, or consuming food. The interior of a bowl is characteristically shaped like a spherical cap, with the edges and the bottom forming a seamless curve. This makes ...

with some

seasonings Seasoning is the process of supplementing food via herbs, spices, salts, and/or sugar, intended to enhance a particular flavour. General meaning Seasonings include herbs and spices, which are themselves frequently referred to as "seasonings". Ho ...

. As a final step, a couple of

tablespoons A tablespoon (tbsp. , Tbsp. , Tb. , or T.) is a large spoon. In many English-speaking regions, the term now refers to a large spoon used for serving; however, in some regions, it is the largest type of spoon used for eating. By extension, the ter ...

of hot

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

should be poured over everything, and then the contents of the bowl mixed.

Nutritional value

The noodles used in for oil noodles are hand-refined with high-quality flour,

tea oil Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...

, potato powder,

, and a variety of other materials. It is as thin as a hairspring and has the characteristics of refreshing but not greasy, slippery but not sticky, non-sticky in the mouth, and easy to digest. It is rich in

nutrition Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficient ...

and has the functions of strengthening the function of the

spleen The spleen is an organ found in almost all vertebrates. Similar in structure to a large lymph node, it acts primarily as a blood filter. The word spleen comes .

and

stomach The stomach is a muscular, hollow organ in the gastrointestinal tract of humans and many other animals, including several invertebrates. The stomach has a dilated structure and functions as a vital organ in the digestive system. The stomach i ...

, lowering blood pressure, and promoting breast milk. It is an ideal food for the elderly, the weak, the sick, pregnant women, and babies. These claims derive from folklore and have no basis in fact.

History

There are two versions of the history of Oil noodles. The first version is that the oil noodle was seen in the market in the late

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

. Then it was selected as court food in the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

, so they are called "Longxu tribute noodles". "Longxu" means "the

beard A beard is the hair that grows on the jaw, chin, upper lip, lower lip, cheeks, and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, usually pubescent or adult males are able to grow beards. Throughout the course of history, societal at ...

of the dragon", and the dragon is a symbol of the Chinese emperor. The second version is that a long time ago, a farmer's family walked and died to avoid the war. Only the grandfather and grandson remained dependent on each other. Due to years of

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

and

wars War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular ...

, crops have not been harvested. In order to survive the

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompani ...

, Grandpa went hunting in the mountains every day. In a cold winter, Grandpa went out for half a day to hunt back a fat wild

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

. Both grandma and grandpa enjoyed it until after the Spring Festival. Due to the heat, most of the leftover

mutton Lamb, hogget, and mutton, generically sheep meat, are the meat of domestic sheep, ''Ovis aries''. A sheep in its first year is a lamb and its meat is also lamb. The meat from sheep in their second year is hogget. Older sheep meat is mutton. Gen ...

could not be eaten. For storage, Grandpa thought of a way to cut the remaining

into chunks and store it after the

exploded. When cooking, each time the oiled

and dried

vegetables Vegetables are parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. The original meaning is still commonly used and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including the flowers, fruits, stems ...

were fried into a dish, and it was mixed with potato noodles, corn noodles, and wheat noodles. The noodles made not only solved the food for the two people to survive the

, but also made the little grandson shouted after eating. Later, the little grandson started a business and never forgets his grandfather's noodles with

and meat. In order to commemorate his late grandfather, he opened a restaurant called "Fried Pork Noodles" in Qitai Lihuajian. When the guests ate, they all praised it. From then on, "Gao You Po Noodles" became famous, and it continues to this day.

Variety

Most oil noodles require boiling or cooking; however, some varieties can be purchased already cooked. The noodles can be served hot or cold; additionally, sauce, meat,

broth Broth, also known as bouillon (), is a savory liquid made of water in which meat, fish or vegetables have been simmered for a short period of time. It can be eaten alone, but it is most commonly used to prepare other dishes, such as soups, ...

can be added.

References