I Can't Cook Noodles like William Chen- but by God I'll Try

Oh. My. Goodness.

Thursday, I was walking to the bank and I decided that I would drop into this little Asian Market to grab something to eat since it was right there, in my way, and I’d never previously been inside. As soon as I entered, I started salivating, thinking of all the cooking options this place has in store for me. All the possibilities of what I can cook flitter around my brain and I can’t stop my heart from beating like a hummingbird’s wings in utter unquenchable excitement. Gahhhh.

I should announce now that I am a self-professed foodie, an aficionado of a good recipe, animal-shaped cookie cutters, random and unnecessary cooking supplies, the conglomeration of carefully selected spices, and aromas wafting through the kitchen. Fortunately, I have (with the exception of this year) always lived with and been surrounded by people who love food as much as I do. My father and sister will call me periodically and carefully go over their menus of the evening describing in great detail exactly what they will be cooking, what it will taste like, and all the ingredients that they will be using. My aunt Teresa was a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America and has her own cooking blog. My grandmothers, and paternal great-grandmother and aunts always ensure that I am never hungry, always sending me away from their homes with a goodie bag. My last two years of college were spent in “The Oreo House”, already a declaration of our love to edible things. The kitchen was always occupied by someone chopping vegetables… or stirring funfetti batter… or eating around the kitchen table with pots of rice and beans. Several times we attempted the old booze and dancing shindig in our lovely house, but eventually we just reverted to hosting potlucks and dinner parties. This is something that remains indescribably beautiful to me… people cooking together, sharing meals, and learning from one another.

Jehhal, Amanda & I cooking '07.

Mia, Elizabeth, me, Amanda, & Jehhal around the kitchen table '07.

Elizabeth and I sharing a meal with Kerone, Chin, & Jhaniel '08.

Oreo House Potluck during Cornell's 2009 graduation.

In “The Oreo House”, Elizabeth was the Dominican Queen cooking up her beans, rice, and platanos. Kristin was the creator of American/Pakistani fusion food. I was the bearer of tamales, enchiladas, and tortillas… compliments of being a Nuevo Mexicana. And Will…Will was the connoisseur of Asian food… especially noodles.

The week before last, Will sent me this Asian noodle recipe (since I had mentioned that I had been craving some form of Asian noodles) and I knew, as soon as I entered the Market, that I absolutely had to try his dish that night.

William Chen’s Noodle Salad Recipe (in it’s original form)

It's a noodle salad, you'll need tomato, apple, peach, plum, avocado, (all ripe) chicken breast, and japanese syle noodle (shirasagi no hana maruudon), Ken's steakhouse brand asain sesame w/ ginger soy, and bbq sauce and olive oil dice up the fruit and avocado, without skin, put it into a large bowl and mix it around, boil the noodles, strain, and cool with cold water, mix it in with the fruit, put a little bit of olive oil in it, maybe some balsamic vinegar and mix, now in a pan use some olive oil set it on high and put your diced chicken breast in and mix, put in your bbq first, mix and let the sauce flaver seep into the chicken and let the chick cook but not to the point where it's rubbery, then add the ginger soy, mix and put into the noodles, mix quickly and if done right it should all still be pretty cold, oh! you can also add in some salad greens in the mix +scallions

I should note at this time that my friend Geoff was coming over to hang out and he can be a picky eater, so I had to ensure that my cooking up a noodle dish wouldn’t be a problem. He said it was fine, just as long as it didn’t have meat, so I simply took out the chicken Will suggested and viola. William Chen Vegetarian Noodle Salad.

Later that evening, after work, I hurriedly traversed over to my community garden plot, picked some tomatoes, scallions, and a bell pepper before hopping over to my newly found treasure to grab the remaining items… which turned out to be… difficult.

I stood with my grocery basket staring at the sauces for about 10 minutes looking for “Ken’s steakhouse brand Asian sesame with ginger soy” before giving up, calling Will at work, and pleading with him to “pleasestayonthephoneit’sanemergencyidon’tknowwhatkindofsauce togetfortheasiannoodles” and eventually finding out that teriyaki sauce might work nicely. So, I got a teriyaki sauce and a ginger dressing before heading on to get the other supplies and picking out some beautiful vegetarian pot stickers from the freezer.

Yay!

Ingredients for the picnic!

Ingredients, including tomatoes, scallions and a bell pepper from the garden.

That’s when I set to work, going home with my ingredients, chopping up the veggies and fruit (which I thought was kind of odd for a noodle salad- but I trust Will, so fruit it is), boiling the noodles, throwing everything together with some teriyaki and ginger sauces and topping it off with some sesame seeds. Then I steamed the frozen pot stickers and lo and behold, Geoff and I had a lovely picnic in Elizabeth Park, compliments of Will’s expertise in delightful noodle dishes.

Geoff with the pot stickers & noodles that we carried to the park.

Revised Recipe

Ingredients:

1 plum

½ apple

½ avacado

1 small bell pepper

5 scallions

1 tomato (or 8 baby tomatoes)

Japanese Style Noodles (approximately 1 small bag)

1 Tbsp olive oil

½ Tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 ½ C. ginger dressing

½ C. Teriyaki Sauce

½ cup sesame seeds

Directions:

1) Chop up fruit and vegetables and throw them into a medium sized bowl.

2) Boil Japanese style noodles until cooked, strain, and run cold water on them until the noodles are cool.

3) Put the noodles into the bowl with the fruit and vegetables.

4) In a small bowl mix together olive oil, vinegar, ginger dressing, and teriyaki sauce. Pour over noodles.

5) Mix noodle salad.

6) Put sesame seeds in salad.

7) Mix well before serving.