Noodle-Os

People often ask me about my favorite food, and I have a favorite evasive, wordy, and unsatisfying answer, which goes like this:

_Any kind of spicy noodles with vegetables and meat._

That’s actually an oversimplification. I specifically mean dry noodle dishes, not noodle soups, and they don’t have to be spicy at serving time, because I maintain an arsenal of spicy condiments. Oh, and one of my all-time favorites doesn’t actually include vegetables, unless you consider bean sprouts a vegetable.

I was thinking about this tonight as I was cooking up some yakisoba. I’d already decided to make it for dinner, and I Googled for a recipe. The first hit I got was Tara Austen Weaver’s [great post](http://teaandcookies.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-make-yakisoba-recipe.html) on the subject, complete with recipe:

> Customers entered and sat around a large communal table that was covered with a metal grill surface. The ingredients for each order were put on the grill and cooked before the customer, then pushed to where they were sitting so they could eat. I’m not sure if this early experience sealed the deal, but to this day I love yakisoba.

Me too, despite my lack of formative experiences with the stuff. Yakisoba is fast food: precooked noodles, a few common vegetables, whatever meat is on hand. The spicy, if you want any, comes from [shichimi togarashi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shichimi_togarashi). I ate my yakisoba, read the latest Everyday Food (“Have you tried: corn tortillas?” Yes. Yes I have), and started thinking about what yakisoba is. (Reading Everyday Food always puts me in a philosophical mood, what with all of Martha’s obscure biblical references and Socratic dialogues and stuff.)

You can classify yakisoba as a [Japanese noodle dish](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_noodles), of course. Two excellent Japanese noodle books were published last year: [Takashi’s Noodles](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1580089658/?tag=mamstesgrubshack) and [Noodle Comfort](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1934287571/?tag=mamstesgrubshack), and it was while reading the latter book this morning that I got yakisoba lodged in my brain.

But another way of looking at yakisoba is as a member of a family of stir-fried and otherwise non-soupy noodle dishes that cuts across Asia. It includes (among many others; these are just the ones I’m most familiar with):

* [Yaki udon](http://www.culinate.com/search/q,vt=top,q=yaki+udon/190643) (Japan)
* [Japchae](http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2008680298_pacificptaste01.html) (Korea)
* [Ants on a tree](http://www.culinate.com/content/books/collections/3199/hungry_monkey/ants_on_a_tree) (China)
* [Pad thai](http://www.culinate.com/search/q,vt=top,q=pad+thai/74307) (Thailand)
* Other Thai noodle dishes like _khanom jeen,_ _pad kee mao,_ and _pad si ew._
* [Pancit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancit) (Philippines)

and, of course, chow mein, some form of which is presumably the ancestor of all fried noodles. I say this not because I have any historical evidence–it’s just that any food I like always seems to come from China if you go back far enough. It’s almost like the human race came from Africa but food came from China.

What fried noodle dishes have I forgotten? If there were a fried noodle cookbook, am I the only one who would curl up with it night after night?

6 thoughts on “Noodle-Os

  1. Tea

    You know, I think non-soupy fried noodle dishes might be my favorite as well.

    Two more:
    Pad Woo Sen from Thailand (thin rice noodles, veggies, egg; not spicy, no sauce).
    Chinese Chow Fun. Love the wide noodles.
    There’s a Vietnamese dish as well, can’t remember the name but that’s my standard order at Greenleaf.

  2. margie

    Pad Si Ew is my all-time favorite noodle dish – and I’m a serious noodle fan, too.

    It’s funny, because I normally like my Asian foot spicy spicy, but Pad Si Ew is rather sweet, and full of umami, but not spicy at all.

    I don’t know if it has a name, but I love cabbage stir-fried with obscene amounts of chili paste and garlic, tossed with wheat noodles and a bit of sesame oil, fish sauce, and dark soy sauce.

  3. Swanner

    Okay, that’s weird… yesterday I purchased my first ever jar of shichimi togarashi, even though I had no real clue as to what it was, because it just looked so tasty. I tried it shaken into my hand and fell instantly in love – and now you post and tell me what to put it on!

  4. nora

    i totally agree about non-soupy spicy noodles… some of the best foods involve noodles, vegetables and meat in one form or another… growing up I hardly ever got to eat them though as my mother hates noodles… I have many years of lack of noodles to make up for! Thanks for the great post

  5. Mariko

    I think bi bim bap blows spicy noodles out of the water, though. (But I like all those choices too– just, if I HAD to choose.)
    Funny, I just read your book and wondered if you did the Japan thing, and here you are. In Japan. And I would never get tired of eating in Japan with my 4 year old (although my husband would, and has).

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