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I went and got proper lo mein noodles. I had leftover fried chicken and used the wings for the protein.
I have one more bag of noodles. They are $2.99 for 8 ounces. I will not be buying them again. They are just a egg pasta. I'll make my own.
Cost per person $4 Cost of I make the noodles: something close to $2.50
This is not criticism, it's my personal failure/weirdness: does this extreme yellow/brown color and shape of the noodles remind anyone else of worms or insects? I'm almost gagging looking at it, it doesn't look appetizing to me at all π
I don't see it but I can see how you can see it. On the other hand, on the kind of person who would love to have a few crickets and grasshoppers in here if that were available. Because I have no issue with eating land shrimp.
I think... I'm mostly influenced by my constant gastric issues right now. I don't even know why I made that comment. Carry on :)
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie
Lo mein
Growing up in New Jersey, lo mein was my favorite Chinese dish (American style takeout Chinese--we didn't have authentic Chinese restaurants at that time).
Imagine my surprise when I moved to the west coast and lo mein simply wasn't a thing on menus! Like, ever, at all. Every Chinese restaurant in New Jersey had multiple styles of lo mein.
I thought at first that this must be because we had takeout Chinese in Jersey and very few Chinese people in the area. So I thought it must just be a very Americanized version of Chinese food.
But it's not! It's a common Cantonese food and is pretty much always called "lo mein" or "lao mian" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo_mein). And the west coast has a pretty huge Cantonese population.
So I don't know. We have tons of similar dishes at restaurants here, but they don't use the name "lo mein" and none of them are quite the same as what I grew up with. The flavor is not quite the same and the noodles are rarely the flatter style wheat noodles served in New Jersey.
I still wonder about it.
yeah, west coast us chinese food is different from east coast us chinese food. they're both great, it's just different. i haven't had enough east coast us chinese food to really describe the difference tho
That's curious. In San Diego every 99Β’ Chinese Food place had it. Might not find it at the more upscale places, basically any places with shrimp, but the bargain places always had it.
My favorite was the Dim Sum place in downtown. It wasn't the best lo mein. But it was the kind of ply where someone would piss off the owner and you could get dinner and a show. And if you looked carefully enough you could see that they were totally a front operation for running illegal cigarettes.
A person would walk up to the door, inconspicuously touch some spot on the frame, and someone would come out from the back to complete a deal.
On the weekends they would offer a very un-Asian breakfast special of 4 eggs, 4 bacon, 4 sausage, 4 toast, for $4. In 2002 it was the best deal in the whole city. I miss that place.
To be fair, I am including only the three states north of California on the west coast. Interesting that they have it down in California, though.
And back in Jersey, even the cheapest places had shrimp lo mein or combination lo mein, which would include shrimp.
They didn't have lo mein elsewhere???
THEY DON'T HAVE SHRIMP LO MEIN ELSEWHERE???
NJ is the best state and we must protect it. For that and diners. And salt water taffy.
But we must continue to pretend it's the worst state.
I do miss the diners. Nowhere beats NJ diners.
The shrimp thing might be more of an north vs south California thing. San Diego is not a great source of seafood. Almost everything you do find isn't local. By the time the ocean current works its way down there it hasn't got much left in it to feed stuff. No San Francisco dungeness crab, no Alaskan king crab. The whales eat all the shrimp. It's on the edge of swordfish but no one is putting that in their noodle dish. You want sea urchin? All you can eat. But the shrimp gotta be imported.
Interesting. When I lived down in Oregon (I'm in Washington now), shrimp was one of my go-to protein sources because it was usually only six bucks a pound. And I eat a diet which is more balanced in protein than the standard American diet--bit of protein, some veggies, a carb, which makes $6 a pound very affordable.
I was shocked when I spent a little bit of time out in Florida. I'd heard all about Gulf Coast shrimping (thanks, Forrest Gump?), but shrimp was so expensive there. Now that I'm back in the northwest, I still see it as a cheap source of protein.
I guess I figured seafood would have better availability in San Francisco than that because they invented cioppino.
It's weird how seafood works. Some of the best is in the middle of the country where people will pay more for it. When I lived in Virginia Beach I could get gulf shrimp cheaper than something more local.
But now the best local option for shrimp is very literally the guy that parks near the railroad crossing four miles away and sells out of the back of his trunk. I'm 2.5 hours from the coast.
Next time, mix a bit of cannabis in there and call it hi mein.
Not on my budget.
If you come to Vancouver any time you can do it on my budget
It's not really my thing. Besides, I'd have to be able to afford a passport. One without Trump's face on it.
And then we both can tell Triumph they are welcome
How would you make such noodles?
On YT I once saw a recipe for make thin Chinese egg noodles in which the chef simply stretch-pulled the dough mass apart, folded it back in two, stretched it out again from the new ends and repeated X times. After a while the desired thinness was achieved, and he'd cut the loop ends of the pasta mass, sort of like Mac King cutting the ends from his classic rope-trick routine. If that makes sense.
What I thought was extremely clever was that he didn't need a machine or any special cutting tools to make consistent noodles. Just physics and a little bit of natural math.
Also, I'm pretty sure the right gluten content was key to making it work. Like starting from pastry flour or something.
I don't have the skills to do a stretch noodle. I'll just use a pasta roller. And if that doesn't work texture wise I'll have to learn how to stretch.
pasta roller
Oh shoot, those look really neat.
I sure as heck don't have the skills either, and eat minimal pasta anyway (usually just some rice, glass noodles or cup-o-ramen), but I'll try to give it a zing one of these times and share the (disastrous) aftermath.
I have an Atlas pasta machine. The gold standard for home pasta rolling and cutting. I ended up with a spare and put it up for grabs last year on a local Facebook group. Probably could have made $50 bucks off it but my surplus is up for grabs.
I mean, living close-to-the-bone is something I've strived for since my late 20's, much of that sort of a virtual protest upon predatory capitalism at large (which of course, doesn't care a flip), but as we grow older (oof, guess which fluppin' milestone I just hit, this past Sunday?), I feel like the ordinary kindness of community-building / support as I take your motive (but maybe I'm wrong?) is just... sadly eroded, or something. Like: these two are some of my heroes, but...
Dick Proenneke:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jG3fUIoXQ5A
John Plant:
https://www.youtube.com/@primitivetechnology9550/videos
...but the best I can do locally is helping out with free community gardens, and such. Yeah... and this is certainly MY PROBLEM, but at times I really do feel like I'm letting my ancestors down, and locals who truly believe in community, and not some Mormon / Scientology-level shizzle.
Just... fuck.
/rant
I once got in a spat with someone in a local Facebook group. They went all "as if you do anything for the community." I felt it best to not even bother to reply. I definitely wasn't going to say "I have two homeless people living in my yard right now and up up at 3:30 am to drive another one to work." They wouldn't have believed me anyway.
The community responded for me. People I had forgotten and people I could never place if I met them jumped in to let the person know exactly what I had done for them of the community as a whole.
The other day I went to a shop I have been to exactly once in the past. They have a discord that I also post my cooking and art to. Some guy was pacing back and forth on the phone out front. I stepped out of the car and he looked at me and shouted "Heathcliff!"
Shortly after that I learned that there are a lot of people that I have never met that called me a legend. It was awkward. When we got back in the cary wife said "I forgot what it was like to be in public with you. Do you miss being treated like a rock star?"
When I first met her, before moving to a different state, we would walk into a place I had never been before and someone I had never met would tell my money was no good there. I have had to learn that as uncomfortable as it can be there are people that know me even if I don't know them.
And, apparently, a lot of this is because I step up and will get things done.
Which, I guess, is part of why a lot of my posts include things like "the meat was free."
And as a guy on the spectrum who doesn't even tell people my birthday because I can't stand the attention, is a super uncomfortable paradox to be in.
--
As for close to the bone.
I want a minimalist lifestyle. But there is a catch. Minimalism is for people that can buy what it takes to solve a problem. I can't do that. I have to be able to fix it without money. So my garage is a workshop. My kitchen has a lot of hand made tools. I knit my scarf and gloves because I'm not going to buy them. Which means having all the knitting supplies. The sewing supplies. All the things it takes to solve problems without money take up space and make minimalism hard. All the farming stuff? Takes up space.
But I'm definitely not feeding capitalism if I can solve a problem without it.
Whoa.
Wow.
Dang.
Actually, I think I can relate to you across at least one of those areas, FP-- i.e., there have been gals / people / groups who considered me this sort of 'amazing, wonderful person' upon first encounters, and glad-rocked me to be added towards their... well... whatever the hell their local belief system was. :S
Almost every single time, that-all turned out to be a perfect disaster, and much of the time I just had to sabotage that shizzle. Just shut it down hard, even if I get villified by angry, ex-GF's. And indeed, that's what commonly happened.
Honestly, it kind of KILLS me how I had a pretty, patient, librarian-type GF a few years back, and I really did like her, and for-sure could patiently get myself involved in her stuff (because that's how we do, right?)
but... BUT... BUT...
Godammit, this is dumb and embarrassing. π€’
I can assure you that I will make every effort to not make you uncomfortable about your status as a wonderful person. But if you need anything let me know.
My exes are a mix. But each and every one will say that my ability to offer validation is lacking. And that if they are going to recognize my birthday that it better involve cheesecake. A lesson even my mom learned.
Can you tell us your recipe? Because they came out looking very nice.
FlexibleToast is correct that the noodles is an easy part. AP Flour and egg like any Italian egg noodle. Mix, kneed, cut, boil. If you are using commercial noodles you are looking for "Canton" noodles even the dry ones cook in 4 minutes. Fresh ones will be like two minutes.
Stir Fry the veggies. In this case it's diced onion, diced bell pepper, Julienne Carrots, and thin sliced cabbage. About 3/4 cup each. But use whatever you got in whatever quantity you want. Stir fry in a high smoke point oil like peanut oil at high heat into soft and there is some char.
Add the cooked noodles to the stir fry pan/wok with the veg. Add the sauce. Toss until mixed. Serve. Top with the chopped fried chicken that's been crisped in the toaster oven.
The sauce. I made more than I used because it was easier on the math.
2 tbsp soy sauce.
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil.
1 tbsp cornstarch mixed in 1 tbsp hot water.
1 tbsp hoisin sauce.
1 tbsp rice wine.
1 pinch red pepper flakes.
1/2 tsp scant msg.
1/4 tsp granulated garlic.
Yeah, the noodles aren't the hard part. It's the rest of the ingredients and the technique used.
Correct. Ingredients and techniques in my reply to them.