Chinese Noodle Salad

My Chinese colleagues at work like to prepare this noodle salad during special occasions when everyone brought some food to share. I always enjoy this kind of gathering and forget about science for a little while. Science is sometimes too mysterious and this really tests my patience. What I love about science is that once you get an interesting result, it's very rewarding. This, of course, makes you feel good.

Anything can be added to chinese noodle salad, depending on your preference. You can have prawns or chicken or BBQ pork/ duck or vegetarian style. I spent last weekend making this salad based on what I had in the fridge. There were Hokkien noodles, cabbage, shallot, coriander, chicken thigh filllets, five-spiced tofu, dried beancurd and toasted sesame seeds. This salad is very delicious and so perfect to enjoy during summer. Give it a go!

Salad dressing:

• 1/4 cup kikkoman soy sauce
• 2 tbs dark soy sauce
• 1/4 cup brown vinegar
• 1/4 cup sesame oil
  
• 3 tbs hot chilli oil
• 1 tbs sugar

This salad dressing is enough for 2 packets of Hokkien Noodle (6 servings). If you only prepare a small portion, reduce the dressing by half the amount. You can adjust the amount of soy sauce and vinegar depending on your taste. 

Salad Ingredients:

• Hokkien noodles (blanch in boiling water and drain)
• shallot (cut thinly)
• coriander (cut thinly)
• cabagge (cut thinly)
  
• toasted sesame seeds
• Stir fry: olive oil, minced garlic, chicken thigh fillets (cut into strips), tofu (cut thinly) and dried beancurd (soaked in water overnight, then cut thinly). Add a pinch of salt, pepper and dark soy sauce.

I prepared my thigh fillets in stir fry to avoid having raw garlic in my salad. You can boil the meat for the salad and add raw garlic. This is easier to prepare but the garlic taste will be quite strong. You can balance it by adding minced young ginger. So, here are some pictures showing my salad preparations.