I decided to extend the fried garlic noodle idea into a full blown one (the morning one was a semi-vegetarian one with no meat except some sausages that I boiled) together with some soup and ribs. Fried garlic noodle is quite famous in Burma (aka Myanmar) and one of the most successful meal inherited and adapted to Burma.
To make fried garlic noodle (for 3-6 adults), you may need:
- Flat noodle - 3 - 6 bowls (depending on the head count :P)
- Pork spare rib or chicken breast - 250g (I prefer pork though)
- Garlic - a clove or two (may be three depending on its size)
- Cooking oil - a cup (don't forget to use sunflower oil for your health)
- Spring onion - just a shoot or two
- Dark soy sause - 1 tablespoon
- Light soy sause - 2 tablespoon
- Rice vinegar - 1 tablespoon
- Salt - a couple of tablespoons
Peal the garlic, rinse and chop them to get small pieces (like above). Then put them in a bowl (do not use a plastic one). Marinade the pork rib with vinegar, dark and light soy sause and a tablespoonful of salt (like below). Put the oil in a large pan and heat it up.
When the oil gets hot (and you see some vapor rising from the pan), pour the oil into the garlic in a bowl. This is the most important part in making of this noodle. If you try to fry the chopped garlic in a pan, it is very easy to overcook them getting black garlic noodle :P. You can use this method to get fried chili powder (a famous ingredient in Shan recipes). The garlic will become golden brown like this:
Put the large pan on the fire (yes, don't clean it). Pick the pork ribs and slice off the meat apart from the bone (yet, you don't need to be very neat in this part). Put the meat together with the sause used to marinade them into the hot pan. Stir for a while before you pour a cup of water into the pan. Let it boil but stir it now and then. Meanwhile, you may need a larger pot to boil the bones. Put some salt (a tablespoon or two) and a couple cups of water into that large pot together with the bones and let it boil, too.
Every 5-10 minutes, the level (of the sause) in the pan will fall and you may need to put more water into it. But don't overdo it. That's the sause that will bring taste to the noodle. Continue adjusting the sause level - while stiring frequently - for 30 minutes and it's almost ready. Opps, don't forget the soup. Stir it too.
At this point, one may complain about sticking to the stove and stir for half an hour. I solve this problem by using microwave oven. When the sause level in the pan falls to just half a cup or so, I transfer the sause and meat into a microwave-safe container and cook them using microwave for three minutes (setting the microwave to HIGH). Then I put enough (that means a large) amount of water to the soup and start drafting this post :P. Here's what I got out of my microwave. Be careful, don't flip the cover in a haste. It's damn hot.
Mince pork meat (for me, I finished the draft first as it is so hot) to get something like this:
Then, the noodle is almost ready. Chop the spring onion. Put the fried garlic (only the garlic, be careful not to take so much oil), the sause from the meat and some salt (half a tablespoon) into the noodle bowl. Stir well and put the chopped spring onion on top. Get the soup into another bowl (not the bowl with noodle) and put some chopped spring onion, too. Now ready to serve:
You may notice there ain't no green thing in the above figure. I didn't have any spring onion at home and I was so lazy to go and buy. Enjoying the noodle, I had to make a call to my Onee Chan (elder sister) E as she asked me to do so via G-talk. After a chit-chat, I continued with my lunch only to remember that today's my parents' wedding anniversary. I tried to call them but the lines are busy so I just sent an email to them (plus a request to a friend in Rangoon - aka Yangon - to SMS them my wish.)
Try to make this noodle youselve. It's way too easy, not time-consuming, delicious and economical. That's explain how the Chinese guys, who set up noodle outlets, get rich so fast. Rumors say they are doing illegal things. In my opinion, they don't need to as the margin of the noodle business is already quite wide (they just boil - not cook - the various you-know-what parts of the pig, use the help of MSG to sweeten the noodle etc, put only a small amount of meat in a serving and charging something equivalent to other putting-so-much-meat resturants like Biryani.) Not just a good business, but a very very good business.
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