Gong Xi Fa Cai
Happy Chinese New Year, 4707 the year of the Ox – Gong Xi Fa Cai – Gung Hei Fat Cho
It is the year of the Ox. A strong beast, patient and hopefully a sign to instill confidence in the coming year. I want to wish everyone good luck, good fortune and good health in the coming year.
I decided to make something specifically Chinese to celebrate today. We have been eating mostly Southeast Asian based dishes. I love dishes with coconut milk and spicy chilies. But I felt I should make something Chinese based. I selected Chow Mein from Rasa Malaysia. They had a great post with 12 recipes for Chinese New Year. I can’t resist noodles so I went with Chow Mein.
The recipe is extremely simple if you can find the ingredients. Luckily there is a Ranch 99 Asian Market just a mile away. G and I went over there to pick up the ingredients after our quick hike to the beach.
The first challenge was finding the steamed chow mein noodles. After checking out a few packages in the fresh noodle section – Voila – steamed chow mein noodles.
Next up was dark Chinese soy sauce. I never realized there were different types of soy sauce. I grew up with Kikkoman on table. Was there a difference between soy sauces? Yes. In simplest terms – there is a salty version and a sweet version. In Malaysia and Indonesia – there is Kepap Manis , sweet soy sauce and kecap asin, salty soy sauce. It is similar with chinese soy sauce, light is more salty and dark is more sweet.
I decided to make a mainly vegetarian version with just a handful of prawn. In addition to the cabbage and carrots called for in the recipe, I also diagonally cut up some celery, left-over choy sum, blanched snow peas and bean sprouts. Cover the noodles with cold water, soak for 5 minutes and drain.
Once every thing is assembled and the noodles soaked, it is time to fry. Heat up the oil, add the garlic and quickly stir fry for about 30 sec to 1 minutes. Add celery, cabbage, carrots and shrimp. Cook for about 1 minute. Add the drained noodles and seasoning mix. Stir, add snow peas and bean sprouts and stir again. Serve when headed through and the sauce has been absorbed.
For the full recipe, see Rasa Malaysia Chow Mein.
For dessert, we had fruit and Azuki ice cream from Maeda-En. We love the ice cream.
Gong Xi Fa Cai!
That ice cream is the prettiest color – but I had to Google it. 🙂
Hi Marta, Happy Chinese New Year to you and your family too! This recipe and your photos are all so good. I love noodle dishes.
The ice cream looks good too and I like how you ate them with fruit. Very nice.
Thanks for sharing.
What an amazing meal! Your blog is better than a food magazine. Beautiful photos that make my mouth water.
Gong Xi Fa Cai!
That looks delicious! I use those noodles to make a *insert your protein of choice* and and broccoli with black bean sauce over stir-fried noodles. Always a big hit with the boys.
Marta’s Reply – Oooh… that sounds great also.
I am very impressed with your culinary skills. Both look absolutely yummy!
Do you know the reason behind the different Happy New Year sayings – Kung Hee Fat Choy (which is most popular here in Hawaii), Gong Xi Fa Cai, and Gung Hei Fat Cho? Is it different dialects, a more Americanized version, Taiwan vs Hong Kong vs China?
Marta everything looks so amazing and the color of the ice cream such a beautiful shade. We had chinese food too but I just got take out. Yours looks so much better. See you this weekend.
Wow, Marta, that looks great, and not too difficult.
And I love the purple ice cream!
Girasoli – I know the difference between Gong Xi Fa Cai, and Gung Hey Fat Choy is Mandarin versus Cantonese Chinese. Most of my friends growing up in CA were Cantonese so I’ve always said “Gung Hey Fat Choy”. I’ve only recently found the Mandarin.I’ve never heard Kung Hee Fat Choy. It must be specific to Hawaii.
Thanks everyone for the comments. I’m going to try to blog about Azuki when I get back from Paso.
Marta,
This looks great! As always, your photos are wonderful. I think I’ll stop by 99 Ranch tonight and look for those noodles. Thanks!