Garlic Flavor Noodle (or) China Town Delight of Rangoon

As our high school is in downtown Yangon (Rangoon), our father frequently treated us to after-school snacks. Among these varieties of food, the garlic flavored noodle has always been my favorite dish available in Chinatown.

In Yangon (Rangoon), Chinatown is the one of a kind food paradise for everybody who lives in the city.

Many changes have occurred since then including the emergence of a large shopping mall and a locally famous restaurant that offers food commonly found in Chinatown. But we can definitely say that the authentic taste of Satay, Kyay Owe (pork meatball soup with rice noodle), steamed dumpling, porridge and an immense variety of deep fried snack foods are always available. This food market usually opens in the evening and serves plenty of customers before its closing in the middle of the night.

These noodle shops have earned a reputation of lining 20th street of the Latha Township. The shops are still thriving there in recent days even though we enjoyed since we were very young. It is also nice to hear that the owners of the shops are healthy and remember old memories as well.

This garlic noodle is easy to make a quick lunch. If we have rotisserie chicken, this noodle dish is a quick fix meal for any busy family. This meal can be made with either chicken or pork. For the noodle, it is strongly recommended to use wonton noodle, however, if wonton noodles are not available, they can be substituted for flat egg noodles.

I hope you enjoy this simple, yet delicious meal that can either be eaten as a breakfast or lunch.

Garlic Favored Noodle ( Serves 5)

Ingredients

5 tbsp   Chopped Fresh Garlic
1/2 cup Canola Oil
1 lb      Boneless Skinless white meat Chicken
12 oz    Wonton Noodle Packet
2 tbsp   Light Soy sauce for Noodle
1 tbsp   Light Soy sauce for Chicken
1 tbsp   Chopped ginger (or) sliced ginger
1 tbsp   Salt for noodle
1 tsp     Salt for Chicken
1/2 cup Thinly sliced spring onion.
1/2 tsp  White pepper
1/2 tsp  Black pepper

Step by Step instructions

1. Place the chicken in the 2 or 3 qt pot. Add sliced (chopped) ginger and soy sauce together with salt and pepper. Then add water about 2 cups to cover the chicken completely then boil slowly with medium-high heat.

2. When the water starts to boil, turn down the heat to medium-low and let it simmer for another 20 minutes. We just need to make sure the meat is fully cooked.

3. Boil the noodle according to the packet direction and rinse with cold water then strain it and set it aside.

4. When the chicken is cooled down completely, take out the chicken from the broth. Cut the chicken into small pieces 1/8 inch cubes each. It is OK not to get an exact measurement. But cubed meat should be in small pieces.

5. In the non-stick pan add oil and heat up the pan with medium-high heat. Then add garlic to get the garlic flavor oil by frying garlic with medium-low heat till the golden brown color of garlic. Set aside in the bowl and let it cool down. (This procedure is most important part of the recipe and fried garlic should not be burnt.

6. After pouring out all the garlic oil in the bowl, add the chopped chicken into the pan, season with salt and pepper with 1 tsp of fried garlic then heat the pan and stir the meat to make seasoned meat topping.

7. Chop the spring onion very fine and set aside into the bowl. This chopped spring onion is also the topping for the noodle dish.

8. When every ingredient is ready. In the big bowl, add the chicken broth, Soy sauce, garlic flavor oil together and then mix it with either chopstick or fork.

9. In the premix, sauce bowl add all the noodle and mix it all together. We may use either chopstick or big spoon and fork to make the noodle to mix with sauce. Add salt and pepper to our own taste. We may choose to add more light soy sauce if we want.

10. We need to divide all the noodle into the 5 bowl to prepare the individual serving.

11. Add the chopped chicken on top of the noodle each individual bowl equally.

12. Then add the spring onion topping on top of the chicken.

13. We may also choose to add more crispy fried garlic (1tsp each) on the very top of the bowl above spring onion to make it more presentable and flavorful noodle.

14. This noodle is also good to serve with clear chicken soup by garnishing with finely chopped spring onion.