We had a simple dinner, the three of us - A, Snuz, and myself. At first, I thought of eating out for dinner for A's birthday (chances are it would be in a Chinese restaurant so he could have his birthday noodles). Then, I thought of how lovely our view is from our unit that maybe I could just cook for him. I figured I'd probably save more money if we just ate out (and I was right!), but I've never tried making birthday noodles as well. So, might as well grab the opportunity.
It's quite funny that we have different food must-haves for birthdays. The Chinese have their birthday noodles while most of us have cake. So, I bought a Black Forest cake from work:
Now that I've satisfied my way of celebrating a birthday, time to give A his requirement. I was browsing in search of a birthday noodle cake recipe. There are different versions to it, but I remember the type that A's not so keen on - the saucy type. What he's used to is the dry egg noodle type. I remember eating that type and like the simplicity of it. Of course, simple is not how I'm about to do mine (though I wish I went that way because now, I'm just plain sleepy). After going through a number of variations, I found this recipe for Cha Chang Noodles from Chef Gene Gonzales for yummy.ph.
Looks good, yah?
My version looks a lot different, of course. For one thing, I had to add in 4 hard boiled eggs (only 2 managed to make it in the picture for starving reasons). My Chinese colleague said that I need to add 2 eggs for the birthday celebrant, 1 egg for myself, and 1 for Snuz. He said that the eggs symbolize "zero" while the noodles represent long life. So, it's like adding more zeroes to a long life. Which to me sounded more like I don't get to have a long life as much as A because I only have one egg in the dish. Talk about inequality! And for that, Snuz and I ate our respective egg shares before we served the birthday noodle. Then, there's that part about forgetting to add in the peanuts as the recipe instructed (not that it shows that I'm no good in following instructions). So, how did mine turn out? Take a looksie:
C'mon, it's not THAT BAD! I'd have to make a comment on the Chef Gene's recipe though - It's the best tasting dry egg noodle that I've had in a while. The saltiness of the pork topping is neutralized by the bland taste of the noodle. Complements each other really well. You guys should try it out!
Going back to the celebration, we have our noodles and cake. We still have a couple of Bundaberg Diet Sarsaparilla to chug down. I still have another surprise up my sleeve for A, but I'll leave it at that for now in case a certain someone is lurking through aishouse again.
I hope you enjoyed dinner A! Happy birthday =)
Going back to the celebration, we have our noodles and cake. We still have a couple of Bundaberg Diet Sarsaparilla to chug down. I still have another surprise up my sleeve for A, but I'll leave it at that for now in case a certain someone is lurking through aishouse again.
I hope you enjoyed dinner A! Happy birthday =)
