Recipe for Dis’summer

Most of us look to summer in China with a mixture of relief and apprehension. Light skies even after returning home from work, scantily clad youth, and a pervasive sense of warm ease. But then there are the light skies peeking through your curtains at five a.m., scantily clad seniors, and a lingering case of the food blahs. You’re hungry, just not for anything fried, greasy, or hot. Or served inside a muggy restaurant. Out the window goes 99% of your evening dining options.

Eating al fresco at one of those innumerable down-market sidewalk bistros is always an earthy multi-cultural option, but wife-beater singlet and rolled pant leg attire is mandatory, and the wait staff never understands your un-dialected Mandarin.

Hold on – brainstorm: cook your own dinner. “What!” you gasp, “Sully my own hands with meal preparation? Eating out twenty times a week is the China expat’s greatest privilege, his raison d’stay here!” Go on. Try it. As long as you don’t have to do it too often, cooking for yourself is one of life’s win/win chores, meditative and sustaining.

Here’s a great summer Chinese noodle recipe that requires very little work but some time, as you have to let the noodles cool after boiling. It’s light yet hearty, with a mixture of zing and tang, bitter and sweet, spicy and fragrant, all belying its humble name, ji si liang mian [sliced chicken cold noodles].

What you’ll need for two hungry people:

Gua Mian Noodles

Soy Sauce, Vinegar, & Sugar

1 Medium Cucumber

Green Onion & Ginger

1 Clove of Garlic

1 Chicken Breast

Ma Jiang [Sesame Paste]

Chili Oil & Sesame Oil

Peppercorns

The game’s afoot:

1.Heat some cooking oil in a frying pan, add a few slices of ginger, a teaspoon of peppercorns, and cook quickly on high heat until some smoke rises from the oil. Turn off the flame and let cool.

2.Fill a big pot halfway with water and set it to boiling. At low boil, add half the packet of Gua Mian noodles. Cook five to eight minutes, until the middle of a test noodle is no longer white but cooked through.

3.Drain the noodles, and add them to the oil in the frying pan. You might want to remove the ginger slices and peppercorns first. Leave the mixture to cool a few hours. Definitely don’t refrigerate to speed up cooling.

4.While the noodles are cooling, boil the chicken breast until cooked through but still tender, generally ten to fifteen minutes. When cooked, leave it out to cool, then chop into chunks half the size of your pinky.

5.Dice the cucumber into thin strips. Dice the clove of garlic fine, too.

6.Put two or three rounded table spoons of sesame paste in a small bowl, and add vinegar and soy sauce while stirring, to make a thick, creamy sauce. Blend in three teaspoons of sugar, too, if you’ve no reservations.

7.When all is cool, mix everything together and serve. You may want to leave the sauce in its bowl so your guest can micromanage the quantity.

Special thanks to Kerry Xie, for both shots and knowhow.

Related posts:

1. The Summer Camp Phenomenon

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