chinese fluffy noodle 伊麵

Rice and wheat both are the most important staples of Chinese (as well as many Asian cultures) diet. Rice consumption is higher in the south while wheat are consumed more in the north. China has countless variety of noodles made of different grains including wheat, rice, and even beans.

In this post I made dishes with a fluffy wheat noodle. In Chinese it is called 伊麵 (pronounced as yie mein). This noodle is made with wheat flour and baking powder and then deep fried to give it a very airy texture. Because of the additional steps by weight it is more expensive than other noodles.

This yie mein was not easy to find in North America until recent years. The better grade are sold in the traditional round shape wrapped in cellophane.
this brand is from Vancouver, BC Canada - this one is good quality

While you can find dishes made with this noodle in a Cantonese restaurant, it is most frequently served in a banquet. The long strands of the noodle symbolize longevity. The most common version is the fried yie mein in dry style (it is not a good translation) 干燒伊麵 which is prepared with oyster sauce, julienne cut shitake, and yellow chives.

Whenever cooking with this noodle I like to use yellow chives. However yellow chive is often difficult to find so I would substitute with scallion.

I would make a variations of dishes depending what I have on hand. In the photo below I use lean pork, dried scallop, ginger, and celery - all julienne cut.

ingredients of one version with shitake, celery, pork, dried scallops, and pork

i blenched the noodle quickly in boiling water to rehydrate it

The dish is quite simple. The ingredients, starting with the pork and celery is stir fried first. The shitake mushrooms and the dried scallops are both cooked and seasoned beforehand would simply be mixed in together with the blanched noodle. Once the mixed ingredients are brought up to temperature I just add oyster sauce and a small bit of light soy sauce to season them.
while the noodle is light and airy, one can easily overindulged as the dish is so delicious

this version has chicken and shitake mushroom

this is one version i made with yellow chive, crab meat, and shitake - the brown sauce is oyster sauce

it is a jiffy to make this as most of the ingredients are all cooked prior to stir frying

As a teaser I include photo of the companion dish that is also served with yie mein in a Chinese banquet. It is the Yangzhou fried rice 楊州炒飯.
yangzhou fried rice 楊州炒飯

The brown bits are home made Chinese char sui 叉燒. The orange bits are shrimps that I diced up (traditionally very shrimps are used in this dish).

close up shows it how it look - it should be light and fluffy, not oily

A couple of interesting tidbits. This two dishes are served at the end of a banquet. The intention is to fill the guest stomach if he/she is still hungry. Typically after a 10 course meal most of the guests are so full so most would only take a bite or two. When these two dish are served you have to decide which of the two you want. You are not supposed to ask for both. However as many guests are so full by now it is not impolite to take a bowl after you see there are plenty of bowls left.