cantonese noodle with oyster sauce 蚝油撈麵

Most people that have explored Chinese food in the West know about wonton soup noodle. A very good bowl of wonton soup noodle in Hong Kong typically can be found only in stores that specialized in it, at least that was how it was during the golden era of Chinese food in Hong Kong. I would put the period between post war and the nighties. These stores typically had a very small menu.

this is one of the very few remaining traditional wonton soup noodle specialty shops in the Central district of Hong Kong

this is how a proper bowl of wonton soup noodle should be presented with the noodles sit on top of the wonton to keep it from getting soggy (note the relatively small menu while the selection has grown over the years)

Amongst the choice on the menu is also another lessor know dish call lo mein 撈麵. Lo mein 撈麵 is akin to tsukemen in Japanese ramen. The noodle is served dry in a plate, and with a clear broth serve in a small bowl on the side. Often the noodle may be order with braised beef entrails, or a topping of shrimp roes. It is also very popular for people who enjoy good noodles to order it top with a bit of oyster sauce.

lo mein with shrimp roe 蝦子撈麵 in Hong Kong - note the accompanying small bowl of broth topped with yellow chives

When you order lo mein 撈麵, it also comes with a small bowl of pork bone broth. The pork bone broth is the same that is used in the wonton soup noodle, and the good quality one is very aromatic. The distinct aroma comes from toasted dried flounder 大地魚.

The best noodle that is found in these specialty shop is called 銀絲幼麵, meaning silver strand thin noodle. The name came from the translucency of the thin noodle and the light golden color with a slight silver shine when served. This noodle is prized for its toothsome crunchiness. The best ones are handmade by a noodle master who kneads the high gluten wheat flour with a bamboo contraption. From what I infer this old time technique is the secret behind the crunchiest  銀絲幼麵. Today even in Hong Kong this art is probably extinct. Still you can find pretty good machine made 銀絲幼麵 there if you know where to go with the help of some local knowledge. In my numerous trips there I have found it more difficult to find in each succeeding trip as the high rent had driven many old shops to close for good.

I have some wonton noodle (often what this noodle is called) left over at home. I ran out of broth so I was wondering what to do with them. Then I remember Cantonese noodle with oyster sauce 蚝油撈麵 that I haven't made for years.

In Chinese noodles, some are made with lye water. The lye keeps the noodle from getting soggy. Preparing the noodle requires a few steps which most home cooks find it challenging. Here is the technique that I created to make the process simple for home cook.

the raw wonton noodle 銀絲幼麵; i use a pair of long cooking chopsticks to stir the noodles when blanching them in rolling boiling water

there is about 2 quarts of plain water brought to rolling boil

put in the noodles (it immediately drop the water below the boiling point) - but within a few seconds with the burner at high the water is boiling again; i stir the noodles with the chopsticks so they are heated evenly; the process take about 20 seconds

 immediately dump the water and noodles into a drainer to dispose of the hot water

next crunch the noodle into a pot of cold tap water; gently rub the noodles with your fingers to rinse off the excess lye; do not overwork it (just a few rub will do)

drain off the cold water and shake off as much water as you can; this is very important to keep the noodles crunchy

transfer the noodle to the serving plate (or bowl if you are making a soup noodle) and heat it in a microwave; i set it to 30 or 40 seconds with my commercial microwave oven; by using the microwave to heat the noodle instead of blanching it the second time (as they do in the shop) helps remove a lot of moisture

The technique I provided above will give you the crunchiest noodle possible - provided you have good noodle to begin with. Next drizzle some olive oil (about a table spoon) onto the noodle and mix well with a pair of chopsticks.

The remaining steps are how I blend the oyster sauce to make it taste like how it should be as in the old Hong Kong eras. Nowadays it is impossible to find good oyster sauce. This is true even in Hong Kong now. Over the years the oyster sauce has lost their rich flavor and gotten a lot sweeter with addition of abundance of sugar. For many years now I stick with this housewife brand from Thailand. Still it too is too sweet so I temper the sweetness by blending it with some light soy sauce 豉油.

housewife brand oyster sauce (middle)

oyster sauce (left) and light soy sauce (right) - i blend about half and half of each

to save a vessel i just drizzle both evenly into the noodles and then top with finely chopped scallion

 sprinkle a bit of white pepper and the Cantonese noodle with oyster sauce 蚝油撈麵 is ready

Before eating it, mix the noodle well with the chopsticks. This is where the name lo mein 撈麵 came from. Lo 撈 means to mix thouroughly with chopsticks and mein 麵 is noodle.

Good wonton noodles (i.e. the raw noodles for preparing wonton soup noodle) is very hard to find including here in the Portland. I have tried different brands over the years and nearly all but giving up buying them. I do not like the ones that has the sick orange tint because they contain food colors to make them look more eggs been used. Recently this Rose Brand from Seattle is one that I find acceptable. They make two types, a wide one and the thin one. The thin one is the one you want to use for this dish or wonton soup noodle. The wide one traditionally is used in beef soup noodles.
Rose Brand (note the package says wonton mein) but in this photo it is the wide one

here is the video they posted making these noodles