Chow Mein is a Chinese term for noodles stir-fried with anything – meat, vegetables etc. The noodles used can be egg noodles, bean noodles – either fried or steamed or cooked in boiling water. Various different combinations of vegetables, sprouts, meat and sauces can be added to this to customise your chow mein the way you want it. This is especially the fun part of making chow mein noodles at home. As you would know, I am a person who get easily bored with anything, especially cooking food at home. Sometimes I will get all crazed about Chinese food and it will be only that for a whole week or so and then I will get so bored of it that I will not make anything even remotely Chinese for a few months. Well, yes, if you get an overdose of anything, anyone will get bored of it.
So, how I make this noodle dish different each time is by changing the sauces I use or using a different kind of noodle to make chow mein etc. Most of the time, till I finish making it, I will have very less idea of what this is going to be as I keep adding sauces and other ingredients as and when I cook. This recipe is probably the base Chow Mein recipe to which I make modifications most of the time. Be bold, if you got a new Asian sauce from your Asian grocery store, try it in this, you can’t go too wrong with it!
—Manju
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