fried rice noodles.

This dish, also referred to as Taiwanese fried rice noodles, or in Chinese as "tsao mi fun" (炒米粉), is one of my mom's favorite dishes. And of course me being someone who doesn't discriminate against any noodle, it's one of my favorites as well. 

My inspiration for finally learning to cook this dish actually came from my co-worker, a fellow Fukienese descendant whose mom makes similar dishes. (Background: my parents are both from the Fujian region of China.) Lucky me, my co-worker brought some she made at home for me to try, and upon learning it was an easy dish, I immediately texted my mom and asked her to buy me my first wok and teach me her fried noodle ways.

You definitely need a good-sized wok for this dish, since with all the ingredients together, it takes up a lot of space and requires constant stir-frying to keep the flavoring even.

My first try. Easy and delicious!

Ingredients (about 4-6 servings):

• Pack of thin rice noodles (half)
• Dried shitake mushrooms (8, soak in hot water for 30 minutes. Keep the water)
• Dried small shrimp (optional - these are the tiny dried shrimps Chinese use a lot in their dishes)
• Green onion (2)
• Ground pork (about 1/2 lb. or more)
• Soy sauce
• Fish sauce
• Sugar (optional)
• White pepper powder
• Cooking oil (I used olive oil)
• Cabbage (half, thinly sliced)
• Carrots (2 medium sized carrots, julienned)
• Chicken broth (1 small can)
• Plenty of arm strength for flipping noodles in the wok

The dried mushroom and rice noodles I used.

1. Let dried shrimp soak in boiled hot water for 15 minutes.
2. Let mushroom soak in boiled hot water for 30 minutes, wash with sink water, then chop. Use about 8 mushrooms for a medium wok-ful of noodles. More if you're like me and love mushrooms.
3. Boil water, then cook half of the pack of rice noodles until soft. Drain and set aside noodles for later.
4. On High heat, put one tablespoon oil and cook two tablespoons of chopped green onions in wok.
5. Stir fry two "clumps" of ground pork in wok. (My mom specifically used "clump" in Chinese as a measuring size. Each "clump" was about the size of my palm. I looked online for similar recipes and I'd guess about 1/2 lb. would be good for this.)
6. Add one teaspoon soy sauce (optional: a small amount of sugar). Cook the meat until ready, then remove everything and set aside.
7. Add two tablespoons of oil and cook dried shrimp and mushroom together in wok.
8. Add chopped cabbage and carrots, then stir fry.
9. Add mushroom water and shrimp water (but make sure to exclude the dirt that will settle at the bottom). You can also use fish sauce for the a similar type of umami. Dilute the fish sauce with water when adding.
10. On Low heat, add chicken broth (start with half a can) and add noodles to the wok. Stir fry.
11. Add a few dashes of white pepper powder. I added quite a bit since I like the smell of it.
12. If noodles are not soft enough, add more chicken broth.
13. Add back the cooked ground pork and stir fry everything until flavor is consistent throughout.
14. Add soy sauce and fish sauce to adjust the flavor.
15. Serve and enjoy!