Final meal of the big Three O

Continuing with breakfast and lunch, of course has to be dinner. I know most chinese cultures have a certain dish that your parents will cook for your birthday. Things like red egg and tong yuen comes into mind. In the Fuchow cultures, we usually have Red Wine Mee Suah for our birthdays. The noodles is symbolic for long life, the red of the soup is of course good for all chinese cultures and the egg is to signify health and for many children. 

Ok I just made that up but I think it is quite close to what your elders would most likely tell you. Anyway usually my mum will be the one cooking the mee suah for me but this time there was a bit of a twist. This time around I will be cooking it for myself and Amy. What you need to cook mee suah? Well the most important thing is of course the soup.

The most precious ingredient in the soup is the black bottle at the back. That is the Red Rice wine which is fermented from rice. My grandma used to make it and my mum learnt it and my mum thought it to me. That bottle was made by my mum because I had a conference call on the day she was suppose to teach me and by the time I got off the call it was all done. 

So how do you cook the famous Fuchow Red Wine mee suah? Well first is to heat up some sesame oil...

Next is to lightly fry some ginger slices until fragrant....

Once the smell of the ginger and sesame oil is bothering the neighbour, you throw in the chicken and fry until it is a bit brown to seal in the flavours (che wah like real chef only)...

Once the chicken is say about 50% cooked, pour enough water to serve the amount of people that is eating and bring the whole thing to a boil....

Once it starts boiling. the most important ingredients goes into the soup which is the red wine and it gets to boil for a while until the chicken is nicely cooked....

Once it is done, skim the layer of chicken oil from the top of the soup and keep it away for later.

For the noodles it is quite easy, first boil the noodles until it is slightly translucent and remove it from the water and run the noodles under cold water to clean the left over starch from the noodles. Put the noodles into the bowl with the chicken oil and mix. It is like pasta but the chinese version....

Once that is all done, it is time to scoop the soup and eat....

It was not too bad for my second try at cooking this noodles I think. So with the last meal of the night, I bid farewell to being 29 and welcome 30 years of life.