Tsao Mi Fun :Taiwanese Daily Street Noodles

I always adore spicy Indo-Chinese food. The spice from Indian cuisine and the flavors from Chinese cuisine make me go gaga over this combo. Very frankly speaking I personally used to go for the authentic Chinese food only when I have nothing left as options or I’m real sick of spices. But my recent stay in Taiwan just changed my opinion completely. Now not only I love steamed and boiled food but also adore soups and healthy food more than ever.

It is not known to all that Taiwan is famous for its street food. Taiwanese cuisine is enriched with a wide range of food and cooking styles. They equally enjoy their steamed and boiled food with any stir fried and even deep dried items. This attracts me most actually. Taiwanese cuisine is nothing but a combination of traditional Chinese cuisine and simplified Chinese cuisine. That’s why it has the perfect balance of taste and health.

Taiwanese people don’t use chicken much. They prefer pork, beef and variety of seafood and tofu as the core ingredients for their food. Since Taiwan is an island they relish different big fishes along with other seafood like squid, tuna, cuttlefish, salmon, mussels etc.

My post will remain incomplete if I don’t mention about ‘Night Markets’ of Taiwan. Night Markets are very common open markets which are open only during night, mostly 4 pm – 2 am. And this markets are the paradise of Taiwanese food lovers. Under this one roof I got to taste every bit of Taiwanese cuisine. And not to mention I hopped all over Taipei to try different local night markets and at end of my trip I’m more than satisfied. Top of all, this Taiwan trip made me open for any kind of food.

Enough of Taiwan already in my post (can’t get over it anyways). Among loads of food I have few personal favorites and I try to make them at home to relish my memories of Taiwan. I love to learn and cook new items from different cuisines especially if I had already been there.

So today I’ve picked Taiwanese street noodles which is also known as Tsao Mi Fun or Taiwanese fried rice noodles. This noodles is very famous as early morning breakfast in Taiwan. They prepare and serve this soupy noodles on streets from around 5 a.m. in the morning and people grab their bowls on the way to their work places. It is damn healthy and tasty and I think it’s picture with the quotation “Healthy Wealthy and Wise” would make a perfect pair. There is another dry version of this same soupy noodles with a bit more spices and full of seafood which is the heartthrob of ‘Night Markets’.

But my take is the healthy one today. So here is the recipe of Taiwanese Soupy Street Noodles aka Tsao Mi Fun.

Ingredients:

Skinless, boneless chicken breast: 300 gms.

Noodles: 1 packet (200 gms.)

Onion: 2

Carrot: 1

Capsicum: 1

French beans: ½ cup

Green chillies: handful

Garlic: 10-11 cloves

Dark soya sauce: 1/3 cup

Vinegar: 2-3 tsp

Cornstarch: ½ -1 tsp
Chinese five spices powder: 1-2 tsp

Salt to taste

Warm water: 1 cup

Oil: 1-2 tbsp + 1 tsp

Well beaten egg: 1

Milk: 3-4 tbsp

Ingredients for Chinese Five Spices:

Star anise: 1-2
Cinnamon: 1″
Cloves: 4-5
Fennel seeds: 1 tsp
Szechuan (Sichuan) peppers: 1 tsp
White pepper: 4-5 (optional)

Preparation for Chinese Five Spices:

Dry roast and then ground the fennel seeds.
ground all the ingredients individually.
combine all the grounded ingredients and store it in an air tight container.
This Chinese five spices are ready to use. This combined spices can be stored for months.

Preparation:

Clean chicken and make bite size pieces. Combine dark soya sauce and vinegar in a bowl.

Marinade chicken pieces with ¼ of the mixture with Chinese five spices and keep aside for 15-20 mins.

Clean garlic cloves and finely chop them.

Cut onion into quarters and carrot and capsicum in thin strips. Roughly chop green chilli and beans.

Take a small pan and heat 1 tsp of oil in it. beat the milk with beaten eggs with a pinch of salt. Pour the mixture in the hot pan and make a thin omelet.

Turn once and allow to cook the opposite side.

Once done make 1/3”-1/4” thick slices of the entire omelet. Keep aside until needed.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan and add garlic. Saute for 2-3 mins or until garlic starts changing color.

Add chicken pieces and saute for another 5-6 mins or until raw smell of chicken is gone.

Add chopped green chilies and continue cooking without lid.

Add quartered onions and keep frying on medium heat until onion becomes translucent.

Add carrot and pinch of salt. Continue cooking with a lid until carrot is half done.

Add beans and continue cooking with the lid until veggies are almost done.

Finally dunk capsicum and continue frying on high flame without lid until raw smell of capsicum is gone.

Break chicken pieces into smaller ones with the help of your spatula.

Pour the dark soya sauce and vinegar mixture in to the pan on high flame and bring it to boil.

Simmer the flame, add the egg strips, warm water and allow it boil for 1-2 mins.

Make a paste of cornstarch and 1-2 tsp of water. Now mix the paste with 3-5 tbsp of water to make a runny mixture. Now pour this mixture into the pan and keep stirring to avoid formation of lumps. Break lumps if any formed at all.

Once the soup starts thickening slightly adjust the seasoning and turn off the flame. Allow it to cool a bit.

In the mean while prepare the noodles as per the direction on the packet or simply boil a large amount of water with 1 tsp of salt and few drops of oil. Bring it to boil and turn off the flame. Add raw noodles in to the water and let it soften for 1 min. discard the water once the noodle is almost done. Reserve the noodles in a pan of ice cold water until needed.

But in this recipe we need the noodles immediately so we don’t need to dunk it in ice cold water. Instead transfer the noodles to the serving bowl.

Pour the soup with veggies over pre-cooked noodles. Top it with chicken pieces and more veggies. serve with more egg strips. You can pair it with some chili oil.

Serve real hot!!! That is the traditional way.

Other Variations:

1. Different seafood or vegetables can be combined with the same recipe to get different flavors.

2. Tofu or Cottage Cheese can be used for vegetarian version instead of meat and seafood.

3. This recipe originally uses pork. So pork or even beef can be used instead of chicken.