Noodles, noodles, noodles: Oh, how I love noodles.....

[mamachef]

Okay, so clearly I love noodles. All noodles; I can't be more specific. So, tell me what interesting things you do with them?

[Puffin3]

Watch the movie 'Tampopo'. You'll be in 'noddle nirvana'.

[valerie]

Like so many others, I have never met a noodle I didn't like. I almost don't even know where to begin, but here goes....

Chinese -- lo mein, sesame noodles
Italian -- fettucine, linguine, ziti, etc, etc. Pretty much any way.
Thai -- pad thai
Japanese -- udon

Then there are kugels, mac and cheese, plain old egg noodles with cottage cheese.

Really, the only noodle dish I can think of that I don't like is tuna noodle casserole...it's the hot tuna that doesn't appeal to me.

[cheesecake17]

A friend was telling me how she made fantastic tuna noodle casserole...using fresh tuna! At $20/lb I could think of better things to do with it

[alliegator]

What the?!?!
I would do just about anything with nice tuna (maybe even give it to my dog) before I made a tuna noodle casserole.
That stuff makes me have flashbacks to my childhood and being forced to eat at least a "no, thank you" portion. Yuck.

[cosmogrrl]

I love all noodles, pasta, ramen, udon, soba, pho, and many others.

But my favorite is manti, a Turkish dish..

[Chemicalkinetics]

I do love noodles too. From Italian fettuccine to Russian egg noodle, and from Chinese hand drawn noodle to Japanese Ramen. I love and appreciate different noodle. What do I do with them? Depending what kind of noodle, I do different things to them. From sauce base to soup base, from slow cook to stir fry.

[EWSflash]

Any other bucatelli/bucatini fans out there? I love it, but can't quite get a grip on what to properly sauce it with (although I'm not that picky). Some day I'd like to serve it to guests with the perfect sauce.
Anybody?

[cheesecake17]

Husband likes it with meaty tomato sauce. Don't know if that's proper

[EWSflash]

Sure- must be!

[mamachef]

Absolutely. It's the perfect foil and a classic one, since rich tomatoey sauce coats the strands beautifully - see Bucatini alla Amatriciana....

[sweethooch]

I would try this one -- I made it with broccolini on penne and it was fabulous. http://www.marthastewart.com/891236/e...

I almost stayed away because I'm not necessarily a fan of either of the one-named cooks, but I'm glad I forged ahead. I used less oil and the whole tin of anchovies, and quite a bit of pasta water.

[Perilagu Khan]

Sauce Amatriciana.

[EWSflash]

I'm slow to the party with this, for sure, but sometimes for breakfast I'll throw some leftover pasta into a hot skillet, stir it around, add a little truffle-flavored oil, heat, salt, and enjoy.

I love very nearly all kinds of pasta, except I have yet to be seduced by udon. Not sure why, because Iove almost all Japanese food.

I buy a Japanese instant noodle bowl that comes with a few packets, I toss out the liquid with the oil and soy sauce, and before i pour in the boiling water I add some shredded black fungus (cloud ear type) and some wakame seaweed. It's so good and soul-satisfying, I forgive its astronomical calorie count, and tell myself i'm saving a hundred calories or so by ditching the oil/soy packet

[tastesgoodwhatisit]

Noodles and cabbage made with egg noodles and a creamy buttery sauce for comfort food in winter.

Taiwanese beef noodle soup with thick chewy flour noodles, fragrant broth, half beef shank slices and half tendon, and a spoonful of pickled mushroom greens mixed in.

Spaghetti with olive oil and garlic.

Spaghetti with egg.

Fresh, home-made, authentic Japanese ramen.

[mamachef]

tgwii, #1 is my alltime favorite though that may change after I try (many of) these.
The rest of youse, this is torture. I have had a nice lunch, but I want dinner and haven't any plans as to what, and like shopping for groceries when you're staaaarving. I want..no, I want...I have the ingredi...wait, no, I want this....

[cheesecake17]

Spaghetti with egg reminds me of Pasta Mamas at Hugo's.
I've made it at home and it's fantastic! Comes together quickly with simple ingredients

[DonShirer]

All kinds of Thai noodle dishes...

Tuna noodles with a dash of cream of anything soup and peas...

Stroganoff...

(I'll quit now and go and make some slumgullion with noodles...)

[cheesecake17]

In my house, there's always noodles cooking or cooling!

Macaroni and cheese. No making sauce, no boiling. Easiest ever, and rave reviews

Peanut noodles. I'll eat the whole serving bowl.

Deli style pasta salad. Husband LOVES it.

Ravioli with vodka sauce. Care for some Parmesan?

Baked ziti. Gooey, creamy, mushy, crunchy. Heaven on a plate.

Spaghetti, tomato sauce. Bake it and burn it.

Noodles.... 1000000 ways

[mamachef]

*Bake it and burn it,* yum. I love the crunchy bits too...

[EWSflash]

YES!

[Wawsanham]

I love noodles too! As a matter of fact, I'm making avocado noodles: They happen to be farfalle (but, the shape isn't that important in this case to me), let them cool a bit and add mashed avocado with a bit of lemon and some diced tomato. It's kind of like having noodles with guacamole--very good!

[Veggo]

Mexican cooking includes neither ginger nor egg noodles, but my shrimp with copious Veracruz sauce with ginger over egg noodles is sabroso.

[mamachef]

You call it whatever you want, Veggo; but please call me in time for dinner. What else in the sauce, por favor?

[Veggo]

Peeled/ mashed roma tomatoes, garlic, onions, sweet peppers, jalapenos, capers, sliced green olives, golden raisins, grated ginger, pink shrimp, over egg noodles. A little grated parmesan is allowed.

[mamachef]

That sounds...like a cross between something Sicilian, Mexican and middle-Eastern and it does sound delicious.

[ipsedixit]

Hand pulled noodles. With some sesame paste, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, minced garlic, shredded chicken, julienned Japanese cucumbers and carrots, parboiled bean sprouts, and I'm good to go.

Of course, a sunny side up egg (or two), drizzled with some soy sauce, on a big bowl of noodles ain't a bad way to go either.

And don't even get me started on Chinese beef noodle soup (or 牛肉麵, niou rou mien) ...

[mamachef]

I'd be good to go too, ipse, but you're not off that easy, as in: please get started on the soup. :)
Love mine w/ pickled turnip greens and boiled egg....
With a cruller or onion pancake if they've got them....

[KaimukiMan]

Not sure what you mean by hand pulled noodles. When I lived in Korea there was a noodle shop on the ground floor. The noodle chef would take a long piece of dough, one end in each hand and then shake it up and down rapidly. The dough would stretch and stretch until it was almost down to his knees in the center and above his head at the top of the shake. He would then fold the dough in half and repeat the process, then again, then again, then again, and again.

After several cycles he ended up with an batch of uniformly thin noodles about 6 feet long. It was fascinating to watch, the guy had shoulders like an olympic wrestler from doing this day in and day out. He let me try once, we both had a good laugh and he gave me a free bowl of ramen that afternoon.

[afridgetoofar]

I didn't see dessert mentioned, so am tossing a suggestion of kugel. Cherry kugel, apricot kugel, fruit's good for a person you know... If you want to gain a pound or five, kugel's a fine way to do it, especially in winter. So rich, so sweet, so satisfying to eat, ultimate comfort food.

[Perilagu Khan]

Rare is the noodle I don't like. And my fav may be noodles in flaming hot Oriental soups that arrive at the table in a vat-cum-cauldron.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Khantessa made a retro pasta pie a while back from left over taglierelle that was dangerously delicious.

[afridgetoofar]

SO loves a Thai soup that has, among umpteen other ingredients, fresh squid, lemongrass, galangal, and is so chili-rich and zingy the steam from the pot induces hallucinations and frizzles the cook's (I write from experience) eyelashes.

[mamachef]

Sounds pretty life-changing....

[Perilagu Khan]

Or life-threatening...

[afridgetoofar]

PK you beat me to it! I tried a sip, my heart skipped a beat, I felt like I did when I fell out of a tree I was climbing when I was a child and did a belly-flop on the hard ground below.

SO tried his first sip - and added Tabasco.

[Perilagu Khan]

Good man. The country could use more like him.

[mamachef]

Hardcore. I'd sure give it a try.

[mamachef]

Aren't you the one!! I've been sick for a good bit, and kugel was my first actual dish when I started cooking again. We LOVE the stuff in these here parts. Do you ever make savory kugels?

[afridgetoofar]

Oh goodness yes, I love savory kugels, spinach with feta, asparagus, zucchini, any good mix of veg, plenty of garlic, good way to use up the last of the odds and ends in the vegetable crisper; good for breakfast, snack, hot or cold. Sturdy stuff, and doesn't have to be stodgy stuff, it's a flexible sort of dish.

I hope you're on the mend, enjoying good eats as well as improving health.

[sr44]

Glad you're still with us. On the other hand, your ideas may merit a citizen's arrest.

[Will Owen]

I love them all, but except for vermicelli in soup, or crushed and browned in butter for a pilaf, it's the wide ones I love the best, from fettucine to pappardelle to homemade egg noodles. But this is a gamut that starts at LOVE and runs up past ADORATION. Northern Chinese pulled noodles and knife-cut noodles, Pad Thai and Dan Dan Mian, tuna-noodle casserole, chicken and noodles … if it weren't for my doctor's lectures (and my understanding that he knows what he's talking about!) I'd happily suck in some sort of noodle or noodle relative three times a day. I just wish I could like the whole-wheat ones, but whenever a new version is recommended ("You can't tell the difference!") it's another disappointment. So I'll just keep slurping down the white ones …

[mamachef]

I'm pretty much the same way, Will. I could happily snarf any of these any day. I hear ya on the whole-wheat noodles. To my palate, they're rough-tasting and a counterintuitive foil for especially delicate sauces, and I can't eat them, or I should say I don't enjoy them. The one exception I've found is Asian buckwheat noodles of any kind; those I do like.

[EWSflash]

Oh man, Will, you're so spot-on about the whole wheat noodles. Please, Lord, deliver me from having to eat those for some reason. Amen.

[JungMann]

I was talking on another thread about my favorite noodle dish: plump cornstarch noodles moistened with creamy prawn sauce and garnished with crispy pork belly, grilled shrimp, smoked fish, scallions, garlic chips, chicharon, chopped egg and lemon wedges. Between the slippery noodles, crunchy pork cracklings and juicy shrimp it is a riot of textures and an absolute delight to eat.

[mamachef]

Gott in Himmel, JungMann. Do you make this? How does one do this? Where do you buy it? Talk to me, this is amazing-sounding stuff.

[alliegator]

Yes, please explain! Screw the yum woon sen, I want this stuff!

[JungMann]

It's called pancit palabok. It's often the piece de resistance at many a Filipino restaurants and it's popular enough that I've seen a number of Asian markets carrying the powdered palabok sauce. Personally I prefer the traditional recipe for the sauce which is little more than shrimp stock seasoned with annatto water and fish sauce and thickened with cornstarch. The step that sets palabok apart, though, is that after the shells and heads are strained from the stock, they are pressed through a sieve to extract the fat in the heads, which maximizes flavor and makes the sauce slightly rich. The gravy can also be made with lobster stock in lieu of shrimp stock, which is equally delicious.

[mamachef]

I've been stuffing my face w/ lechon for years, and I can have this too?
Word. I'm there. Now I know what to get.
The best gumbo I EVER had, I believe the cook employed that method for obtaining the fat. There is no richness like that, and no sub.

[JungMann]

That's how I make my gumbo, too. The benefit of having a Louisiana uncle and a Filipina aunt.

[sr44]

Have you ever considered a [very mobile] food truck?

[JungMann]

It'd need to be pretty speedy to get the scent of fish sauce and garlic chips off me after 6 hours serving in a small truck!

[EWSflash]

What mamachef said

[Shrinkrap]

right now I am eating noodles in pho. But I have to keep eating and then get back to work, so no details at this time. Slurp!

[mamachef]

Enjoy. One of my alltime bests.

[foodieX2]

well noodles is a pretty big category, care to break it down at all?

I love egg noodles with stew, soba noodles in soup, vermicelli in bun, spaghetti with marinara, angel hair with shrimp…. but I also love all those noodles in other things as well.

then there is cavatelli, rigatoni, lasagna, buckwheat…

[mamachef]

I specifically kept it broad so I could hear about the whole spectrum, from culture to culture and tribe to tribe, but I would very much like to know about the vermicelli in bun, or anything else you find particularly delicious or unusual. I'm not giving grades, and I'd love to hear anything you have to contribute. :)

[foodieX2]

Vietnamese bun is one of my faves. I have made it myself on occasion but I can not get the beef quite like my local vietnamese restaurant so when the craving hits me that where I head.

http://www.globalgourmet.com/destinat...

[mamachef]

I have to try this. This is a weekend project, but so delicious sounding!!

[foodieX2]

Oh it is SO good. Please post back!

[mamachef]

The ingredients did me in; I can taste these. I love days when I have time to do the meditative chopping zen of it all - best day there is.

[EWSflash]

+1- it's like sushi for me, so much more enjoyable when at a restaurant.

[alliegator]

I love noodles in just about every form. Angel hair pasta with a light sauce and some seafood, or egg noodles in a hearty russian style stroganoff, and I could go on...
But my absolute favorite noodle dish is yum woon sen. Recipes can vary, but I like to use this one, using lime juice in place of lemon. It's light in the summer, but if you like it spicy, it can warm you up as a nice winter lunch.
http://www.joysthaifood.com/spicy/tha...

[mamachef]

This couldn't be more timely, alliegator!! It so happens I have a package of mung bean noodles that have nowhere to go, except that now they do!! Do you follow this exactly, or vary, and what seafood, if any, do you use?

[alliegator]

I do have to say that I'm an eyeballer, so I'm not sure how exact I am, but I think I keep it pretty close. Maybe a little less sugar.
I use medium sized shrimp, and if I dont have pickled garlic, I'll just use a little bit of fresh, finely minced garlic. I'll garnish with cilantro leaves.
I'm glad your mung bean noodles found a home! I hope you'll report back afterwards and let me know how it goes.

[mamachef]

Absolutely, I will. Thank you.

[alliegator]

No prob, and enjoy!