Noodles are traditionally served on birthdays because they symbolize long life (chang shou). So don’t break your noodles when you boil them! My favorite is my mom’s Chinese Chili Spaghetti (featured at the Dunwoody Chili Cookoff).
In celebration of long life noodle birthdays, here are my favorite noodle highlights:
- Fresh ramen noodle soup at Umaido Japanese noodle shop (Korean-owned) in Suwanee and Yakitori Grill in Smyrna (great photos and helpful review by FoodieBuddha)
- Noodle fun with the kids at my Chinese Hotpot party with friends and going overboard with 5 different kinds of noodles. Everyone was so full, they couldn’t finish the noodles, served as part the hotpot closing ceremony.
- Eating at a new Korean noodle house in Duluth with a non-English-speaking server and haplessly trying to figure out which noodles were cold, hot, dry or wet (soupy), with meat or no meat. I learned that Korean “buckwheat noodles” are not the same as soba/Japanese buckwheat noodles. Meanwhile, I see my dad “washing” his kimchi in a glass of water to take off the hot chili edge. I laugh at him, but then adopt the practice myself. The food was good!
- The Oodles of Noodles overview of our Asian Market Tours– 3 whole aisles of noodles!
- Watching the Noodle Master make homemade noodles by hand–no pasta machine –at Man Chun Hong (thanks to Atlanta Ethnic Foods Examiner) in Seoul Plaza on Buford Highway. Even as I’m watching him, it still amazes me how the lump of dough is transformed into long, skinny threads of noodles, in a matter of seconds!
- Seeing a three year-old baby slurp up our Chinese Chili Spaghetti and clamoring for more and more. The kid had good taste (or was starving), perhaps both!
- Serving noodles made from tofu at our Cook’s Warehouse class, a first for everyone!
- Learning that a 4,000 year-old bowl of noodles (millet) was discovered in northwestern China in 2006
Celebrate your birthdays (or any day) with noodles and slurp and twirl your way to long life!