Longevity noodles to welcome a new year: An aptly shaped food for the Year of the Snake

What one adds to the noodles is up to the cook. Some people add very little, just flavoring vegetables like scallions or Chinese chives. James-Beard-Award-winning chef Chung Sun Lau makes a delectable-sounding lobster version. I decided to keep my noodles simple, with some green beans for color and crunch, and sliced mushrooms for nutrition.

What one adds to the noodles is up to the cook. Some people add very little, just flavoring vegetables like scallions or Chinese chives. James-Beard-Award-winning chef Chung Sun Lau makes a delectable-sounding lobster version. I decided to keep my noodles simple, with some green beans for color and crunch, and sliced mushrooms for nutrition. PHOTO BY TINKY WEISBLAT

Longevity noodles are long noodles that symbolize — you guessed it — an extended life for those who eat them. It is unlucky to cut the noodles while cooking or eating them as that act may shorten the life of the eater.

Longevity noodles are long noodles that symbolize — you guessed it — an extended life for those who eat them. It is unlucky to cut the noodles while cooking or eating them as that act may shorten the life of the eater. PHOTO BY TINKY WEISBLAT

By TINKY WEISBLAT

For the Recorder

Published: 01-27-2025 1:01 PM

Early Wednesday morning (Jan. 29) we will welcome the Year of the Snake. As readers may know, the Chinese Zodiac comprises 12 signs. Each is assigned an animal, and the animals repeat in a 12-year cycle. This roughly corresponds to the time it takes Jupiter to orbit the sun.

This holiday is lunar and falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. It can arrive anywhere between late January and late February. The holiday is usually celebrated for a full week so we should have plenty of time to enjoy it.

Here’s what I plan to today, before the celebration starts: clean the house.

Cleaning the house is not usually a priority for me, I admit. I do my best to channel the spirit of my late neighbor Alice, who said she woke up every day asking herself what she could do in the following 24 hours that would make a difference in a year. Cleaning the house never fit into that category.

Still, Chinese people like to rid the house of old dust and clutter as they prepare to welcome the new year. They then tend not to clean much during the extended new-year celebration, lest they accidentally sweep away good fortune. I think I’ll sweep a bit today and then let the house get as dirty as it likes for the next week.

Of course, I plan to make something special to eat for the Lunar New Year. In the past, readers of this paper may recall, I have made dumplings. These little pockets of goodness are supposed to resemble currency and bring prosperity in the following year to those who eat them.

Families gather for the new year and shape the dumplings as a group, making sure that these tasty treats bring not just money but also love and togetherness.

This year I thought I would try something different: longevity noodles. These are long noodles that symbolize — you guessed it — an extended life for those who eat them. It is unlucky to cut the noodles while cooking or eating them as that act may shorten the life of the eater.

The shape of noodles seemed to me to make them an apt food for the Year of the Snake.

I was unable to get to an Asian market to get YiMein, the traditional Cantonese long noodles for this dish. They are fried and then dried so they have a unique consistency … and they are a little harder to break than other noodles.

Happily, I gather that just about any noodle will do, as long as it’s fairly long and doesn’t get cut. I was about to go ahead and use some quick-cooking regular pasta, which would have worked in a pinch and may indeed be used with this recipe.

Luckily for me, however, my Chinese friend Emma and her American husband Andy showed up at my door with some long Asian noodles. These strands of pasta may not have been the classic YiMein, but they were fun and a bit dramatic.

What one adds to the noodles is up to the cook. Some people add very little, just flavoring vegetables like scallions or Chinese chives. James-Beard-Award-winning chef Chung Sun Lau makes a delectable-sounding lobster version.

I decided to keep my noodles simple, with some green beans for color and crunch, and sliced mushrooms for nutrition.

It would have been more authentic to use dried and reconstituted Chinese mushrooms, but they were unavailable in my grocery store so I used baby bella (aka cremini) mushrooms. Feel free to add more veggies — carrots would be lovely and colorful — according to your taste.

I went back and forth mentally trying to decide whether I should include oyster sauce in my noodle sauce or just stick with a soy base. In the end, I opted for the oyster sauce (available in most large supermarkets).

If you want to make your noodles vegetarian, you may omit the oyster sauce, double the amounts of soy sauce and sherry, and add a little cornstarch paste (cornstarch blended with water) to thicken your noodle sauce.

If you don’t need to cook for vegetarians, you should definitely use the oyster sauce. If you haven’t ever cooked with it, have no fear. It doesn’t taste like oysters. It just gives a savory complexity to the noodles, just as Worcestershire sauce does to many Western dishes.

Even if you haven’t cooked with oyster sauce in the past, you have probably tasted it if you like Chinese food. It’s present in many restaurant offerings.

However you make the noodles, cook them carefully so you don’t shorten anyone’s life! Happy Lunar New Year to all.

Year of the Snake Noodles

Ingredients:

for the sauce:

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon dry sherry

1 splash water

1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1 pinch white or black pepper

for the noodles:

8 to 10 ounces long, thin noodles (My noodles were actually a little too thick to absorb the sauce; do try for thin ones if you can get them.)

1 generous splash peanut oil (or another neutral oil)

3 scallions, chopped (the white part and a little green)

6 mushrooms (or more!), sliced

1 handful green beans, blanched for 2 minutes and then drained

1 large clove garlic (or 2 small cloves), chopped

for finishing (optional):

a few drops more sesame oil and/or some hot chili oil

Instructions:

In a bowl combine the ingredients for the sauce. Set the bowl aside.

Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil, and cook the noodles for the minimum amount of time in the package directions. Drain them thoroughly.

While the noodles are cooking, warm the oil in a wok or frying pan. Sauté the scallions for 2 to 3 minutes; then add the mushrooms and the green beans. Sauté for another 2 to 3 minutes; then stir in the garlic. Sauté for 2 minutes more.

When the noodles are ready and drained, add them to the vegetable mixture.

Pour in the sauce, and stir everything together over low heat, being careful not to break any noodles.

Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in more sesame oil and a few drops of hot chili oil if you want to. Serve immediately.

Serves 4 people as a side dish.

Tinky Weisblat is an award-winning cookbook author and singer known as the Diva of Deliciousness. Visit her website, TinkyCooks.com.