Lo Mein (捞面)

Lo mein means "tossed noodles" in Cantonese, and the name describes the entire technique. You boil noodles, you make a sauce in a wok, you toss them together. This version strips it down to five ingredients: fresh lo mein noodles, soy sauce, oyster sauce, scallions, and oil. It should not be this good with this little effort, but it is.

The trick is what happens in the wok before the noodles go in. The soy sauce and oyster sauce get poured directly into hot oil, where they sizzle and caramelize for about twenty seconds. This brief frying concentrates the sauces and creates a coating that clings to the noodles rather than pooling at the bottom of the bowl.

Fresh lo mein noodles cook in under a minute. They go into boiling water, loosen up, and come out. Pre-cooked noodles work but tend to be spongier. Seek out fresh, uncooked lo mein noodles at an Asian market if you can.