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Birthday Mee Sua (Longevity Noodles)
Update (19 Aug 2014): First posted in Aug 2009, now updated with new photos and improved recipe.
It’s the SO birthday tomorrow, and last weekend I cooked him this bowl of birthday longevity noodles (aka long life noodles, or 长寿面, “Chang Shou Mian”) in advance. For the soup base, I used my favourite chicken soup recipe from Teczcape. My family loves the chicken soup as it tastes homely and boosts immunity (with shiitake mushrooms, garlic, onion and ginger).
See Also:
- Recipe: Mum’s Egg Mee Sua Soup
- Recipe: Red Glutinous Wine Mee Sua
- Ingredient Spotlight: Mee Sua (Flour vermicelli)
I served the chicken soup with mee sua, baby abalones (birthday treat) and hard-boiled quail eggs.
Longevity noodles are eaten by Chinese on birthdays and special occasions such as Ren Ri 人 日 (7th day of the Lunar New Year, commonly known as “everyman’s birthday”). The long strands of noodles symbolize a long life. Therefore, when eating the noodles, one tries not to break the noodles using the chopsticks or teeth, but instead chew on the noodles when they are inside the mouth. Quite a challenging task if you’d asked me ;) Instead of mee sua, you can use other long noodles such as bee hoon, udon, soba, yee mien and even spaghetti. The noodles can be dry (stir-fried) as well. Sometimes the eggs are dyed in red food colouring as red symbolises auspiciousness. As for the soup broth, anything goes – you can use any type of soup stock, including instant ones.
My parents used to order me longevity fried noodles everytime I had my birthday and we went to a restaurant together. But since I don’t live with my parents anymore, I don’t have longevity noodles for my birthday any longer. Maybe I should try and continue this tradition by cooking it for myself everytime I turn a year older ?;-)
No one cook this for me now too. I’m also considering cooking this for myself on my birthday haha :P
Let me cook for u :D
So sweet bro. I am touched. :halo:
we only have longevity noodles in restaurants too. Normally fried one though.
vat a super idea to have noodles! i used t cook noodles often for dinner! shud try this way some tome sooner! my first visit here and m loving every bit of it!
keep it up!
cheers and have a great day!
Thanks for you kind words and for visiting me :)
Lucky B who has abalone in his birthday noodles! U r so right though, it is a HUGE challenge not to bite the noodles and have them in the mouth! LOL
almost an impossibly especially with mee suah coz they clamp up together so easily :P
I’ve never had longevity noodles, I don’t think they even have them in restaurants out here. Looks great though. :)
Yum and I like your chicken bowls! :) Our longevity noodle usually is stir-fried too.
Hope to try the dry version one day.
Nice touch with the abalone, crab sticks, carrots and cucumbers, giving a special twist to an otherwise traditional dish. Yummy, thanks for the thoughtfulness! :D Yeah, pretty challenging slurping the noodles without breaking them!
I love this tradition! Your noodles look so delicious with all the special touches you added to it!
Beautifully assembled. I love your clean and simple presentation. Let the dish speak for itself … well done!
How nice of you to cook this :)
My family cooks mee sua with meat balls and of course, an hard-boiled egg :)