Adapted from “Cold Noodles with Hot Sauce”, in “Chinese Cookery” by Rose Cheng and Michele Morris

1/2 lb dry Chinese noodles

3 cups bean sprouts
3 cups shredded carrot

1 cucumber, peeled, seeds scraped out, and then shredded
1 bunch scallions, minced

chicken, cooked and shredded
peanuts, chopped up a bit

SAUCE:
6-8 T toasted sesame oil
6-8 T light soy sauce
1 T rice vinegar (or other vinegar)
2 T sugar
2 T hot chili oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 T fresh ginger, minced

Cook noodles.  Throw in bean sprouts and carrot for last minute of noodle cooking.  Immediately drain and cool the noodles in several changes of cold water.  If you’re not going to put the sauce on them soon, put some of the oil on the noodles now.  (Remember that Chinese noodles cook more quickly than Italian pasta of the same size, and you really don’t want to over cook them.  With vermicelli, I just stand there and monitor the noodles constantly, and blanch the bean sprouts and carrots separately.)

Mix the sauce ingredients together.  Combine noodles, sauce, cucumber, and carrots.  I leave chicken and peanuts on the side, so that if there are noodles left over, I can add the peanuts and chicken the next day for better texture.  Also good for vegetarians and peanut non-eaters.

Everything is “to taste”, of course, particularly hot oil and sugar.  When I first had this dish it was very sweet, so I tend to add more sugar than many would.  Chili oil is also quite variable in hotness.  It’s definitely possible to put too much (raw) garlic in this recipe, particularly if you know there will be leftovers.

For more heat, Sambal Oelek is good.