Chinese Nar-duls!

I'm a rice girl at heart but over the last week I've really craved noodles. But not just any old noodles. Chinese nar-duls! I've cooked chow mein dishes three times over the last week and am still hungry for more:

I haven't cooked chow mein for absolutely ages because it's just one of those things I never stock up on. The last couple of times I've eaten chow mein has admittedly been from Chinese takeaways and both times I was pretty disappointed with the result (I really don't know why I fail to learn from my mistakes). So after finally buying a 12-pack of chow mein, I've been chomping my way through them and each time I marvel at the fresh taste you get that you simply cannot find in greasy takeaways. None of that salt and overload of sauce please!

As my post-Aikido snack on a Tuesday night, I usually have noodles, because I am always so hungry after class. Since it starts at 8pm, I tend to eat some toast after work and nothing more, to keep me feeling light for training.

I don't even bother with my beans on toast ritual anymore - it's all about the noodles now! I always have a ready supply of good ol' Tesco's value noodles (8p a pack!) to fulfil my post-Aikido needs.

Back at uni, my parents used to stock me up with Chinese instant noodles - similar to the Tesco's ones (but better, obviously!). You basically just add hot water and the seasoning sachet and 3 minutes later, you have tasty, steaming noodles in soup. One of my old housemates Dan used to say that it smelt like dog food! Strangely enough, that was only when I had the seafood flavoured one. When I was younger, I called them 'Curly' because they are, well, curly. My friend Sam called them 'Curly wurly'!

The particular brand we used to have has different coloured packets for different flavours - I picked up the brown packet a lot (you guessed it, beef flavour)! It was so funny when we made trips to Wing Yip in London (massive Chinese supermarket). My sister and I would be rather bored following our parents up and down the aisles, but as soon as we got to the noodles, it would be 'our turn' and we'd grab all the noodles!

Mm, now I'm craving 'curly'! I will have to pick some up next time I go to Chinatown. Actually, I'm in Brighton this weekend so might pop into the Chinese supermarket there...