The Noodle Dish That Has No Business Being This Good on a Tuesday Night

There is a version of Lo Mein that exists in the sad, fluorescent-lit corner of every Chinese takeaway box. Pale, slightly soggy noodles in a brown sauce of indeterminate origin, garnished with a single limp broccoli floret that has given up entirely on life. You have eaten this version. We have all eaten this version, usually at 11pm, directly from the container, standing over the kitchen sink.

This is not that version.

Lo Mein — real Lo Mein, made in your own kitchen in under 20 minutes — is a different animal entirely. The noodles should have chew. The vegetables should have colour. The sauce should coat everything in a glossy, savoury lacquer that makes you question why you ever ordered delivery in the first place.

The name itself tells you what it should be: “lo” means tossed, “mein” means noodles. Tossed noodles. That’s it. The cooking is fast, the sauce comes together in seconds, and the whole thing tastes like something that required significantly more effort than it did.

You’re welcome.

Ingredients :

• 200g fresh lo mein noodles (or egg noodles, cooked al dente)
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
• 1 medium carrot, julienned
• 1 cup cabbage, thinly sliced
• 1 cup beansprouts
• 2 spring onions, cut into 3cm pieces
  
  Sauce:
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp white pepper
• 2 tbsp water

Steps :

1. Mix all the sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Taste it. It should be bold — this is going to coat a lot of noodles, so it needs to mean something.
   
2. If using dried noodles, cook them 1 minute less than the packet suggests. They’re going back into a hot wok; they will finish cooking there.
   
3. Heat the wok over high heat until smoking. Add the oil.
   
4. Add garlic and ginger. Stir-fry for 20 seconds. Your kitchen should smell extraordinary right now.
   
5. Add the carrot and cabbage. Toss over high heat for 2 minutes until slightly softened but still with bite.
   
6. Add the noodles. Pour the sauce over everything. Using tongs or chopsticks, toss everything together continuously for 90 seconds until the noodles are evenly coated and beginning to caramelise slightly at the edges.
   
7. Add beansprouts and spring onions. Toss for a final 30 seconds.
   
8. Serve immediately. Add chili oil at the table if you’re the sort of person who makes good decisions.

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Pro Tip :

Undercook the noodles by one minute — always. They will finish in the wok, and noodles that go in already perfectly cooked will come out overdone and sad.

This is true for Lo Mein, for Pad Thai, for virtually any stir-fried noodle dish. The wok is not a serving vessel. It is still cooking. Treat it accordingly. And if your sauce feels too intense when you taste it raw in the bowl — good. It’s about to be diluted across 200g of noodles.
Trust the process.