Supreme soy fried noodles

Method

1. Mix the light soy, dark soy, oyster sauce, sugar, half a tablespoon of water and the sesame oil in a cup for the sauce.
2. Blanch the noodles in a big pot of boiling water for thirty seconds to a minute only, until just loosened; drain, rinse briefly under cold water, drain again and spread on a tray to dry ten minutes. Wet noodles will not fry; they steam and clump.
3. Heat the wok, add a tablespoon of oil, fry the sprouts and onion thirty seconds and lift out.
4. Two tablespoons of oil; noodles in, spread flat, and leave them a minute to catch and crisp at the edges, then turn and give them another minute.
5. Pour the sauce down the side of the wok in two goes, tossing as you go, until every strand is evenly coloured.
6. Sprouts, yellow chives and spring onion back in, thirty seconds, sesame seeds, out. The dim sum kitchen makes this in a flat pan as a half-crisp cake and the café wok cook does it loose in ninety seconds; at home it only needs dry noodles and a hot wok, and on a non-stick pan it is a five-minute dish for children.

Take care

• Contains wheat and egg (noodles), soy and wheat (soy sauces), mollusc (oyster sauce) and sesame. With a mushroom vegetarian oyster sauce in place of the oyster sauce it is vegetarian as written.

The story

豉油皇 (皇 or 王) means soy sauce supreme, the dish where the sauce is the whole seasoning. It is a dim sum cart item and a café breakfast at once, the Cantonese answer to buttered toast. Christine's calls it 港式街坊炒麵, the neighbourhood fried noodle, which is what it is.

Same counter

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Lo Fo Tong is cultural food-heritage reference, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, unwell or on medication, talk to your doctor or registered practitioner before changing what is in the pot.