About Birthdays Here

My dad is going to be 50 this year. What is that have to do with my journal? Well, it’s because that I am going to introduce an ingredient that often appears in Taiwanese dishes—especially in the thin Chinese noodle (mian4 xian4) which people would eat with pigs’ knuckles when they celebrate their birthday. It’s golden, crispy, with a special smell. I know that’s pretty abstract, but you might never seem that before, so allow me to skip the part of how it looks.


I am sure that you won’t have the chance to find such an ingredient in other counties. I have to admit that I am a fan of garlic although not for the breath after eating them. Again why I mention garlic? Well, because the ingredient is made from garlic. Like the spicy ingredients, it’s used to add smell of certain dishes. You can cook the dish without add them, but surely the dish won’t be as delicious as it should be, since Chinese food emphasize color, aroma and flavor.

I have to describe how the ingredient goes with the noodle. The noodle, thinner than angel’s hair, is made by flour and salt. People would boil them before mixing it with milted some pork oil and slightly fried the crispy garlic ingredient. As soon as the noodle mixed with oil, the aroma would definitely make you feel hungry. Using chopsticks to pick some of the noodles up, watching the white smoke raised from the noodles would urge you to take a huge bite of the bowl of the noodles.

Why people would like to have a bowl of the noodles on their birthday? Well, since the noodles are long, they are considered to symbol longevity of one’s life. That’s why there is a rule of not cutting the noodle when you want to have it.