Basterdized Fried Saimin

It's redundant to say that many local dishes in Hawai‘i are bastardized—that's the nature of a place that has had migrant groups from Japan, China, Korea, the Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico and yonder mixing their dishes for generations. "Saimin" isn't the word for "noodle" in any Asian language. It's just a weird evolution of the aforementioned mish-mash, a type of noodle that's a combination of pancit, ramen and egg noodles. So while it's funny to think that these very local dishes in Hawai‘i can actually have a proper way of being made, it's not wrong to say that fried saimin has a general ingredient list that should be familiar to anyone entrenched in Hawai‘i food culture. This roughly consists of saimin, fried Spam (I swear I'll one day post something that doesn't mention Spam) and/or char siu, kamaboko (Japanese fish cake), green onion, sometimes egg and some kind of sauce base—usually shoyu and an oil.

What I've made this time doesn't truly represent the fried saimin you'll find on menus at the fading number of mom-and-pop-owned drive-ins and diners in Hawai‘i. But in the vein of Lisa's post about different uses for ramen and out of good old necessity of using up leftovers, here's what I made last week.

Ingredients:

One package of ramen. According to a friend, Sapporo Ichiban is the shiznit for fried saimin. You may, of course, use saimin (only found in Hawai‘i), yakisoba or whatever noodles suit your fancy.

Deli turkey

Ho Farms string beans from my O‘ahu Fresh CSA delivery

Shredded carrots

Sliced onions

Egg

Shoyu/soy sauce

Sesame oil

Sautee the turkey, string beans, carrots and onions to your liking, set aside. Boil the ramen for about two minutes (You want the noodles to be al dente, as the cooking process will continue as you stir-fry all the ingredients together.) Drain the noodles and drizzle with sesame oil and shoyu, as well as the flavor packet (optional). Fry the suckers up with your meat and veggies, and add a fried egg on top. As we basterds know, a fried egg atop anything beats a cherry any day.

Ramen salad

When I was a kid, I used to love to eat dry ramen as a snack. That irresistable crunch! That salty powder! Just mash it up in the bag, add the powder, give it a good shake, and eat it straight from the bag. Delicious. No hot water necessary.

But now I am a responsible healthy eater (most of the time), I rarely get to eat ramen (I limit my intake to horribly hungover mornings), and never dry ramen out of a bag, god forbid. So how thrilled was I when my good friend Marisa brought this salad to a dinner party!

The dressing is vaguely Asian - I added more vinegar and more soy sauce. Also beware proportions - the recipe below is for a big bowl of salad that you'd bring to a potluck (my dressing bottle runneth over).

Dressing
9 tbl sugar
9 tbl white vinegar
3 tsp salt
3 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp soy sauce
3/4 cup vegetable oil

Notes from Marisa:

yes, 9 tablespoons is a weird amount. i keep meaning to figure out what it's equivalent to, but still have not. we usually use olive oil, and stick the whole thing in the blender...and i'm not that strict about measuring...

i just used the mixed greens (plastic box) from costco. and then, anything that you'd put in a "chinese salad": chicken, ramen (beware of stale), tomatoes...oh, and black sesame seeds make it seem super fance.

one tip: since there's so much vinegar, definitely don't mix until ready to eat. this one wilts greens super fast.

Here I used edamame (frozen from Trader Joe's), red bell pepper, sesame seeds and CILANTRO (so key for maximum Asian flavor).