Vegetarian Singapore Noodles at Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget
I chose to order vegetarian Singapore rice noodles at Dim Sum Inn on North Main Street in Salinas, California to try a Hong Kong classic dish that probably refers to a light lunch you can eat in Singapore’s heat using exotic curry powder from India. (Singapore is not in China though most of its inhabitants have Chinese ancestry.)
Singapore rice noodles usually come with meat or shrimp, but I chose a lacto-ovo vegetarian version that came with scrambled eggs stir-fried into the mix.
I consulted www.recipetineats.com for a Singapore rice noodles recipe. According to this site, to stir-fry Singapore rice noodles, you heat sesame and peanut oil and add fresh ginger, fresh garlic, green onions, hot red chiile peppers, curry powder, and white pepper to the hot oil.
Once the oil is thoroughly impregnated with those flavors, you add bite-size pieces of the following vegetables:
-baby bok choy (similar to cabbage, but bulb shaped)
-broccoli
-celery
-carrots
-green peppers
-green beans
Once those vegetables are blazing hot you add in the eggs to stir-fry scramble them. The rice noodles come last to be stir-fried. Rice noodles just need to be hydrated in warm water and drained before adding them to the stir-fry.
This fragrant dish arrived hot on a waiter robot for a Silicon Valley touch at the table. The robot is operated by a waiter, which liberates the waiter’s arms to safely bring additional dishes.
The Singapore rice noodles are a lunch special at Dim Sum Inn, which come with egg flower soup or hot and sour soup. I drank a strongly perfumed jasmine tea with my meal for the perfect afternoon lunch.
Dim Sum Inn serves dim sum tea lunch daily in addition to lunch specials except Tuesdays when the restaurant is closed. Dim Sum Inn is in a large shopping center opposite Northridge Mall with lots of parking. The restaurant also has a large banquet room and an equally large menu for planning banquets and dim lunches for private parties in a friendly atmosphere.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
