Knife-Cut Noodles

I leaned into Asian cooking when I started The Girl Fridge on Instagram. With the rise in anti-Asian violence the only way I knew to fight back was to keep "showing up" at least in my corner of the online world. Posting recipes of Asian dishes including foods of my Filipino culture was my small form of protest beyond donating and reposting AAPI content online.

Of course, that doesn't feel like enough. And it isn't. I keep hearing the words of Bowen Yang in the SNL skit to "do more".

At the very least, it is contributing to raising awareness and increasing representation of Asian cooking. It's even predicted that Southeast Asian flavors will be the global trend in 2023.

For now, I'll continue to promote Asian food on these platforms. This dish is a variation of a recipe trending online back in the Summer of 2022.

Traditionally made with chili crisp, I substituted red pepper flakes and sesame and avocado oil. If you cannot find knife-cut or sliced noodles, use any wide pasta like pappardelle.

Serves 1

What you need:

1-2 cloves grated garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tbsp soy sauce (just enough to cover the bottom of your bowl)
1 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp avocado oil
1 sliced green onion
A few leaves of cilantro, stems and all
A few shakes of chili flakes
A shake of paprika for color
1 small cucumber for garnish
1/3 package of knife-cut noodles (1-2 “bricks” in the package)

The steps:

Bring a small pan of water to a boil
Add the noodles and cook for about 6 mins or until al dente
While that’s going, wash your herbs and veggies
Pull the leaves off the cilantro, chop the stems and toss ‘em in a bowl.
Grab a few extra leaves for presentation.
Trim off the end of the onion.
- You want a fine chop for the white part of the onion.
- Save the green part for garnish. Slice thinly lengthwise to get beautiful shards.
Trim the ends of the cucumber. Slice lengthwise into sticks.

Over a bowl:

Grate the garlic (I like using a lemon zester to get a fine grate that will easily dissolve into the sauce)
Peel and grate the ginger
Add the liquids: soy, vinegar, sesame oil
Add the paprika and pepper flakes
Lightly stir

When there’s about 1 minute or so of cooking time left on your noodles, start heating up the avocado oil.

Turn the heat to medium and let the avocado oil slowly heat up.

To test if the oil is ready for that picture perfect sizzle, I dip the point of a chopstick into the pan. When you see bubbles quickly forming at the base, the oil is ready.

Your noodles should be done by now too.

Turn the burners off for both the noodles and the oil.

Make sure to wear an oven mitt when handling the sizzling oil.

Pour the hot oil into the bowl with the soy sauce and herbaceous mixture and watch it sizzle!

With tongs, transfer the noodles straight into the bowl. I don’t drain the noodles but you can if you’d like.

Toss everything together. Place the sliced cucumber on top and enjoy!