Stir Fried Mung Bean Vermicelli Noodles

Stir Fried Mung Bean Vermicelli Noodles, a photo by gummychild on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
My mom asks for this dish almost EVERY TIME she wants me to bring something to a potluck. Either this, or the Red Bean Mochi Cake. =P

I love mung bean vermicelli noodles, but my goodness. Every time???

I should consider it a compliment - she doesn't dole them out easily at all...lol...my mom is a GREAT cook, but she says she can't cook the noodles "right" like I do when I make this dish. But I don't get it - it's a really simple dish, and I somewhat made it up on the fly one day when she and my dad came over for dinner, when we were still living in the apartment.

It's also one of those dishes that I just randomly throw things together, though there are certain things I like to put in there often - ground pork, and some sort of moist vegetable (like carrot or red bell peppers), so feel free to improvise! After all, that's how I sorta made it up. Although I guess it has some sort of official name - in Chinese, it's something like "Ants climbing up a tree (螞蟻上樹)", hee hee.

Ingredients:
- Half a pound of ground pork, or if you don't have that, I had used about 1/3 of a ring of polska kielbasa (minced) and some spam slices once, and that worked out fine. It just adds a little different flavor to it, heh heh...
- 2 sprigs of green onion, minced.
- 2 to 4 bundles of mung bean vermicelli noodles, soaked till soft. I like these noodles quite a bit and will easily use more, but 2 is a good proportion to the amount of other ingredients here.
- 1 red bell pepper, diced finely, and/or 3 carrots, grated finely.
- About 5-6 Shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced.
- Approx 2 Tbsp of cooking wine
- 1 Tbsp of light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, or a Tbsp of your favorite chili sauce
- Water to cook
*You may add in some rice vinegar (about 1 Tbsp) if you want a tangy flavor to it. Sometimes I do it, sometimes I don't. Same with adding some sesame oil when cooking the meats.

Directions:
1. Cook the meat in a wok with some oil if needed; add the vegetables (carrots and/or red bell peppers, and mushrooms) and about 2/3rds of the green onions.
2. Mix well so that all ingredients are about cooked.
3. Add the vermicelli noodles and mix well. You may want to cut the noodles once or twice if you find it too long for you to cook.
4. Add the cooking wine and soy sauce, then add enough water so that it almost covers the noodles. Sprinkle in the red pepper flakes (omit or use less if you don't want spiciness in it) and the rest of the green onions; mix well.
5. Let the noodles cook until almost all the liquid is evaporated.
6. Eat!