Longevity Noodles Recipe for Lunar New Year for Long Life. what to cook this weekend for Lunar New Year and Chinese New Year. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Longevity Noodles Recipe for Lunar New Year for Long Life, Good Luck and Prosperity

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This longevity noodles recipe makes long life noodles, a traditional Chinese noodle dish made during Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year to bring longevity, good luck and prosperity – as long as you don’t cut the noodles! Longevity noodles recipe are also served on other special occasions, such as birthdays and anniversaries.

Chinese New Year is rapidly approaching here in Cambodia, in China, and in other countries with Chinese communities, such as Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, also called Lunar New Year in neighbouring Vietnam and East Asian countries that follow the lunisolar calendar, such as Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

We’ve been getting into the spirit of the season here in Cambodia, as we do every year, cooking lucky dishes for Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year, as it’s called in Cambodia’s Chinese-Cambodian communities. So thought we’d share some Chinese New Year food recipes with you, beginning with this classic longevity noodles recipe.

While Chinese New Year is not an official government holiday here in Cambodia, you wouldn’t know it. Chinese-Cambodians close their businesses for the day, homes are decorated in red bunting and lanterns, a generous table of offerings made to the Kitchen God are visible in people’s homes, and joss paper is burnt on the street outside.

As you’d expect from a culinary culture as rich as China’s, food plays an important part in Chinese New Year celebrations. The day before Chinese New Year’s Eve, Cambodian-Chinese families will make dumplings together, and spend time visiting with family, particularly elderly relatives, to whom gifts of food are taken.

Among the abundant offerings laid out in the morning for the Kitchen God and ancestors to be enjoyed by the family on New Year’s Eve is ‘lucky food’, such as citrus fruit, bamboo soup, a whole chicken – the word for chicken sounds like ‘luck’ – and longevity noodles.

Now before I share this traditional longevity noodles recipe, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes on the site, please consider supporting Grantourismo by using our links to book accommodation, rent a car, buy travel insurance, or book a tour on Get Your Guide.

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Now let me tell you about this traditional longevity noodles recipe.

Longevity Noodles Recipe for Lunar New Year for Long Life, Good Luck and Prosperity

Considering the population of China and that of the Asian countries that celebrate Chinese New Year and Lunar New Year, the holiday is one of the largest celebrations in the world. The holiday also involves one of the largest mass migrations in the world, as so many Asians from across the region who have moved to cities for work or education, return to their home towns and villages to spend the holiday with family.

The Chinese have always been great travellers – from the emissaries, merchants and seamen of ancient times to the young people who have travelled far for their educations or to make their fortune and create a better life to support their family back home. Non-Chinese have benefited from the rich culture those travellers have carried with them to their new homes, including their culinary culture.

I, for one, would have been all the poorer had I not have grown up in western Sydney in the 1970s, where every suburb had a Chinese restaurant or two, and dining out at our favourite was a Thursday post- late-night shopping ritual for my family when I was a child. No, it wasn’t all Russian food nor those nostalgic Australian recipes from the Seventies I’ve been sharing here.

Longevity Noodles Recipe for Lunar New Year for Long Life. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Chinese food was very much a part of my childhood, and Terence’s childhood, thanks to those neighbourhood Chinese restaurants – the dumplings (dim sim!), the wantons, the soups, oh, the soups – short soup and long soup, egg drop soup, crab and corn soup, wonton soup – chow mein, chop suey, sweet and sour pork, lemon chicken, steamed fish, roast duck, fried rice, and fried ice cream for dessert!

Okay, so I should say Chinese-Australian restaurants, as the more we’ve learnt about Chinese cuisines during our time abroad, especially the last decade or so living in Asia, the more we’ve appreciated that dishes we thought were ‘authentic’ Chinese in Australia, aren’t necessarily considered so by Chinese in China.

But as we all now realise, ‘authenticity’ is such a loaded term, and while Chinese-Australian food – or Chinese-American, British-Chinese, Thai-Chinese or Chinese-Cambodian food – might not always resemble the food from ‘home’ if that home was China, it’s ‘authentic’ for the people, community and culture in their time and place. Which brings me back to this longevity noodles recipe.

Longevity Noodles Recipe for Lunar New Year for Long Life. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Tips to Making this Longevity Noodles Recipe for Lunar New Year

While this longevity noodles recipe is considered to be a classic and fairly traditional in many Chinese communities around the world, here in Cambodia longevity noodles tend to be plain when presented as an offering, with little else other than scallions or spring onions, chives and finely sliced mushrooms.

But after the offerings, when it comes to consuming this lucky dish later on in the evening or late afternoon, anything goes as far as condiments are concerned, and individuals might douse fish sauce, chilli sauce or chilli oil onto their noodles.

In Australia, a longevity noodles recipe might have included the addition of lap cheong (Chinese sausage), perhaps even prawns, and maybe snow peas. The amount of soy sauces and oyster sauce are often more generous, resulting in a richer tasting and darker noodle.

This longevity noodles recipe will give you something in between.

This is a super easy recipe, so my only tip is not to break the noodles, not when you’re boiling them, stir-frying them or eating them. Longevity noodles are also called long life noodles but if you break the noodles you’ll get bad luck and might not live as long as you hoped!

Here in Siem Reap, we buy a Singapore brand of Longevity Noodles produced by Hup Huat Noodles, supposedly to a recipe dating to 1930.

This brand of longevity noodles isn’t available on Amazon, but I’m sure you’ll find them or a similar noodle in your nearest Asian market, specialty Asian grocer or a supermarket with a well-stocked Asian section. If you don’t have any luck, ask for yi mein, yi mian, yee mein, yee fu or e-fu noodles. Good luck!

Longevity Noodles Recipe for Lunar New Year

Longevity Noodles Recipe for Lunar New Year for Long Life. what to cook this weekend for Lunar New Year and Chinese New Year. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

Longevity Noodles Recipe for Lunar New Year

This classic longevity noodles recipe makes long life noodles, a traditional Chinese dish that’s made during Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year to bring longevity, good luck and prosperity – as long as you don’t cut the noodles! Also called yi mein, yi mian, yee mein, and e-fu noodles, the longer the noodles, the longer your life will be.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Course Noodles
Cuisine Chinese
Servings made with recipe4
Calories 152 kcal

Ingredients
 
 

  • 200 g longevity noodles
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp light soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp dark soy
  • 2 tbsp oyster sauce
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 5 Shiitake mushrooms - thinly sliced
  • 50 g bean sprouts - blanched
  • 60 g spring onions/scallions - chopped into 5cm lengths
  • 60 g chives - chopped into 5cm lengths

Instructions
 

  • Bring a large pot of hot water to the boil, then boil the longevity noodles as per the directions on the packet – probably around 3-4 minutes; take care not to over-cook them, as they’ll go mushy when you fry them – then drain the noodles and set aside.
  • Dissolve the sugar and salt in a tablespoon of boiling water, then combine with the sauces and sesame oil in a measuring jug.
  • In a large, round-bottomed wok, heat the oil then stir-fry the mushrooms, chives and spring onions for two or three minutes.
  • Transfer the noodles to the wok, along with the sauce mix, distributing evenly across the noodles, then stir-fry gently for a minute or two, just enough to combine everything well and ensure an even colour, taking care not to break the noodles. Add more sesame oil if dry or clumping.
  • Serve immediately, garnishing with additional chives or spring onions/scallions.

Nutrition

Calories: 152kcalCarbohydrates: 22gProtein: 6gFat: 5gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 2gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 1672mgPotassium: 191mgFiber: 3gSugar: 3gVitamin A: 805IUVitamin C: 13mgCalcium: 33mgIron: 2mg

Published 21 January 2022; Last Updated 7 February 2024

Please do let us know in the comments below if you make this longevity noodles recipe as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.

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A travel and food writer who has experienced over 70 countries and written for The Guardian, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, National Geographic Traveller, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, DestinAsian, TIME, CNN, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, AFAR, Wanderlust, International Traveller, Get Lost, Four Seasons Magazine, Fah Thai, Sawasdee, and more, as well as authored more than 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, Footprint, Rough Guides, Fodors, Thomas Cook, and AA Guides.

4 thoughts on “Longevity Noodles Recipe for Lunar New Year for Long Life, Good Luck and Prosperity”

  1. Aussie here with a Hong Konger hubby who was a very happy chappy when I made these for the fam. Better than mum’s he said!!! And I have to agree! Thank you guys!5 stars

  2. These are soooooo good Lara. Like Beth above I’m an Aussie with an Asian husband (Singaporean) making her first Lunar New Year feast this year, for friends, not family fortunately. Doing a practice run on some dishes. We LOVED these. Will definitely make them again. Browsing your other recipes now. Anything else you suggest I give a go?5 stars

  3. Hi Celia, so pleased you enjoyed the noodles. It’s hard to go wrong with fried spring rolls or Chinese dumplings but if you’re really looking to impress guests I’d go with something like slow cooked pork or crispy pork belly, or perhaps Cambodian chicken with cashews. I’ve gathered all those recipes and more in this collection. Let us know if you have any questions. We’re always here to help. Good luck! https://grantourismotravels.com/chinese-new-year-food-recipes/

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