Last week I made J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s Chinese-Style Lo Mein with Oyster Sauce, Lettuce, and Butter from his The Wok cookbook. I took the ingredients with me to cook it for extended family over Thanksgiving.

The recipe is simple. Fresh thin “won ton” noodles have been one of the easier noodles to find at Asian groceries in the area. Otherwise, the dish is lettuce, butter, oyster sauce, and scallions.

The noodles are cooked first with the lettuce and then set aside. The butter, oyster sauce, and a splash of the starchy pasta water are heated in the wok until bubbly, then the noodles and lettuce are mixed in. I ended up adding a fair amount of additional water to get the noodles to loosen up and not clump. The scallions are added as garnish at the end.

I thought the noodles were quite good, especially considering how simple they are. The taste is very familiar to me, but I can’t place where I know it from. Megan thought they were too simple, saying that some tofu or sweet thai chili sauce would improve them. My brother and mom also tried them and said they were good. My mom even kept all the leftovers when we packed to come home.

I’d make this one again, but as a side dish or a simple lunch for myself.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.