ginger, sweet potato noodles and bok choy

Ginger (teuila) is the national flower of Samoa. The markets here often have ginger root for sale. The ginger root here is moist and has a very soft, thin skin. It is very fragrant and has a pure ginger flavor. We had dinner at a patient's plantation a few weeks ago and were served tea that was made with steeped ginger root and lemon grass from their yard. It was the best tea I've ever tasted. I'll have to post about that dinner another time...

One time we were at Farmer Joe's (a "super" market near our house - really just a small store, but one of the biggest in Western Samoa) and saw sweet potato noodles. We were intrigued. If you could read Korean, you could see that the package indeed says that these are sweet potato noodles




I often use bok choy in stir fries and curries because it is one of the few greens that they have in abundance here. I had just bought a new bunch and decided to use it with our sweet potato noodles. I'd also just bought some fresh ginger. I looked in my fridge to see what else I might have on hand.

I got on the internet and found a traditional Korean recipe using sweet potato noodles. It's hard to see the noodles because of all the other ingredients I added. They're the shiny brown thing in between some of the veggies. I used the basic sauce recipe from the link to about.com and added carrots, mushrooms, onions, ginger, bok choy, and fried egg when I made it this time. It's paired up with our usual fruit salad of papaya, banana and pineapple.

I've used these noodles a couple of times and quite like them. They are transparent like bean thread noodles, but thicker and wavy. They take on the color and flavor of the sauce you're using and are chewy and bouncy. If they're al dente it feels like you're eating gummy worms. We like to get them a little softer to the tooth!