Chinese street food style fried noodles with pre-cooked noodles (youmian)

Boil the noodles until al dente and strain.

Spread on a large baking tray, drizzle with a couple tablespoons of oil and coat evenly; jiggle with chopsticks in front of a box fan for about 5 minutes to let the steam escape and cool them.

Set aside; the noodles keep in the fridge up to 8 days.

Cut the ham, onion, carrots and baby bok choy into slivers.

Mix the dry seasoning: salt, MSG, five spice, chicken bouillon powder and cumin powder.

Mix 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce and 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce.

Heat the wok piping hot, turn off the heat, add 1 tbsp oil and swirl; over a high flame add the noodles and spread them out.

Fry about 1 minute on one side to brown, flip and brown the other side another minute.

Add the ham, then the garlic and chilli, then the vegetables, mixing with a spatula and chopstick.

Sprinkle in the seasoning mix and swirl the sauce onto the noodles rather than the hot wok side; fry about 2 minutes more.

Optionally top with a fried egg.

Variation, non-stick skillet: optionally mix half the dark soy sauce into the noodles first; add the oil to a cool pan, turn the heat to high and immediately add the noodles; never heat the pan empty.

Variation, skillet: fry about one minute, flip for 30 seconds, add the ham for 30 seconds, then the aromatics and vegetables for about a minute until they wilt; off the flame toss in both seasonings, then back on for about half a minute.