There has been talk of Chinese New Year and so when I came home this evening there was a white plastic bag full of what was needed for a good stir fry.

The woks were retrieved from the basement and given a wipe down.

I have a total of three woks and I must have had two of them for at least twenty five perhaps thirty years. They are probably some of the best preserved bits of kitchen equipment I have working better now than the day I got them. They are both black and thick with use.

The contents of the white plastic bag had come from The International Store, including the chicken – three obscene breasts which looked as if they might have come from an ostrich as opposed to a chicken.

Two of them were chopped up and mixed with some egg and corn-flour.

I then chopped up finely red peppers and carrots, ginger, garlic and spring onions.

Before starting on the cooking proper I deep fried the prawn crackers and tofu.

Both woks then went on to full burn and we started on the cooking.

The chicken went into one and a mixture of red peppers and carrots into the other.

As they cooked some of the red pepper and carrot was shifted and stirred into the chicken, the tofu was then added to the red pepper and carrot in the first wok and  the garlic, ginger and spring onion was stirred into both.

There was a large jar of black bean sauce to hand. Dark soy sauce was stirred in followed by dollops of the black bean sauce.

Both woks were then lubricated with some water whilst I spent a couple of minutes cooking the noodles.

As the food went on to the table I was told there were not enough noodles to keep everyone happy.

The complainant was right. Mostly you cook noodles (rice or pasta) and they grow as they cook so the scant handful thrown into boiling water turns into too much to eat. These noodles shrank as they cooked. We had a go cooking some and still there weren’t enough. They were very good though!