Pot Luck lunches or dinners can be a funny affair. All of my friends are great when it comes to Pot Luck meals and for some reason, we never end up with doubles and everyone always bring more than is needed. However a colleague of mine’s friends can be a different matter entirely. She and her friends host weekly Pot Luck lunches and she often regales me of tales of Pot Luck Politics. One woman (the organiser, let’s call her El Presidente) tries to corral everyone into bringing something different and therefore avoiding double ups. The Presidente has a Vice Presidente who has her ear closer to the ground and echoes her thoughts and follows up by calling people the night before to ensure that there are no dreaded double ups and god forbid, anyone changes their allocated dish.
She tells me that most of “the people” fall into place but there is one couple that consistently never bring anything along but whom are close friends of the El Presidente so they are allowed to get away with it. When others ask them which dish is theirs they gesture around grandly at the whole table and say something vague like “I brought this” randomly pointing at someone else’s dish of course fooling no-one. After the fifth time they did this, there was much grumbling among the people who have brought sumptuous items such as duck, prawns and pork belly etc. Then there are some people that bring the cheapest thing you could ever make i.e. boiled rice which is all very fine if you’re not the most moneyed up and they spend the whole time being observed eating the duck and the prawns. And you can bet they’re being watched.
Then there’s the psychological analysis. The dish that one brings is very telling. The people that bring the expensive dishes are the more generous souls whereas the people that bring the cheapest dishes are stingy on compliments and not such lovely souls. Sometimes, the stingiest are the wealthiest of the crowd. Sound like a microcosm of a city in one dining room doesn’t it? 
My mother is a Pot Luck participant from way back and there is one dish that my mum makes that I absoutely love and she has made it for group gatherings and it was also the most requested fried noodle dish growing up. It’s versatile as you can make it vegetarian by replacing the stock powder with vegetable stock powder, the oyster sauce with a vegetarian version and adding tofu instead of chicken. I love the little pieces of chicken and the crunch from the lettuce and you could certainly char this more than we have to get that crunchy edge to the hokkien noodle.
So tell me Dear Reader, how are your Pot Luck dinners? Smooth sailing or fraught with political tension?
Fried Hokkien Noodles
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
- 500grams/1pound Hokkien Noodles (rinsed under hot water, drained and separated gently)
- 200grams/7ozs Chicken thigh meat sliced into small pieces
- 2 eggs
- 1 medium onion sliced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1/2 inch knob ginger, finely chopped
- 200grams bean sprouts
- 2 stalks of shallot sliced
- 2 iceberg lettuce leaves, shredded
- salt, sugar and white pepper to season
- oil for frying
Sauce:
- 1.5 teaspoons sugar
- 1.5 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1.5 tablespoon light soya sauce
- 1 teaspoon chicken stock powder
- 2 tablespoons water
1. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoons sugar to season the chicken meat. Then add 2 teaspoons of cornflour to coat the chicken meat and stir to coat the pieces.
2. Beat the 2 eggs in a bowl and with some oil in the saucepan fry them as a thin omelette. Remove from the pan, slice thinly and set aside.
3. Add a little more oil and fry the sliced onion, garlic and ginger until onion is translucent and then add the meat and fry until cooked through. Remove from the pan and place in a dish.
4. Fry the bean sprouts and remove from the pan and place in a dish. Wash and dry the pan.
5. While pan is reheating, mix all sauce ingredients together in a small bowl. Add oil and fry noodles being gently so as not to break them up. Add cooked bean sprouts and a handful of the lettuce.
6. Add half of the chicken and onion mix and then the sauce and stir to cover noodles. Garnish with lettuce, shallots, egg and the rest of the chicken and onion mix on top.
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44 Comments | Add your own
I love this dish. And also hor fun which Mister is very good and making. yummmm!
A wonderful noodle dish! It looks so tasty!
Cheers,
Rosa
This looks like the perfect potluck dish, I love all the different flavors and textures in it. I loved reading about the politics of potlucks, how funny that some people can take something that should be fun and pleasant and turn it into something so serious! I’m sad to say that I don’t really participate in many potlucks…not because I don’t want to, just because it seems to be something of a lost art (at least with my friends anyway!)…maybe I’ll try to turn the tide on that one and bring it back!
Talk about politics! We used to have Sunday lunch at my grandmother’s house and EVERYONE in the family used to go. I used to think they reason attendance was so high was because if you missed a lunch then you would be the topic of conversation! hehe… By the way, the dish looks great!
Well put! So true.
The worst thing is when you have your no-fail, perfect potluck meal and people ask for the recipe. If you give it to them, they then start producing it every time too … so you have to come up with another one, or risk facing comparisons every time. I’m naughty and try to change the subject. If they persist, I’m always tempted to leave one vital ingredient out …
These noodles look scrumptious! I have never been to a pot luck, so I have managed to avoid all of the politics.
The noodle dish looks great. I too have noticed who are the generous souls when it comes to bringing in food to share. We do a monthly breakfast meeting and there are 2 girls who consistently bring a tub of youghurt between them, whilst others bring home-made stuff or crumpets, croissants, scones, fruit etc etc. Some people are truly lazy when it comes to these things but are the first in line to feed their faces
I’m not sure if it’s how I read it but it doesn’t sound like the Presidente’s pot luck would be much fun. Leeches that don’t bring a dish and claim credit for someone else’s one, stingy people especially when they can afford not to be, people being watched and judged on the food they eat relative to what they bring, a sense of determinism eliminating the luck element in “pot luck”. Certainly not something I’d ever want to be involved with.
On the dish itself, it looks like a great dish! Bet it would work well swapping out the noodles for rice and presenting it in a fried rice form.
mmm yum! great for bringing leftovers to lunch at the office the next day!
good to read that you chose chicken thigh over the breast
oh i loved that. fancy not bring a dish and claiming a dish is yours… tsk tsk!
We always try to co-ordinate at family and friends pot luck affairs =)
My Potluck back up is Pesto Spagetti. Cheap but different. Maybe that is very telling… I wouls love to impress with a fancy dish, but money does restrain my fancy dinners to home meals with specific guests i have invited.
I have noticed at potlucks that carbs abound, pasta, potato and bread are always there.
Your mum’s Hokkien Noodles looks yummy. I tried your rice noodle recipe and it was fantastic. The family loved it so I’ll be giving this one a go too.
Pot luck politics… hmm.. Our group is pretty good as everyone takes turn hosting and the person hosting usually prepares the most expensive dish so it evens out..
Sack El Presidente, el Vice Presidente and the too stingy to bring anything ‘friends’. Lol
, I love to cook and I love the praise.
Our Pot Luck dinners are usually some sort of celebration ie: birthday, Christmas etc . Everyone brings a few dishes and we discuss the menu beforehand so there is lots of variety. I love to bring extravagant or exciting dishes because I’m a generous soul
Oh, NQN, the dish is lovely! I read a lot of foodie blogs but yours is the only one I subscribe to. You inspired me to try the apple strudel from the Daring Bakers Challenge. I have read recipes for it, watched every video I could google for it, and FINALLY took the plunge this weekend. I am hooked on dough-stretching now. The dough sat for hours while my daughters and I did a 5-mile mountain bike excursion so we ended up making the strudel at almost midnight. It was a wonderful thing! I couldn’t believe a dough could REALLY stretch that far but it did. Amazing stuff. I made 2 recipes of dough last night and let them sit out all night and at 7am I made a strudel to take to work. I took the juices that had drained from the apples and reduced them to a syrup and added them back to the apples- it added a lovely flavor and the juices from the apples didn’t break through the crust as it was baking- as they did the first time! Manipulating the dough was magic! My next foray into strudel will be a savory one- I can’t wait. Thank you for your inspiration! I will continue to follow your excursions into the world of food with avid interest. WHo knows- I may get brave and start blogging myself!
When my daylily club meets in December, we have a potluck dinner and Christmas Dirty Santa gift exchange. Every one states at the Nov meeting what they are bringing in Dec. In the last 8 or 9 years we have done this, there has never been duplicates of a dish.
That noodle dish looks like it would be very delicious.
Mmm those noodles look great! I love the copious amounts of egg
Oh I’ve had a shocker, I brought a lemon cheesecake with blackberries as a birthday present for my boyfriend’s sister and it turned out his Mum, who was making the dinner, had also made a lemon cheesecake covered in berries. We had to have a masterchef style taste off, I was slightly mortified.
At our potluck dinners at work I am always under the gun, so to speak. I am known as “The Cook” so everyone expects something different. I usually opt to make my hot rolls- they are quick and safe- LOL! I save the ‘good stuff’ (such as strudel) for times when there is no competition! One of my co-workers told me today that everything I cook is sogood- I laughed and told her that no, it’s just that my failures never see the light of day- they go into the trash
I am no fool!
This dish makes me miss SIngpaore even more!! YUM! I can’t believe I was too much of a wussy to eat this for real back when I was there half a year ago…
But anyway. Glad your blog is back to order!
This is one excellent noodles dish!!
I so love it!! MMMMMMMMMMM,…
This contains all of my favourite flavours!!
Ah… Fried hokkien noodle. Love your mum’s recipes, looking at them cure my homesickness. Pot luck politics… We have a friend who always brings meatless tofu dish and only tucks into dishes that contain meat and seafood.
I don’t like pot lucks in the first place so would definately hate it if someone was getting too OCD about the whole thing. Someone who needs to control whether people are actually bringing what they’ve been asked probably shouldn’t host pot luck dinners at all?!
I like what you wrote about potluck politics. So true! I will never forget this one pot luck session I went to where this bachelor friend brought one take-away box with 2 choices and rice in it. Needless to say he was never invited again.
Somehow a political potluck takes the fun out of it. I like to be able to make whatever takes my fancy – although I guess it’s worth doing some preorganising so you don’t get all dessert and no mains.
Ha! Poo to pot luck, I’m making this and eating it myself! Well, I might share with the children … maybe.
I loved this entry! Hehe the politics of pot luck – very cute *thumbs up*. keep up the good work NQN
I always use the opportunity to try new dishes and experiment with old ones, probably the secret caterer/restaurateur/mad food scientist coming out in me!
oh my!! vat a delish looking noodle dish!! m drooling already
a must try!
Fabulous looking noodles, looks like a perfect potluck dish!
i think pot luck dinners can be really tricky!
youd want something that stands out..
and nothing boring. i get stressed over these kinda dinners hah.
if you happen to come to singapore..
you should try the hokkien noodles here!
i happen to be hokkien too
brilliant looking noodles btw!
Anything about politics I’d doze off…the noodles look amazing, different from the hokkien noodles I’m used to though…
without fail at our church potlucks, the ladies are subtly viscious in dish placement on the tables. the closer your dish gets to the head of the table, the better.
I made this for dinner tonight with some small adjustments (eg. I didn’t have hokkien noodles handy so used some thick noodles good for stir frying) and it was fabulous. Love the sauce. And my kids loved it. So did my husband. I worry about too much salt when I cook for my children, but this recipe wasn’t overly salty which was great. I also used a low salt soy sauce which helped. Do the garlic and ginger go in at the same time as the onion? Will definitely try this again with the right noodles. Thanks again, Lorraine, for making my dinner planning spontaneous and easy!
Pot lucks are supposed to be fun and time for friends celebrate their friendship with food, not for drama! Fried noodles look delicious!
El presidente sounds like a nightmare– Isn’t the whole point of potluck get-togethers to have a bit of fun. I certainly know a few who fit into the stingy category- one person came over to dinner and later (after going out) came back to take home her bottle of wine. unbelievable! okay, hahah enough ranting. But seriously, and your noodles look amazing! mmmmmm
Potlucks are always really fun, and yes, the dish can be telling. Some people just buy a dish which is no fun. It’s best if you make it, even if it took you 5 seconds!
Oh my goodness, that looks absolutely delicious! I could eat that now, for lunch! I love fast dishes that taste amazing and this is one of them.
Excellent recipe, very similar to the one my mum often makes. Thanks, Lorraine!
Potluck parties experience – hehe, I have a little bit of both, but generally the smooth sailing version. Houses in Japan are usually not big, so when someone actually offers up his/her house for a potluck party, it’s a much awaited invitation and the souls who show up are the generous ones.
Taking your story as an analogy… the couple who didn’t bring anything will go through a probation period for 2 more potlucks, and if the situation is not improving, then maybe I will bid them adios.
Since I often play the role of “El Presidente” (well not so much as a president, but more as an initiator) of the potluck party, then I get to decide who gets invited to the next one.
THat dish looks delicious.
I love Pot lucks, but I don’t know too many people who would actually want to do it -sigh-
this looks so good !
if you do not know my French food blog : come and pay a visit you are most welcome ! see you Pierre
Great recipe!!!
Really quick and easy to make and it tasted great. I will certainly make it again.
Made this dish for dinner last night and even my father helped himself to seconds. It was delicious. I had to print the recipe for my sister as she wants to make it. Definately be making it again.
Only problem was: no mention of beanshoots in the ingredient list I printed out, which I now see you have included. I also substituted the chicken for pork fillet. I doubled the recipe as not listed as to how many the original amounts served and it was enough for 4 adults.
Hmm looks delish!
With foodbloggers, I have absolutely no problem, but with others I always bring something “I” want to eat so I can be sure that I have at least one dish that I can stuff myself with LOL
ha ha that is so funny and so true. I have an aunt who tastes everything (in large quantities) that others bring and loudly declares that she makes it much better. She then proceeds to quiz the hapless person who made it relentlessly trying to extract their recipe. She never brings anything herself ofcourse and on the very rare occassion that she does, she brings the smallest amount (about fit for a chipmunk) of the cheapest thing possible! And she makes a big point of never sharing her recipes. I have to really bite my tongue when I am around her as she is also very quick to take offense. Ah the politics….!!
I am the one that gets stuck bringing five dishes so that there will be enough food. I hate potlucks in the south (US). Strangest place for food. People bring food, grab what’s not eaten to take back home, and worse, I’ve seen them grab wine they brought. So no potlucks for me anymore.
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