Noodles Express

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Prep time is the driving factor in this unusual little cookbook.
McCauley has arranged her collection of noodle recipes not by noodle
type or type of dish as might be expected, but by how long it takes to
have the finished dish on the table. Of the more than 80 recipes, over
half fall into the 15-minutes-or-less group.

The collection is a natural response to the growing popularity of
noodle houses now spreading out from urban centres to smaller Canadian
cities. Noodle dishes are relatively inexpensive, tolerant of many
substitutions, and filling yet fairly healthy. Those included in this
collection use no meat or fish, making them suitable for “occasional
vegetarians.”

The recipes make extensive use of Oriental and other international
specialty items available in big-city supermarkets and ethnic markets.
To follow the directions faithfully requires a source for such items as
tamari, sambal oelek, skiitake and wood ear mushrooms, lemon grass,
daikon, and ketjap manis. McCauley’s philosophy, however, has a high
tolerance for experimentation and substitutions, so readers without a
neighborhood Oriental market should be able

to cope.

The tone is chatty and the approach user-friendly. A lively, modern
page design adds visual interest and supports the intent to simplify.
Noddles Express is the perfect answer to today’s time-pressured pace
and desire for a way to combine healthy eating with satisfying meals.