Noodle with XO Sauce and Minced Pork

I've been told that summer in Taiwan usually starts right after Dragon boat festival. I was quite skeptical at first, and the constant raining for the past 2 weeks made me even more doubtful. But to my surprise, the rain really stopped on Thursday (Dragon boat festival occurred on Wednesday) and since then, the sun has been out in full force. The much dreaded summer has arrived, urgh!

As I always eat alone during in the afternoon, my lunch is usually quick and easy, and noodle soup is something that I cook almost everyday. But with such hot weather, a bowl of hot soup is not that appealing to me anymore and so I opt for cold noodle instead. Cold noodle, or 涼麵, is a dish that start to appear in hawker stalls since about a month back and so I reckon this is the kind of food which the locals go for in summer. So during my last trip to the book store, I grabbed a book on making cold noodle dishes and here's the first recipe that I've tried out - noodle with XO sauce and minced pork.

Noodle with XO Sauce and Minced Pork Recipe

Ingredients:
Yellow noodle (or any noodle of your choice) for two persons
200g minced pork
3 dried mushrooms, soaked until soft and then chopped
1 stalk spring onion, chopped

Seasoning:
1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons XO sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Method:
1) Mix minced pork with cornstarch, set aside.
2) Cook noodle in a pot of boiling water. Dish out and place the noodle on two plates.
3) Heat up 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok. Saute mushrooms with a pinch of sugar until fragrant. Add minced pork and saute until it is half cooked.
4) Add soy sauce, make a few quick stirs and then add XO sauce and sugar. Continue to stir until the pork is thoroughly mixed with the seasonings and cooked.
5) Spoon the minced pork mixture on top of noodle, garnish with spring onion, serve.