San Francisco-Style Vietnamese American Garlic Noodles

This unique fusion dish has been made popular by the San Francisco Vietnamese restaurant Thanh Long. It's very simple but also has a unique taste, in part due to the Maggi seasoning, but use fish sauce if you cannot get any Maggi. These noodles are quick to make, and they taste great on their own or with any seafood. This is a J. Kenji Lopez-Alt recipe from the NY Times.

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 20 medium garlic cloves, minced
• 4 teaspoons oyster sauce
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons Maggi liquid seasoning
• 1 pound dry spaghetti
• 1 ounce grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano (heaping ¼ cup)

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a wok or large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant but not browned, about 2 minutes. Add the oyster sauce, soy sauce and fish sauce, and stir to combine. Remove from the heat.
2. Meanwhile, bring 1½ inches of water to a boil in a 12-​inch skillet or sauté pan over high heat. (Or heat up just enough water to cover the spaghetti in a large Dutch oven or pot.) Add the pasta, stir a few times to make sure it’s not clumping, and cook, stirring occasionally, until just shy of al dente (about 2 minutes short of the recommended cook time on the package).
3. Using tongs, transfer the cooked pasta to the garlic sauce, along with whatever water clings to it. (Reserve the pasta water in the skillet.) Increase the heat to high, add the cheese to the wok, and stir with a wooden spatula or spoon and toss vigorously until the sauce is creamy and emulsified, about 30 seconds. If the sauce looks too watery, let it keep reducing. If it looks greasy, splash some more cooking water into it and let it re-​emulsify. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.