Hung Le's 'Famous Noodles'

One of the most eagerly anticipated events at  is the annual Multicultural Pot Luck Dinner and Art Show. It combines home-cooked food from many families and cultures with a wonderful display of student artwork generated in the school’s Art Studio.

This is principal Phil Cott’s favorite evening of the year because it brings Webster families together for pure fun and a delicious dinner with unexpected flavors. Families try new foods and meet people they might not have run into at school before. Kids get to show off their heritage and parents get to mingle informally, with no purpose other than to be sociable. Win-win.

And among the hundreds of culinary offerings on the groaning buffet tables is one the children eagerly await: Hung Le’s Fried Spaghetti. 

This is an unassuming dish. You might call it almost homely. You might even pass it by the first time through the buffet line, but you would do so at your peril because there won’t be any left when you come back around and are ready to try it.

The mild-mannered Hung is by the associate vice president and university registrar at . The registrar oversees student administrative services such as registration, academic advising, grades and student accounts. In other words, he doesn’t cook for a living!

Hung got this recipe from his foster mom, which leads to his interesting history. He was born in Vietnam and emigrated to the U.S. with his cousin and his cousin's family two weeks before the fall of Saigon. He lived with several foster families in Seattle until coming to school at Pepperdine in the fall of 1983. After graduation, Hung went to New York, where he lived there for three years. He met his wife Corinne in college and they married two years after his graduation. The couple lived in New York during their first year of marriage, and then returned to Southern California in the fall of 1990. He has been working at Pepperdine ever since. After 16 years of separation, he and his family were reunited in the summer of 1991.

Wow. And again … wow.

Although he says fried spaghetti is not a typical dish in Vietnam, one of his foster moms, who is Vietnamese, came up with this dish. She used to make it only as a standard side dish to barbecued steaks, but he has come to make it as a favorite side dish for almost any meal, especially at potlucks and parties.

Hung says the secret ingredient is in the sauce. His advice on how to make it:

1. He has made it so many times he never measures the sauce while adding it. Like many good cooks, he adds it until it looks right—when the color of the spaghetti is a light café au lait color.
2. There are several optional ingredients listed, but he rarely uses them. "The kids like it with just the onions and the sauce. Sometimes, I will make one for the adults and add garlic and sesame oil and garnish with toasted sesame seeds and chopped cilantro to make it fancy. For the kids, I will just make it plain. When I have two different kinds, the plain one is always the first to go."
3. He uses the Golden Mountain sauce, which he gets at a Vietnamese market. Maggi Seasoning Sauce can be purchased at Asian markets or most grocery stores.

HUNG LE'S FRIED SPAGHETTI 

Or, as the kids at Webster call it, "Hung’s Famous Noodles." He says, "This is one of the easiest things to make. It does take some practice to get the flavoring just right. As with all seasoning, start with less and then add more as needed."

• 1 pound spaghetti, cooked and drained
• 2-3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 medium brown onion, chopped
• Seasoning Sauce (Golden Mountain or Maggi), to taste (try 3 tablespoons of sauce first and add more if you like) 

Cook spaghetti in a large pot of boiling water, and when done, drain it well. While spaghetti is cooking, heat canola oil in a non-stick skillet. Sauté chopped onion for several minutes, until almost translucent; stir frequently to avoid burning.

Add well-drained spaghetti to the skillet and stir-fry. Season with seasoning sauce to taste. Stir-fry until spaghetti is thoroughly heated and well saturated (but not swimming) with sauce.

Optional additions:

• Minced garlic
• Small amount of sesame oil
• Garnish with thinly sliced scallions and/or chopped cilantro, toasted sesame seeds