The following excerpt and recipe for Noodles for Breakfast is from Jon Kung's cookbook "Kung Food: Chinese American Recipes from a Third-Culture Kitchen." It's available for purchase on Amazon.

Apparently, this is a concept so alien to people that a very casual and unassuming TikTok about it garnered over 14 million views and countless Instagram tags from people giving it a try. Such a basic thing: some broth or a few splashes of mentsuyu (bottled Japanese noodle soup base), somen noodles (because of their barely-a-minute cooking time), a fried egg, and scallions. (A little crispy-fried bacon is a nice topping, too.) The real beauty in this is how quickly it takes once you get the motions down. 

Noodles for Breakfast

  • Prep Time:10 mins
  • Cook Time:10 mins
  • Total Time:20 mins
  • Servings:1
  • Easy

    Ingredients

  • 1½ cups broth some kind or 2 tbsp mentsuyu with a little hot water - whatever you have time for
  • 1 or 2 slices thick-cut bacon - fried until crispy then crumbled - optional
  • 1 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1 3-ounce bundle somen noodles
  • 1 large egg
  • Kosher salt
  • 1 scallion - halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into ½-inch lengths
Photo courtesy of Kung Food

  • Step 1

    Bring some water to a boil for the noodles. Have the broth simmering in a separate small pot. If you’re including bacon, put it in your serving bowl.

  • Step 2

    When the water is boiling, melt the butter in a small nonstick pan over medium heat. Add the noodles to the boiling water (cook according to package instructions) and then crack the egg into the buttered pan and cook as desired (I do over-easy); the noodles and egg should be done around the same time. Drain the noodles and add them to your serving bowl, then pour in the broth; the noodles and broth will heat the bacon through. Lightly salt the egg and add it to the bowl, along with the butter from the pan. Top with the scallions.

    Photo courtesy of Kung Food

Reprinted with permission from Kung Food: Chinese American Recipes from a Third-Culture Kitchen by Jon Kung © 2023. Photographs © 2023 by Johnny Miller. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House.