The cha misua is part of every traditional Chinese birthday celebration. For my father-in-law’s 80th birthday, Mama requested me to cook the birthday misua for Papa. It is actually my first time to do it and I worked in tandem with our eldest daughter Shawna. So now, I am sharing with you our cooking tips for Mama’s Chinese birthday misua recipe.

• Related: Chinese New Year Family Adventures

The Cha Misua for Every Elder’s Birthday

If we Filipinos prepare the red birthday spaghetti with hotdogs or pancit guisado for long life, the Chinese have their Cha Misua. Also known as the Chinese birthday misua, this dish is usually prepared for the birthday celebrator. There are certain ingredients that are actually symbolic, like good health and long life. And of course, prosperity.

Mama related to me that in a family of brothers, the “A-so” or the wife of the first-born son usually cooks the cha misua for the patriarch.

In the Chinese household, there is such a reverence for the father — the man of the house.

In their generation, the A-so cooked birthday misua for the birthday boy and for the immediate families. However, that aunt decided that all the wives should take turns cooking it every year. It can also get pretty tedious, especially if you are making several batches so it was getting too tiring for her through the years.

When I married my husband, Mama-in-law did not really oblige me to cook because she knows that I am also working. So every year during Papa’s birthday, they start preparing the cha misua ingredients the day before. And she gets busy on Papa’s actual birthday.

My Turn to Handle the Chinese Birthday Misua Recipe

But this year is different. It’s still a pandemic year and yet it’s also Papa’s 80th birthday. The family decided to hold a zoom birthday party and to send food to our relatives and some close friends.

• Related: Prudent Quarantine Birthday Ideas for Pinoy Families | Covid-19 Crisis

So Mama requested me to cook at least 1 bowl that will be given to Papa for his lunch. I was in charge of our lunch while they took care of the food deliveries. Traditionally, the cha misua is the first meal of the birthday celebrator, but … it’s no longer practical in our modern time.

Instead, we prepared a bowl for Papa’s lunch (and ours) along with cansi steak. If you want to read about the symbols in the cha misua, read this: Cha Misua | Chinese Birthday Misua Recipe

Chinese Birthday Misua Recipe

Logically, I know how to cook cha misua because the cooking part is actually easy. Plus, I have watched Mama do it a couple of times. It is the preparation part that is so tedious because of the many ingredients that you have to prepare beforehand.

For this Chinese Birthday Misua Recipe, I had the same ingredients as Mama used. Find the recipe here. However, I did alter the flavorings because hubby and the kids want the cha misua to be more flavorful.

Here I am sharing my cooking notes:

• Prepare the ingredients the day before. It takes a lot of time to shred and slice all the elements.

• Pick the right kind of noodles for the birthday misua. It is colored brown. Another kind of noodles would not have the same effect.

• Instead of just soy sauce, I added fish sauce as well as Knorr seasoning to enhance the flavor.

• You will need to fry the Chinese chorizo, sliced onions, and scrambled eggs. Use the oil to saute the sauce of the misua. It is more aromatic plus you don’t waste oil.

• Toss the noodles into the meat mixture. Don’t mix. You don’t want the noodles to break into tiny pieces.

• Never, cut the birthday misua intentionally. Ever. The noodles symbolize long life, so don’t cut them short. haha

• Cook the misua in small batches in boiling water seasoned with salt. Add cooking oil to prevent the noodles from sticking. You have to bite into the misua to check if it’s almost cooked and then transfer them in tap water to cool completely. Do this for the rest of the noodles in order to make the noodles “al dente”, as the Italians would call it.

• Optional ingredients to make your cha misua more special would be small oysters and slices of squid or octopus.

A Successful of Rite of Passage

Achi Shawna helped me in the cooking because she had been learning how to cook under my tutelage. Hubby was the first one to try and he praised us because it tasted good.

When Mama and Papa tried it, Mama said that I can already handle the next batch of birthday misua already. It passed!

I am just happy about this because it’s like a rite of passage in heritage cooking. The Chinese birthday misua is a big thing in Chinese families so I am just happy that I nailed it the first time.

This is a heritage dish that should be passed on to the next generation because, with the food delivery and instant noodles we have, the practice can get lost.

How to Make Chinese Birthday Misua on Video

Watch this short clip on how to cook the Chinese Birthday Misua on our YouTube channel.

Other Chinese Recipes

Meanwhile, here are other recipes for Chinese dishes in this blog.

• Make this Delicious Chinese-Style Camaron Rellenado Recipe at home and impress the whole family.

• This DIY Shabu-shabu Hot Pot Recipe for the Family is a comforting dish especially during rainy or cold days.

• This salad is one of our favorites in a Chinese restaurant so we made our own. Try this Chinese-Style Hot Shrimp Salad Recipe at Home.

• This may not be technically Chinese, but we love it. This is the Easy to Make Mongolian Rice Bowl Recipe at Home