Vermicelli, also long as longevity noodles, is used as the main ingredient in this dish of longevity mee suah, prepared for the birthday boys and girls to wish them a long and healthy life. Many Chinese families still cook this dish on birthday occasions in place of a cake, which, in my opinion, is much more practical than a birthday cake as it feeds a person and an entire family well as a meal and isn’t unnecessarily expensive. The tradition stems from the Hokkien dialectal group but is a practice that is commonly seen in many other dialectal groups as well.
