Ingredients
- Wheat or rice noodles, depending on the shop
- Sha-cha paste
- Pork broth or a lighter stock
- Bean sprouts and pig offal or seafood, as toppings
- Fried garlic
How it is cooked
- The paste is loosened into a broth. Sha-cha is a sauce of dried shrimp, fish, and spices, and recipes differ.
- Noodles and the toppings you pointed at are added.
- Garlic and a chili side are usual.
- Taste before you add heat. The bowl is already savory.
Taste
Deep, slightly sweet, and oceanic from the paste, even in a pork-topped bowl. It is Xiamen’s everyday noodle.
Possible allergens
- Shellfish and fish are in many sha-cha pastes even when the toppings are pork.
- Peanuts, in the classic version or as a garnish.
- Peanut is in some pastes and not others. Ask, and treat a vague answer as a yes.
- Wheat in the noodles or wrappers, and often in soy sauce.
- Soy sauce, which in China is often brewed with wheat.
- A shared wok or a house chili oil can add peanut, sesame, or shellfish even when the recipe does not.