Ingredients
- Wheat noodles
- Fermented soybean paste, tianmianjiang or huangdoujiang
- Pork, in the usual version
- Cucumber, bean sprouts, or radish
- Soy and a little sugar
How it is cooked
- The paste is fried with minced pork until the raw bean smell is gone and the sauce is dark and glossy.
- Noodles are boiled and drained.
- You mix the sauce through the noodles yourself and add the vegetables.
- The proportion is the cook’s. A good bowl is salty and beany, not sweet like a takeaway version abroad.
Taste
Savory, salty, and a little sweet, with raw crunch on top. Weekday food, not a banquet.
Possible allergens
- Wheat in the noodles or wrappers, and often in soy sauce.
- Soy sauce, which in China is often brewed with wheat.
- Pork in the standard sauce. A meatless version still usually contains the bean paste.
- A shared wok or a house chili oil can add peanut, sesame, or shellfish even when the recipe does not.