牛肉面牛肉麵
niú ròu miàn ngau4 juk6 min6
Beef noodle soup is Taipei’s unofficial city dish, born when mainland veterans married Sichuan chili-bean flavours to local wheat noodles after 1949. The annual Taipei competition treats it with World-Cup seriousness.
The story behind it
After 1949, veterans from Sichuan in Kaohsiung’s military villages (眷村) married chili-bean braising to local beef and wheat noodles. Taipei now runs an annual beef-noodle festival with blind tastings, and aficionados rank broths as braised (红烧) or clear-stewed (清炖) schools.
Ingredients
- 800 g beef shank
- 2 tbsp doubanjiang + 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 onion, 1 tomato, ginger, garlic, star anise
- 400 g wheat noodles
- Pickled mustard greens and spring onion to serve
Steps
- Blanch the beef; brown the aromatics with doubanjiang.
- Add beef, soy and water to cover; simmer 2 hours until tender.
- Slice the beef thick; strain the broth.
- Serve over fresh noodles with greens and spring onion.