炸酱面炸醬麵
zhá jiàng miàn zaa3 zoeng3 min6
Beijing’s everyday noodle: a dark, savoury soybean-paste sauce over thick wheat noodles, buried in crisp cucumber. Wheat — not rice — is the staple north of the Yangtze, and this bowl is its proudest argument.
The story behind it
One of the “ten great noodles of China”, zhajiangmian is old Beijing fast food: hutong restaurants serve the sauce with eight tiny dishes of crunchy vegetables (菜码) to mix in. Korean jajangmyeon is its emigrant descendant, born in Incheon’s Chinatown.
Ingredients
- 400 g thick wheat noodles
- 250 g pork belly, diced small
- 4 tbsp sweet bean sauce (甜面酱) + 2 tbsp yellow soybean paste (黄豆酱)
- 1 cucumber, julienned; 2 spring onions
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
Steps
- Fry the pork slowly until the fat renders and the edges crisp.
- Add both pastes and the wine; bubble gently for 8–10 minutes until glossy.
- Boil the noodles; rinse briefly to keep them springy.
- Top noodles with the sauce and a pile of cucumber; mix at the table.