Recipe for Biangbiang Noodles (youpo chemian 油泼扯面)

This was the best bowl of noodles we’ve made in a long time. Today, we pulled ourselves some fresh noodles (see hand-pulled egg noodles) and made biangbiang mian. Despite the mass of chili, it’s an easy dish with simple ingredients. Its deliciousness comes from a subtle balance between the alliums, chili, vinegar, and soy sauce.

There are two tricks that made our humble noodles just that much tastier.

First, we bought dried whole peeled and seeded chilis, toasted them to charred in a toaster oven, then ground them in a mortar and pestle. It makes a huge difference in terms of taste, and the smell of these roasted chilis was smoky and deep.

The real secret ingredient, though, is to use an amazingly fragrant pure peanut oil. The flavor of the dish operates on the principle of “exploding” the flavors by pouring hot peanut oil over the leeks, green onions, garlic, chili, and spices, which essentially deep-fries the spices and cooks the alliums, releasing all the aromatics and infusing the noodles and vegetables with these flavors.

We used Luhua 鲁花 peanut oil, apparently a famous Chinese brand that was forcibly pushed upon us by the attendant at the local grocery store. When we got home and cracked it open, the smell of roasted peanut goodness was overwhelming. Apparently Luhua peanut oil is used for banquets held at the Great Hall of the People (Renmin dahui tang 人民大会堂), off Tiananmen Square and where the National People’s Congress meets. If it’s good enough for the Great Hall of the People, it’s good enough for me.

Ingredients (for two portions): it’s long, but don’t be afraid – it’s easy!

• noodles (preferably hand-pulled, look here for a recipe)
• baby bok choy, about 3-4 heads per bowl
• 2 finely sliced green onions
• finely sliced leeks, white part, about 1/3 of a 2 foot-long leek
• 1 finely sliced green garlic (if you can find it!)
• finely minced garlic, one clove

Seasoning (for each bowl of noodles):

• soy sauce, about 1 tablespoon
• Jinjiang or other kind of Chinese black vinegar, about 1 tablespoon
• roasted ground chili powder, about 2 teaspoons (depending on how spicy you like it)
• five spice powder, about 1 teaspoon
• chicken stock powder, about 1 teaspoon
• salt, about 1 teaspoon
• the most unbelievably roasty smelling peanut oil you can get your hot little paws on, about 2 tablespoons per bowl

Cook the noodles according to package directions. You can blanch the bok choy with the noodles. At the same time, heat the peanut oil to nearly boiling, but not smoking in a separate pan.

Drain the noodles, pour the soy sauce and black vinegar over noodles. Top with green onions, leeks, green garlic, garlic, chili powder, five spice powder, chicken stock powder, and salt.

The peanut oil should now be very, very hot. Take the oil and very, very carefully pour the oil on top. It will froth, bubble, pop, and cook the greens and deep-fry the dry spices. At that point, the whole bowl will smell AMAZING.

Mix happily and eat. Enjoy!