biangbiang mian

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Oodles of Noodles at Yellow River

December 28, 2010 in EAT, LIFE by jen

Once upon a time, we snuck into Yellow River Shaanxi Noodles (huanghe shui shanxi mianguan, the Meishuguan branch) in our quest to learn how to make the oh-so-heavenly youpo chemian. I was promptly booted out of the kitchen, but not before I picked up a few tricks (see previous posts). As providence would have it, one weekend we got invited to run around the kitchens of Yellow River (Gongti branch) and learn how to pull noodles from the masters.

While I stubbornly maintain that C and I made one damn fine bowl of biangbiang mian, but we were never able to get our dough to be stretchy and pliable enough to pull and slap – effectively leaving the “biang” out of the mian. So we jumped at the chance to learn from the noodle master, and see how it’s all done.… READ MORE

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Pita Chips: making chips from hand-pulled noodles (chemian 扯面)

December 31, 2009 in COOK by jen | No comments

chip

As a bonus from our pulled noodle adventures, I manufactured a load of…pita chips. Or some variation tasting an awful lot like the pita chips from Trader Joe’s I used to love to munch on with or without dips.

After pulling enough noodles to make our two large bowls of biangbiang mian (see post on making the noodles), we still had about three lumps of pasta dough left. I simply rolled out the remaining dough (quite thin but not noodle-thin, but the thicker ones were also tasty), and sliced them into rough triangles. Ground a little sea salt on top and tossed them in my toaster oven at a low temperature (140 -150c) for about 10-13 minutes, or… READ MORE

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Noodling Around: biangbiang noodles (youpo chemian 油泼扯面)

December 17, 2009 in PREP by christine | 6 comments

To a displaced American with southern Chinese-Taiwanese roots, where rice rules supreme, northern Chinese noodle and bread culture (mianshi 面食) is completely bewildering.

But the pleasures of biangbiang noodles are many.

Jen introduced me to biangbiang noodles, which I loved immediately. Biangbiang noodles are a specialty of Shaanxi 陕西 province, most often found in Xi’an 西安 as a street food. The character is infamously difficult, so there are several versions of a mnemonic poem that are used to invoke its 57 (52, or 56… depending on which version you subscribe to) strokes. It can also be found on menus as biaobiao mian 彪彪面, bangbang mian 邦邦面 or 棒棒面, and youpo chemian 油泼扯面. Or you… READ MORE | 6 Comments

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In Search of Dough: biangbiang noodles (youpo chemian 油泼扯面)

December 17, 2009 in PREP by jen | 5 comments

Biangbiang noodles are a damn tasty treat that I became addicted to at first bite. Despite all the variations, it consists of a relatively simple formula. Chewy noodles, a few blanched vegetables, and an oily spicy/salty sauce. Sure, a bowl will only set you back about RMB 12 (a little less than 2 dollars), but there is something to be said for actual home cooking so we wanted to figure out how to make a killer version of biangbiang mian.

With that in mind, we found two Shaanxi noodle shops and ate four bowls of noodles one afternoon to suss out the exact ingredients we should throw into our noodles. The first pick was obvious – the… READ MORE | 5 Comments

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Recipe for Hand-Pulled Noodles (chemian 扯面), biangbiang noodles (youpo chemian 油泼扯面)

December 17, 2009 in COOK by the ladies | No comments

The first step to making a good bowl of biangbiang mian, is, of course, making some good mian. At the Shaanxi restaurants we visited, the noodles were hand-pulled right before cooking, and the belt-strap wide chewy noodles of charmingly uneven thickness is a big part of what makes this dish so enjoyable. Therefore, we took a shot at making our own hand-pulled noodles. We pulled together a recipe from a number of sources (we are indebted to advice from eGullet; a recipe for Kazahk noodles by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid from the book, Beyond the Great Wall, available online here; and this fantastic post from a Chinese blog).

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Recipe for Biangbiang Noodles (youpo chemian 油泼扯面)

December 17, 2009 in COOK by the ladies | 9 comments

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… READ MORE | 9 Comments

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