4. ZhajiangMian
✨Introduction
Zhajiangmian (Chinese: 炸醬面; literally: ‘fried sauce noodles’), or “noodles with soybean paste”, is a Chinese dish consisting of thick wheat noodles topped with zhajiang sauce. Zhajiang sauce is normally made by simmering stir-fried ground pork or beef with salty fermented soybean paste. Zhajiang also means “fried sauce” in Chinese. Although the sauce itself is made by stir-frying, this homonym does not carry over into the Classical Chinese term.
Speaking of old Beijing fry sauce noodles, that is the pride of the old beijingers, famous for its fast and good, delicious, reportedly noodle should have evolved from “cold rotten meat noodles”.
The topping of the noodles usually are sliced fresh or/and pickled vegetables, including cucumber, radish, edamame, depending on regions. Chopped omelette or in lieu of extra firm tofu can also be alongside. Low-fat dieters often use ground, skinless chicken for the meat portion since ground turkey is not very popular in Asia.
✨History
Zhajiangmian originate from Shandong province and is an iconic Northern Chinese dish. It is unknown how the dish came to be and only a few folktales are available. During the Guangxu era of the Qing dynasty, after the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China and conquered Beijing, The Empress Dowager Cixi, Emperor Guangxu and their retinues were forced to move from Beijing to south street in Xi’an city. While they were on their journey to Xi’an city, the Imperial Eunuch, Li Lianying detected a pleasing aroma, so he looked and found the smell came from a Zhajiangmian noodle restaurant. He then reported the information about the restaurant to Cixi and Guangxu. Due to the collective fatigue and sense of hunger after their long trip, Cixi and Guangxu decided to have a meal in the restaurant. Li Lianying ordered a bowl of vegetarian zhajiangmian. Finding it a tasty dish, they ordered another one. After dinner, Cixi asked everyone how they found the taste of the dish? They all replied “This is definitely a good noodle, good! Good!” Shortly after, as Emperor Guangxu was about to leave and continue their trip, Cixi demanded that Li Lianying bring the chef who made the zhajiangmian to Beijing and the palace, so they could eat zhajiangmian often once they came back. This is the story of how the vegetarian zhajiangmian made its way to Beijing.
✨Serving
The basic ingredients of old Beijing Fried bean paste noodles are pork belly, dried yellow sauce, sweet noodle sauce, mushroom and green onion (you can also add Onions and dried beans); Aniseed anise, cinnamon, sichuan peppercorns, fragrant leaves; Vegetable code has cucumber, mung bean sprouts, carrots, shredded tofu, purple cabbage, mung bean, sweet corn and so on; There are thirteen spices, dark soy sauce, garlic slices, ginger slices.
Particular way is:
To rapeseed oil heat, sixty percent hot wait in aniseed and ginger, onion slices. Fried to remove when the focal yellow, then put the pork belly at the end of the foam and mushrooms into the pot and stir-fry until pale and toss, then after mixing dry mayonnaise (2:1) and the sweet bean sauce into the pan Fried, after the fragrance into the meat, add a small amount of 13 xiang and soy sauce and 13 sweet flavor, the extraction of color, add in half bowl of water after mixing, glug after twenty minutes, turn off the heat into the scallion foam, blend to remove it.
In the production of the need to pay attention to a few aspects: pork belly fat more thin less, so that the sauce taste better; Dry yellow sauce in the pot before adding water to boil, dry sauce and sweet sauce ratio must be 2:1,; Without adding salt and sugar, the flavor of sweet flour paste and dried yellow sauce is enough. Cook the noodles a little harder, remove them and run them through the water to make them loose and chewy. Vegetables must be blanched in cold water to make them crisp and refreshing.
✨My favourite restaurant
Hai Wanjulao Beijing Noodles With Soybean Paste King
“Hai wan” refers to the big bowl used when eating noodles with Fried sauce. People in Beijing are generous and free and easy. They like to eat noodles with big bowls.
It is said that, the noodles are the representative of the civilian cuisine in Beijing, the noodles are very muscular and smooth, and add diced meat, cucumber silk, heart beautiful silk, bean sprouts, garlic, cabbage, celery, green beans and other eight kinds of small dishes, according to personal taste preferences mixed into the shop’s special soy sauce, taste levels are rich.
🏠Location
Address: 2 Huayuan Rd, Haidian Qu, Beijing Shi, China
Business Hour: 11AM-10PM everyday
Beijing traditional foods 