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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Biang Biang Noodles


Biang Biang noodles (油泼扯面) are hand stretched flat noodles dressed in a savory and spicy sauce. It's a very distinctive country dish from Shaanxi, certainly a famous food from Xi'an.

Method

Make a simple and soft noodle dough with wheat flour and water. Roll out some one inch wide strips that are less than a foot long. Coat them with oil. Stretch them by hand, waving them up and down so that the middle bangs the surface. When thin and long enough, drop into a pot of boiling water. It should be ready in a minute or so after the water reboils.

Remove the noodles onto a plate and top with seasonings such as finely minced raw garlic, scallions, chili flakes, and cilantro. Mix in some soy sauce and black vinegar. Pour over some very hot oil and mix again.

Notes

A wide and thin hand pulled noodle works best as the vehicle for carrying these bold flavors. The noodles are shiny and smooth to the tongue from oil. The dressing can vary immensely, but the ingredients I suggested are very standard. You can also add a few spoonfuls of Sichuan red oil for a good kick.

Pouring hot oil over a plate of mostly raw items mixed with a little soy sauce- vinegar will result in a nice sizzle and create some nice new flavors quickly while keeping everything fresh. There's no possibility of over cooking and it's quite hassle-free. My father in-law also uses this technique for making some awesome massaged turnip green salads.

The noodle dough strips are coated with oil to help them say moist and nonstick while stretching. Without the oil, you would have to dust them with flour with every bang to prevent sticking, which would effect the chewiness of the thin noodles. If you like this, by all means go for it.

Finally, "Biang" refers to the sound the noodle dough makes when you hit it against a table. When written, it has a lot of character strokes and isn't available in Chinese character input programs. The character almost seems to weird and complex to be true. Most likely it was invented by the noodle store selling them. For this reason, I call it by its other name in Chinese, 油泼扯面, meaning oil-splashed ripped noodles.

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