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.

Maifan : Steamed Potato Shreds

Maifan (麦饭) is a well known dish from Shaanxi, but pretty much unknown elsewhere. Potato shreds dusted in flour are steamed and served with scallion oil, soy sauce, vinegar, and other condiments. It is simple and honest comfort food from China's northern countryside.

Method

Grate a few potatoes into a large bowl. Rinse the shreds with water to remove some starch. Dry them as much as possible using a strainer and paper towel. Use another plate or bowl for the dried shreds.

With dry hands, add flour to the shreds. Coat the shreds thoroughly with the flour using your hands. Place the shreds in the basket compartment of a metal steamer pot and shake off excess flour. Fill the steamer pot with a couple cups of water and set it on low heat. The water should bubble before we place the steamer basket on. When it does, put the basket compartment in and let it cook for about 15 minutes. 

When ready, the shreds should be soft but firm. The shreds will stick to each other, but they can be separated into smaller clusters by fork . 

Everyone should scoop however much they want into their bowl and mix it with scallion oil, soy sauce, black vinegar and chopped cilantro to taste. Other condiments like minced garlic chives can also be used.

Notes

A recipe for this is hard to find, even online. I learned this from my father-in-law and his mother from Wuqi, located within the northern part of Shaanxi province. It is a mostly rural area where many people live in houses carved from mountains called yaodong (窑洞). However, it has been rapidly developing since petroleum was found in the area relatively recently.

In the preparation of Maifan, it is very important to get the potatoes mostly dry before flouring them. This ensures that each potato shred will be covered with flour, preventing them from clumping into inseparable globs that won't cook evenly and have a strange texture. Also, make sure the boiling water from the steamer never bubbles so high that it touches the potato. This is why we use a just a couple cups of water on low heat. The low heat also prevents the water from boiling away within the 15 minutes.

Note that a few potatoes make a lot of Maifan. This was a food eaten during tougher times in China when food items were scarcer, so every bit of food was stretched as far as it could go.