Zhajiangmian (noodles with fried bean sauce)
Photo: N509FZ · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

Beijing's version of zhajiangmian is ranked among the Ten Great Noodles of China. The sauce combines yellow soybean paste with tianmianjiang, plenty of white spring onion and diced pork, and the bowl is surrounded by cucumber, radish, bean sprouts and soybeans. Accounts of its origin differ: some point to Shandong, and one story has Empress Dowager Cixi bringing a noodle cook to the capital after the court fled to Xi'an in 1900. Fortune Long has served it since 1994.

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Common allergens: Gluten, Soy

Make it at home

Yield Serves 2Hands-on 30 minTotal 30 minDifficulty Easy

Ingredients

  • 200g pork belly, skin removed, cut into 5mm dice
  • 2 tbsp neutral oil
  • 2 spring onions, white parts finely chopped
  • 2 slices of ginger, finely chopped
  • 3 tbsp yellow soybean paste (huangdoujiang)
  • 1 tbsp sweet bean sauce (tianmianjiang)
  • 1 tsp caster sugar
  • 100ml water
  • 300g thick fresh wheat noodles
  • 1/2 cucumber, cut into matchsticks
  • 100g bean sprouts
  • 4 radishes, shredded
  • 50g cooked soybeans or edamame

Method

  1. Stir the soybean paste, sweet bean sauce and sugar into the water until the pastes loosen.
  2. Heat the oil in a wok over medium-low heat and fry the spring onion and ginger for 30 seconds. Add the pork and cook for about 6 minutes, until the fat runs and the edges colour.
  3. Pour in the paste mixture and cook on low heat for about 12 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce is thick and glossy and oil shows at the edges. Add a spoonful of water if it catches.
  4. Blanch the bean sprouts in boiling water for 30 seconds, lift them out and drain. Boil the noodles in the same water as the packet directs, then drain.
  5. Divide the noodles between two bowls, spoon the sauce over the top and arrange the cucumber, bean sprouts, radish and soybeans around it. Toss everything together at the table.

Tip from the editors. Keep the heat low and be patient: soybean paste scorches fast, and the sauce is ready only when oil shimmers at its edges.

Where to eat zhajiangmian (noodles with fried bean sauce)

Zhajiangmian (noodles with fried bean sauce) in Beijing

No. 69 Fangzhuanchang Zhajiangmian ★ 4.4

¥ NoodlesGulou Nanluoguxiang

No. 69 Fangzhuanchang Zhajiangmian holds a Bib Gourmand for one dish, chewy noodles in a deep soybean pork sauce, in a hutong near Nanluoguxiang in Beijing.

OrderOrder the zhajiangmian, the only dish on the menu, and add pickled garlic and cumin chilli sauce.

TipDiners queue from opening to closing for the single dish, so go outside the lunchtime rush.

Directions

Fortune Long Beijing Bean Sauce Noodles (East Xinglong Street) ★ 4.1

¥ NoodlesQianmen Dashilar

Fortune Long on East Xinglong Street in Beijing has served zhajiangmian since 1994, over three floors, with two caldrons of soybean sauce made fresh each day.

TryZhajiangmian with house-made noodles

TipIt is always jam-packed, so avoid peak mealtimes; Michelin also picks the fried pork balls and the blanched ox tripe in sesame sauce.

Directions

Mingyuan Restaurant ★ 3.9

¥ Northern ChineseGuomao Cbd

Mingyuan Restaurant, a no-frills hutong room on Beizongbu Hutong in Beijing, serves Beijing home cooking, from fried meatballs to old-Beijing zhajiangmian.

TryZhajiangmian and fried meatballs

TipIt has tables for ten or more, so it suits a group; add the fermented mung bean milk, a classic Beijing snack, to the fried starch sausage.

Directions

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