Shaanxi biang biang noodles freeform with beans from the garden, home made Sichuan chili oil, xuě cài, crispy shallots, and a touch of Hunan duojiao.

What else can I say? IYKYK

#food #cooking #chinesefood #noodles #chilioil

Dan Dan noodles. Now ubiquitous like borscht, like meatballs, like hummus, like chicken soup, like kimchi. Every family has its own recipe, every book has a different version, everyone has an opinion. Each one is the best.

I am beginning to zero on mine.

Definitely thicker noodles. Lots of chili oil with dòuchǐ, lots of sūan cài. Sichuan peppercorns crushed but not too fine. Easy on sesame paste. Pork is better than beef. Greens barely touched with heat. Not too soupy. That’s about it for now.

How do you like yours? Looking for suggestions.

#food #quickfood #homefood #chinesefood #dandannoodles #chilioil #suancai #noodles #cookingathome #inmykitchen

For a long time, we had a Chinese family living next door.

Their house was open for gatherings of their church and occasionally they would invite us, too. We didn’t know a word in Mandarin — tīng bú dǒng came to us later — but we definitely enjoyed their potluck dinners.

On our Russian-Chinese border, they installed an old gutted grill refurbished with a high BTU burner where they cooked Chinese — a real deal — all year round.

Linda, the woman of the house, was open and eager to share her food and one of us — mostly me but not always — was hanging around that grill watching her in action.

If I was not around, Linda would later knock on the door and bring a sample of her cooking. Boy, I miss her so much!

Once they came from Philly where they travel to for a particular special tofu and Linda brought me a plate with a white block in which she made a dent scooping out the middle. The dent was filled with a deep red oily grainy mush spilling artistically all over. It is now I know this mush as chili oil, then it was new.

— Try. It’s good, — was her usual incentive. Another thing that united Linda and me was our brusk Russian-Chinese English without “please-&-thankyous.”

And good it was. Excellent!

Linda moved, we traveled to China. I fell in love with the food, people, and country. And every one of my Chinese cookbooks has a version of Linda’s spicy tofu — a simple excellent dinner for a heat wave.

FOR THE MIX OVER A TOFU BLOCK
— 3-4 Tbsp soy sauce
— 1 tsp rice vinegar
— 1 tsp sesame oil
— some chili oil/crisp
— 1 tsp something sweet: sugar, maple syrup

TO GARNISH
— toasted sesame seeds
— scallions
— cilantro
— mint
— basil

#food #cooking #chinesefood #tofu #chilioil #heatwave #dinner #homemade

Aujourd'hui on a réalisé un vieux projet, à savoir une huile pimentée aux épices sichuanaises avec les restes de la récolte de chiles de árbol 2021. #Balcon2021 #piment #ChileDeArbol #ChiliOil

This stuff might be better than Lao Gan Ma #food #chiliOil #LaoGanMa

Fresh #ChiliOil