擔擔麵

our recent go-to move for a quick, tasty homemade meal is 担担面, a recipe that we learned from fuschia dunlop's most recent cookbook with recipes from southern china, every grain of rice.

the main reason i like homecooked meals is because it almost always tastes better, at least when it comes to chinese food in nyc - a very low bar. another  reason for cooking more at home and eating out less is so that we can choose the ingredients and preparation of our meals. for example, the freshness of the produce and the quality of the meat is hand-selected, and we can determine the amount of oil, condiments, and ingredients for each dish.

for tonight's 擔擔麵  we used dried flat noodles, ground pork, egg, scallions, and substituted sweet corn in place of green peas. it added a bit of sweetness to the meal and rounded out the otherwise strong, savory flavors. the noodle broth is simple - composed of homemade chicken stock, tamari, black vinegar, and angry lady chili oil. we paired the noodles with some pea shoots (豆苗), which we'd picked up in chinatown over the weekend.