shanghai thick wheat noodle with julienne pork - 上海肉絲湯麵 part 2

Since I set out to recreate this Shanghai thick noodle of childhood memory I have honed the techniques. There is really not much to it to prepare this delicious and hearty bowl of soup noodles.


The sheer simplicity and down to earth methods are what shines with this soup noodles. All can be done in a fraction of time requires to prepare a bowl of good ramen. Interestingly ramen pronounced as 拉麵 in Chinese - meaning hand pulled noodles. According to history ramen was originally introduced into Japan by Chinese immigrants to the island nation.

the pork is julienned and then marinated lightly; I add some oil to help separate the thin strips of pork loin; a key technique is to not cross-cutting the pork or else the strips will fall apart during marinating and cooking; how thin you cut the strips is also important and they should be uniform

it would turn out that cross cutting the cabbage is one important technique

I like to of a lot of thinly sliced ginger for frying the julienned pork and cabbage. The only other ingredients are, sliced scallions, cooking oil, a bit of white pepper, good soy sauce. I drizzle in some olive oil and sesame oil into the bowl. Very similar to how Italian mama prepare pasta, the key is to take care cooking the noodle to just al dente, and most important, to keep the starchy water from boiling the water.

stir fry in medium-high heat before pouring in the noodle pasta water and season to taste; it is that simple

by adjusting the salt and soy sauce ratio I can achieve different degree of brown shade of the savory soup; I like to add a few drops of extra hot home made chili oil for some kick

These taste every good as good and as authentic as those from the childhood in the Shanghainese restaurants near our home.

the crosscut cabbage infuses the soup stock, and making the cabbage mixes well with each bite of the noodles; for presentation sake I pour the pork and cabbage mixture on top of the noodles giving the appearance of the generous amount of pork; once you mix the bowl the ratio would be just perfect with each mouthful

I made this bowl by adding a few live mussels but in truth, the bowl is almost better off without this additional embellishment

As it is expedient to prepare the pork in one batch, the marinated pork can be used to prepare a variety of different dishes.

the new 99 Ranch Market has these Shanghainese fried biscuits with sesame seeds (上海芝麻燒乾 shao bing); I was reluctant to buy it as being machine made they likely will disappoint

The Shanghainese fried biscuits with sesame seeds 上海芝麻燒乾 is enjoyed similarly to Shanghainese scallion pancake in which the well prepared hand made dough is the center piece. It is a savory (meaning with salt) bread like snack, not sweet. Most often something so seeming simple is most difficult to find away from Shanghai or old Hong Kong, and most difficult to get them right.