My fried noodles are the best

Every Beijinger has his favorite braised and fried liver restaurant. But when it comes to fried noodles, most people would probably say that the ones I have at home are the best.

If you ask about the past and present life and historical stories of old Beijing fried noodles, I can’t answer them. Just a taste of home imprinted in the memory. Like many people, it is an ordinary food that has been eaten since childhood.

Usually fried with a big bowl of sauce, it can be kept for many days and is suitable all year round. The weather is hot in summer, and I always lose my appetite for hot rice and hot dishes. I boil a big bowl of noodles and pour it in cold water, put the noodles on it, add a spoonful of sauce, mix it like this, find a cool place to cry, spit, suck, suck, suck. , it took a while to finish.

Fried sauce and noodles may seem like a simple meal, but in fact there are countless variations. The sauces are different, and the noodles are also different. In addition, the menu codes are particular about changing with the seasons, and even the pepper oil in the ingredients is , chili oil, mustard oil, and vinegar are all different. This is also the reason why everyone will say, "My home's fried noodles are the best."

Let’s talk about fried sauce first. My family's method is to put a lot of diced fat and lean meat, stir-fry over low heat, then put the dry yellow sauce mixed with water in a large iron pot, and cook slowly until most of the water is boiled out and all the fat is cooked. It comes out, a big pot turns into a big bowl, and it's done.

It sounds simple, but in fact it is all kung fu. As far back as I can remember, my grandma has always been here to make sauce. Every time she makes sauce, she will move a small bench and sit in the small kitchen on the balcony. , standing in front of the gas stove, watching the sauce bubble, and after a while, he would use a big shovel to stir it up to prevent it from sticking to the pot. It is said to be fried sauce, but it is actually boiled. It is not until the water is finally consumed and lard appears on the surface and the sauce is completely covered, that it looks like "fried" sauce.

Once the fried sauce is ready, it will take a while before the noodles start to cook. The fried sauce fresh out of the pan is thick and bright, exuding a rich sauce aroma. First, secretly pick out some diced meat while it's still hot. It's salty and delicious. The adults scoop some out, add cucumbers and chili peppers to the sauce and eat it. When the new garlic comes out, mix it with a dozen garlic cloves with the sauce. It is the best dish to go with wine. Drink some white wine and beer first and chat while waiting for the noodles to come out. pot.

Every family has its own unique way of making fried sauce. If you have been to other people’s homes, the sauce used in the fried sauce is different. Liubiju’s dry yellow sauce and Tianyuan Sauce Garden’s dry yellow sauce each have their own merits. Some are sweeter and prefer sweet noodle sauce, while saltier ones need to add salt and soy sauce. In addition to diced pork, the sauce also contains eggs, dried shrimps and mushrooms. Some people like to eat thin sauce, some like it to be dry, some like a lot of oil, and some don't like oil. In the process of constantly improving and trying to eat fried noodles at home for many years, you will gradually find the perfect taste that only belongs to your family.

Zhajiang is a good partner and goes well with many foods. Putting them together will not completely cover up the original unique taste of another food, and sometimes they can stimulate each other to become even more delicious.

Steamed buns or fried steamed buns with fried sauce are a completely different experience from stinky tofu and stinky tofu. Dipping green onions in the sauce will give it a unique flavor. There are no pickles in cold water pickles, so you can eat a big bowl with fried sauce. Green peppers, carrots, white radish, celery, those vegetables that I usually don't like to eat don't seem so bad when combined with fried sauce.

In order to save money on food when I was in college, I packed a large glass jar of fried sauce and took it to school, secretly got an electric pot to cook noodles, and bought some noodles with a few leaves of lettuce in the dormitory with my classmates. , mixed with fried sauce, eat three or four times a week, and then go home and fill a can. At that time, this sneaky way of eating had a different flavor.

Let’s talk about noodles. The methods of making noodles are even more varied. From the type of noodles to the shape, you can change it every day and eat it for a long time without getting the same thing.

Everyone in my family has different preferences, so every time I eat fried noodles, I have to divide them up. External machine-cut noodles, dried noodles, and even instant noodles can be made into fried noodles. Of course, hand-made noodles at home are the most delicious. You can choose wider or narrower, longer or shorter, softer or harder, and you can choose whether the pot is cooked or boiled. It just caused trouble for the mother who was in charge of cooking. Everyone had a different request and had to make it one by one to satisfy each one.

I love to eat noodles, but when paired with fried sauce, I always like to roll the noodles into wide strips, cut them into small slices, and eat the slices. I feel that only this way of making noodles can bring out the best flavor of fried sauce.

Grandma also makes a special kind of pasta, pressed glutinous rice flour. She uses white flour and mixed noodles to make a soft and sticky batter, and then uses a tool with many small holes to put it on the pot. Go up, squeeze the thin noodles out of the holes, and they will become many small round strips. Use a shovel to scrape them, and they will fall into the boiling water pot, turning into short and short noodles. Take it out hot and serve it with fried sauce. It has a special flavor of mixed noodles.

There is also an interesting way to make noodles called "fishing". Put the dough in a large bowl, use chopsticks to press one edge of the dough a little bit from the edge of the bowl, bend the chopsticks slightly and then Pull, bang, the mutual squeezing force of the chopsticks and the bowl, squeeze out a piece of noodles, and just fall into the water pot with the force of the chopsticks. With the continuous push, countless small white strips are like small silver. The fish jumps into the water.

Finally, I have to talk about the dish code. Old Beijing noodles with soy sauce are very particular about the order of dishes. But each one also has its own characteristics. The most commonly used ones are bean sprouts, cucumber and Chinese cabbage. Depending on the season, there will also be various side dishes. Xinxinmei radish, carrot, white radish, celery, spinach, leek, green garlic, pepper, green pepper, soybean, kale, and various spring wild vegetables. Every time I eat, I will prepare three or five kinds of these to add to the noodles. Choose at will and you will taste the different flavors of the four seasons. It can even be served with shredded pork, luncheon meat, sausage, and eggs, so you can eat it as you like.

I love eating noodles. Except for fried noodles, I also like all kinds of noodles. My family's craftsmanship is also very good, but I am very lucky.

When making tomato braised noodles, it is best to add yellow flowers, fungus and lean meat. Even if I don’t eat noodles, just drinking the braised noodles always makes me feel extremely delicious. My dad often jokes and tells me to close the window quickly. , saying that after I finished drinking, I turned into a tiger and flew away.

Eggplant shredded noodles and dried noodles are my mother’s specialties, and no one can match them. Dad’s braised mutton with mung bean noodles is particularly delicious, but grandpa always said that he taught my dad that. When grandpa has nothing to do, he will think about making some hard food to eat, stew beef in red soup, stew pork ribs in white soup, eat meat to devour, and then use broth for each person to have a bowl of noodles, it is really delicious.

My grandpa’s braised pork noodles are also addictive once I eat them. The diced meat is stir-fried and boiled with soy sauce and other various seasonings. It looks inconspicuous, but somehow it is so delicious.

However, I only remember eating, but I did not learn their craftsmanship. There are fewer and fewer people eating together, and those who spend time and effort are no longer doing it. I regret not eating every day and eating enough when I was a child.

No matter how fast the years pass, noodles will always be my favorite. After all, my best dish is cooking instant noodles. But it is difficult for my children to taste the taste of home that I have tasted. When my family members gradually grow old and leave, I can only lick my teeth and search for my favorite bowl of noodles in my memory.