Zhajiang mian (lit. "fried sauce noodles") is a northern Chinese dish consisting of thick wheat noodles topped with a mixture of ground pork stir-fried with fermented soybean paste.
In Beijing cuisine, yellow soybean paste (黄酱; pinyin: huángjiàng) is used, while in Tianjin and other parts of China sweet noodle sauce (甜面酱; pinyin: tiánmiànjiàng), hoisin sauce (海鲜酱; pinyin: hǎixiānjiàng), or doubanjiang (豆瓣酱; pinyin: dòubànjiàng) may be used in place of the yellow soybean paste. In the cuisines of Beijing, Tianjin, and northeastern China, the soybean paste is stir fried rather than fried, and oil is not used.
Some Chinese restaurants may refer to zhajiang mian as "brown meat sauce noodles," "noodles with fried bean and meat sauce," or the pinyin transliteration zhájiàngmiàn (sometimes zhàjiàngmiàn, with second tone on the first syllable, in southern China and Taiwan). It is sometimes referred to by the nickname "Chinese spaghetti" in the West, which is symmetrical to Chinese calling spaghetti bolognese "Western zhajiang mian."
|
