We Tried China’s Iconic Sichuan Sweet Water Noodles
Bon Appétit joins Lucas Sin in Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan Province, to try the city’s iconic sweet water noodles. These thick chewy noodles are made fresh each day on location served with a sweet and spicy sauce and are a mainstay of Chinese street food.
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00:00Welcome to Chengdu, Sichuan.
00:06Here we are in the center of the city and we're here for one thing, Tianshui Mian, sweet
00:10water noodles, an iconic Chengdu street snack.
00:12They're thick, chewy flour noodles covered in a sweet, spicy and aromatic sauce.
00:16There's a restaurant by the name of Zhang Lao Er.
00:19All of these noodles are made from scratch on location.
00:22Not many places do that anymore.
00:27So Tianshui Mian is a pretty stiff dough.
00:31What's known about this noodle is that it's hard core, it's chunky and it's quite chewy.
00:36So the amount of water in it is not that high.
00:39The noodle therefore becomes very, very stiff and the reason why it's chewy and delicious
00:43is because of the work that goes into it.
00:46First of all, I think we need to acknowledge the quantity of noodles he's planning to make.
00:51Two very simple ingredients, just the flour and the water.
00:54Look how intense this dough is.
00:57What makes it incredible is its texture.
00:59And that texture, that chewiness, that glutinousness, in my opinion, it comes from labor.
01:04Chef has to do this two, three times, no machine here, just 20 odd years of experience.
01:10The name of this restaurant is kind of typical of Sichuanese snack places.
01:15A place, a person's name and the thing that they sell.
01:18Dongzikou is a little neighborhood, a little district a little further north in Chengdu.
01:24Zhang Lao'er, that guy's name, and what he used to sell, liangfen, but the deliciousness
01:29of their sweet water noodles has overcome the liangfen, which is the name on the front
01:34of the shop.
01:36After the dough has been thoroughly kneaded, it's separated into loaves to rest.
01:39So this flour dough is going to rest for the gluten to slowly transform.
01:45One of the secrets of Sichuan cuisine is actually this.
01:50So this is cai zi you, which unfortunately in English goes by something called rapeseed
01:55oil.
01:56It's an earthier, greener, less processed oil.
02:01It's actually the predecessor to canola.
02:03And that's what chef has put over the top of the dough while that dough rests.
02:06Oil over the top is to seal it, to stop a skin from forming on the outside of the dough
02:11so that it's easier to work with as you let it rest.
02:14The other key component of the dish is obviously the sauce.
02:16If the noodle is the texture, this is where the flavor is.
02:19So chef here is adding brown sugar, slab sugar as I might call it, straight into the water.
02:24This is going to form the base of what they call the tianmian jiang, which is the sweet
02:28water noodle sauce.
02:29A little bit of spice goes in, ground, mostly warming spices, things along the lines of
02:34fennel, cardamom, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorn, so on and so forth.
02:38They say it's proprietary, so we don't know exactly what's inside of it.
02:41Their idea for a sweet noodle sauce, what they call tianmian jiang, is a thickened soy
02:46sauce.
02:47Soy sauce is made differently in different parts of China.
02:49Here in Sichuan, one of the most popular for cold dishes is a slightly sweeter version
02:53called hong jiang you, hong as in red, jiang you as in soy sauce.
02:57The sauce is going to simmer until the brown sugar is entirely melted.
03:01Couple of minutes.
03:02Chef is building a little bit of a starch slurry, cold water and corn starch, letting
03:06it all dissolve, and he's going to add this in stages.
03:08It's going to thicken it, giving it a little bit of structure to hold onto the noodles
03:12when they're tossed together.
03:14Once the soy sauce mixture comes to a boil, it's going to be hot enough to gelatinize
03:18the starch inside of the corn starch slurry when it's added.
03:21Here it goes, slowly, constantly mixing, the starch slurry is added, it slowly thickens
03:26the sauce.
03:27It's a little temperamental, so the amount that he adds, he says, depends on the day.
03:32He's constantly moving it to make sure it's evenly distributed.
03:34It's all by sight, and it has to be added slowly, gradually.
03:39That brown sugar with its higher molasses content than white sugar gives it that red,
03:43dark brown sheen.
03:44When the entire sauce is cooled, the starch will complete its gelatinization process,
03:49and it'll be the right thickness, the right viscosity to cling onto those noodles.
03:53Beautiful.
03:54Sweet, thickened, fortified with spice, that's what we're looking for in the sweet water
04:00noodle sauce, the tian mian jiang.
04:02He's going to make four buckets of noodle sauce here.
04:04That's enough for the first half of the day.
04:06All right, I'll show you the rest of the kitchen.
04:09Everybody's ready to work.
04:11Just as the customers are going to start filing in, they're finishing the preparation for
04:15the last of the fresh ingredients.
04:17Here are scallions by the kilo, and Chef here's got his scallion goggles on.
04:23These aromatics, this green, the celery, the scallions, counterbalances the heavier flavors
04:28of the soy sauce and garlic.
04:30Let's check back in on the noodle dough.
04:32So Chef is kneading the dough.
04:34He's just like mixing and mixing it to get that really strong gluten structure inside
04:39of the dough of the noodle.
04:40It's a huge amount of work.
04:41He's putting his whole body weight onto it.
04:44The entire table is shaking.
04:46Here's the last rolling of the dough.
04:48He's rolling it out slowly, letting the dough relax just a little bit.
04:53He's trying to get a very even sheet from which he'll cut the noodles.
04:58It's a hefty noodle.
04:59It's heavy.
05:01You don't get very many noodles because of how intense it is.
05:03Oh, but he's cutting it.
05:05With his left hand, he's slowly rolling the dough stick as a guidance for the noodles
05:09themselves.
05:10And the right hand, just smooth cuts forwards and backwards.
05:15Whoa.
05:16It's about a little less than a centimeter.
05:20Some of them are about a centimeter thick.
05:22He's using his entire arm, using the momentum to carry him through every single stroke.
05:27Chef is so focused.
05:29A little bit of flour over the top to keep it from sticking.
05:31And then watch this.
05:32He's loosening it, pulling it, just to give it a little bit more length.
05:38Take off the ends.
05:39That's new.
05:40Wow.
05:41Amazing.
05:42Straight into the water, the root.
05:45Cooks for about three minutes, being stirred constantly.
05:51It doesn't get fresher than this.
05:55Some of this technique reminds you of la mien, of pulled noodles, but they're looking
06:00for totally different things.
06:01He's looking for a very thick noodle.
06:03He's looking for a lot of gluten, a lot of intensity.
06:07He's looking for chewiness.
06:09Beautiful.
06:12So it cooks for about three to five minutes.
06:14It's a thick noodle after all, but it is fresh.
06:18After the noodles have come up, they go into this bamboo tray.
06:23Look at all that beautiful imperfection, perfectly imperfect.
06:27All that texture, all those little strands coming off the side of the noodles, that's
06:30all going to catch up that delicious sauce that they spent so long cooking.
06:35Chef is putting on a little bit more oil to stop them from sticking.
06:38The noodles are going to dry naturally.
06:39The starch will finish gelatinizing as it cools, and the final texture will be achieved.
06:45After the noodles have been made, the first bowl needs to be tested.
06:48First bowl.
06:49You can see all the components, MSG, cumin, sugar, the spice, the red oil, the 紅油,
06:54the 紅醬油.
06:55If it doesn't pass his test, it doesn't go out to the customer.
06:58If it's not good enough for him, it's not good enough for anybody else.
07:02We're in the finishing kitchen.
07:20I just want to show you this.
07:23You can see the pull of the dough and the craggliness as a symbol that they've actually done this
07:30by hand.
07:32It's not machine made.
07:33And I think that is actually really quite important because that texture on the top
07:37and on the surface of the noodle is what allows the noodle to hold on to that sauce.
07:43The reason why this noodle is so thick is because the sauce is thick.
07:47The reason why the noodle is so intense is because the sauce is so intense.
07:51Oh, she's making some now.
07:54Whenever it's being served, you can see all of the flavors that go into it.
07:59Sesame seed, sesame paste, garlic and rapeseed oil, chili oil, Sichuan peppercorn, MSG, and
08:07sugar, salt, soy sauce, black vinegar, liangfen sauce, and tianmianjiang.
08:16All of those individual components are on the side, but when it's added all together,
08:21it's almost like before you mix it, you can anticipate what these individual components
08:25taste like.
08:26And when you do mix it, it becomes cohesive.
08:28By the way, just pause.
08:30She's holding three bowls at once.
08:32It's layering aromatics, whether it's deep cooked things like chili oil or fresher, greener
08:38pops, everything they need to make liangfen.
08:43I have a sense that right now, at this time in the morning, it's about 830, very, very
08:48chill, very calm.
08:50Everyone's getting ready for the storm.
08:52But if they're going to be serving three or four thousand bowls of these snacks throughout
08:56the day, it's going to get a little bit crazy a little bit later.
09:00We got a table, starting to get busy.
09:01It's time to eat this sweet water noodle.
09:04Shifu, can I have a bowl of tianxue noodles?
09:06A bowl?
09:07Yes, a bowl.
09:10Look at these noodles.
09:12I love the experience of seeing each individual component of flavor.
09:18The chili oil with the chili paste, the sugar crystals, the cumin, a little bit of that
09:23sesame, freshly ground.
09:25But the magic is in the mix.
09:27They were really insistent on me mixing this sufficiently and properly.
09:32Mixing is doing two things.
09:33Number one is bringing all those flavors together, obviously.
09:35Number two is because there's oil in here, but there's also water in the form of soy
09:40sauce.
09:41Those flavors need to emulsify a little bit.
09:43Some of that starch that comes off the side of the noodle, just like in Italian pasta
09:47dishes, is going to help this sauce become a thick, messy, but cohesive bite.
09:54I mean, look at this.
09:55There maybe are three strands of noodles in here.
09:59And look how thick they are.
10:00There you go.
10:01Wow.
10:15Actually delicious.
10:17First thing you get is a barbecue-y, earthy sort of sweetness.
10:22But then once that flavor settles in your palate, it becomes spicy.
10:27And that spicy is a bright spice.
10:29One of the things people get wrong about Sichuanese food is they only think about the spice in
10:34Sichuanese cooking.
10:36But one of the really important flavor profiles, one of the important flavors of Sichuanese
10:39cooking, especially in Chengdu, is sugar.
10:42Sichuanese food, as well known as it is for spicy food, only got the chili pepper in the
10:4616th, 17th century.
10:48Somebody needs to fact-check me on this.
10:49It was the spice that we get from Sichuan peppercorns, that numbing, tingly, plus a
10:55little bit of that spice from things like cardamom and cinnamon that produce a little
11:00bit of a tingly flavor on our lips, but also give a little bit of that earthy spice note.
11:07Those flavors are so important inside of Tian Shui Mian, because that is the backbone, and
11:13the sprinkling, bright zest on the top is the chili oil.
11:17A little bit of that sesame seed at the back helps bring the entire thing together.
11:22It anchors it in a little bit of nuttiness.
11:24I mean, it's a delicious, hefty, sweet bite.
11:28And unlike every other noodle that we have here in China, this is not slurpable.
11:33Look at how thick this thing is.
11:35Inside of the noodle is almost respite for how flavorful the outside sauce is.
11:40But it also has to be soft.
11:41You can tell it's got a little bit of that, what Italians look for, called al dente.
11:50The center is still a little bit white, still a little bit of that flour.
11:53That's where that texture comes from.
11:56The buzz of the spice counteracted by the gentle sweetness.
12:01Really really nice snack.
12:02Tiny portion, we can eat a couple of other things.
12:04This has become such a steady, normal part of the routine of being in Chengdu, whether
12:10you're a tourist or otherwise, that these little bowls, these little snacks, can start
12:14to demarcate your day.
12:15It's a really wonderful culture, I think.
12:17Really wonderful little ritual.
12:20That was Zhang Lao Er.
12:21I don't like to use superlatives, but this is probably one of the best bowls of tian shui
12:25mian that you can get in Chengdu, the capital of Chinese snack culture.
12:30We are here for snacks, we're here for street eats, so on to the next.