Zhajiang Noodles

Zhajiang noodles are an old-Beijing home staple: hand-pulled noodles tossed with a fried, savory pork-and-soybean-paste sauce and topped with seasonal raw and blanched vegetables — a thoroughly local taste.

One emblem of northern noodle culture, zhajiang noodles developed in Beijing their own pairing of sauce and toppings, becoming a regular on nearly every old-Beijing family table.

The sauce is made by frying diced pork belly in soybean and sweet flour pastes; the boiled noodles are rinsed, dressed with the sauce, and crowned with shredded cucumber, bean sprouts, green soybeans and radish — eaten rinsed-cool in summer, straight-from-the-pot in winter.

Its charm is in a fragrant sauce, springy noodles and a full set of toppings tossed together — salty-savory, crisp and satisfying. Humble but exacting, it is the bowl that says home to a Beijinger.