Beef Noodle Soup (牛肉麵) from my colleague

This beef noodle soup (牛肉麵) was made by my colleague and his wife. The recipe they used is said to be from Taipei Yuanshan Hotel (台北圓山飯店)’s chef. It was definitely very different from the taste of other beef noodle soup/牛肉麵that I had before. For one thing, it used a special ingredient: Chinese barbeque XaCha sauce, 沙茶醬. The brand? Of course red bull’s 牛頭牌沙茶醬. The usage of the xacha sauce gave the noodle soup an underlying level of complexity that is hard to achieve through regular stock. This is unsurprising, as xacha sauce itself is a blend of sweetness, spiciness, and soy bean sauce-like taste. However, xacha is usually eaten as a dipping sauce for hot pot or used to stir fry things. I was very surprised when I heard about the ingredient’s importance in the recipe, but once I tasted the broth, I realized that it made total sense. The beef in the soup came from boneless spare ribs, and the mixture of fat and lean in the spare ribs gave the broth its substantiality without turning it to an oily, clinging mess. The fat also kept the beef from drying up in its 3 hours long cooking process. I was informed that the “3 hour rule” must be followed utterly with full respect, otherwise the beef will fail. I have no doubt that this is how it should be.

Okra was served as a side, drizzled with thick soy bean sauce(醬油膏), a type of sauce that is thicker in texture with more profoundness in flavor than regular soy bean sauce. The other side dish is bean curd with thousand year preserved eggs and shredded roasted pork (肉鬆皮蛋豆腐). There are two schools of thought on how this dish should be eaten: eat the tofu, and get a bite of preserved eggs to go with it; or mash everything up together and eat it. To me, the second way is the “right” way. Glad to know that colleague’s wife thinks so too. The photo is from before it was mashed up.

Excellent meal all around, big thanks to my colleague and his lovely wife. Hope that we’ll be invited back again when he sees this blog.