We Tried China’s Iconic Sichuan Sweet Water Noodles

[dough slapping]

[noodles squelching]

[customers chattering]

Welcome to Chengdu, Sichuan.

Here we are in the center of the city

and we're here for one thing,

tian shui mian, sweet water noodles,

an iconic Chengdu street snack.

They're thick, chewy flour noodles

covered in a sweet, spicy, and aromatic sauce.

There's a restaurant by the name of Zhang Lao Er.

All of these noodles are made from scratch on location.

Not many places do that anymore.

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

So tian shui mian is a pretty stiff dough.

What's known about this noodle is that it's hardcore,

it's chunky, and it's quite chewy,

so the amount of water in it is not that high.

The noodle therefore becomes very, very stiff.

And the reason why it's chewy and delicious

is because of the work that goes into it.

First of all, I think we need to acknowledge

the quantity of noodles he's planning to make.

Two very simple ingredients,

just the flour and the water.

Look how intense this dough is.

What makes it incredible is its texture.

And that texture, that chewiness, that glutinousness,

in my opinion, it comes from labor.

Chef has to do this two, three times.

No machine here, just 20 odd years of experience.

The name of this restaurant

is kind of typical of Sichuanese snack places,

a place, a person's name, and the thing that they sell.

Dong Zi Kou is a little neighborhood,

district a little further north than Chengdu,

Zhang Lao Er, the guy's name,

and what he used to sell, liangfen.

But the deliciousness of their sweet water noodles

has overcome the liangfen,

which is the name on the front of the shop.

After the dough has been thoroughly kneaded,

it's separated into loaves to rest.

So this flour dough is going to rest

for the gluten to slowly transform.

One of the secrets of Sichuan cuisine is actually this.

So this is [speaking in foreign language],

which unfortunately in English

goes by something called rapeseed oil.

It's an earthier, greener, less processed oil.

It's actually the predecessor to canola,

and that's what chef has put over the top of the dough

while that dough rests.

Oil over the top is to seal it

to stop a skin from forming on the outside of the dough

so that it's easier to work with as he lets it rest.

The other key component of the dish is obviously the sauce.

If the noodle is the texture, this is where the flavor is.

So chef here is adding brown sugar,

slab sugar, some might call it,

straight into the water.

This is going to form the base

of what they call the [speaking in foreign language],

which is the sweet water noodles sauce.

A little bit of spice goes in ground,

mostly warming spices,

things along the lines of fennel, cardamom, cinnamon,

Sichuan peppercorn, so on and so forth.

They say it's proprietary,

so we don't know exactly what's inside of it.

Their idea for a sweet noodle sauce,

what they call [speaking in foreign language],

is a thickened soy sauce.

Soy sauce is made differently in different parts of China.

Here in Sichuan,

one of the most popular for cold dishes

is a slightly sweeter version called hong jiangyou,

hong as in red, jiangyou as in soy sauce.

The sauce is going to simmer

until the brown sugar is entirely melted.

Couple of minutes.

Chef is building a little bit of a starch slurry,

cold water and corn starch, letting it all dissolve,

and he's going to add this in stages.

That's going to thicken it,

giving it a little bit of structure to hold onto the noodles

when they're tossed together.

Once the soy sauce mixture comes to a boil,

it's going to be hot enough

to gelatinize the starch inside of the cornstarch slurry

when it's added.

Here it goes slowly, constantly mixing.

The starch slurry is added.

It slowly thickens the sauce,

so it's a little temperamental.

So the amount that he adds,

he says, depends on the day.

He's constantly moving it

to make sure it's evenly distributed.

It's all by sight

and it has to be added slowly, gradually.

That brown sugar

with its higher molasses content than white sugar

gives it that red, dark brown sheen.

When the entire sauce is cooled,

the starch will complete its gelatinization process

and it'll be the right thickness,

the right viscosity to cling onto those noodles.

Beautiful.

Sweet, thickened, fortified with spice,

that's what we're looking for

in the sweet water noodle sauce,

the [speaking in foreign language].

He's gonna make four buckets of noodle sauce here.

That's enough for the first half of the day.

All right, I'll show you the rest of the kitchen.

Everybody's ready to work.

Just as the customers are going to start filing in,

they're finishing the preparation

for the last of the fresh ingredients.

Here are scallions by the kilo,

and chef here's got his scallion goggles on.

These aromatics, this green,

the celery, the scallions,

counterbalances the heavier flavors of the soy sauce,

the garlic.

Let's check back in on the noodle dough.

So chef is kneading the dough.

He's just like mixing and mixing it

to get that really strong gluten structure

inside of a dough of a noodle.

It's a huge amount of work.

He's putting his whole body weight onto it.

The entire table is shaking.

Here's the last rolling of the dough.

He's rolling it out slowly,

letting the dough relax just a little bit.

He's trying to get a very even sheet

from which he'll cut the noodles.

It's a hefty noodles.

It's heavy when we eat it.

You don't get very many noodles

because of how intense it is.

Oh, wait, he's cutting it.

With his left hand,

he's slowly rolling the dosing

at the guidance of the other noodles themselves,

and the right hand just smooth,

cuts forward and backwards.

Whoa.

It's about a little less than a centimeter.

Some of them are about a centimeter thick.

He's using his entire arm,

using the momentum to carry him through every single stroke.

Chef is so focused.

A little bit of flour over the top to keep it from sticking

and then watch this.

He's loosening it, pulling it,

just to give it a little bit more length.

Take off the ends.

That's been wow.

Amazing.

Straight into the water, the [indistinct].

Cooks for about three minutes,

being stirred constantly.

It doesn't get fresher than this.

And some of this technique

reminds you of [speaking in foreign language],

of cold noodles,

but they're looking for totally different things.

He's looking for a very thick noodle.

He's looking for a lot of gluten, a lot of intensity.

He's looking for chewiness.

Beautiful.

So cooks for about three to five minutes,

it's a thick noodle after all,

but it is fresh.

After the noodles have come up,

they go into this bamboo tray.

Look at all that beautiful imperfection

perfectly imperfect.

All that texture, all those little strands

coming off the side of the noodles,

that's all going to catch up that delicious sauce

that they spent so long cooking.

Chef is putting on a little bit more oil

to stop them from sticking.

The noodles are going to dry naturally.

The starch will finish gelatinizing as it cools

and the final texture will be achieved.

After the noodles have been made,

the first bowl needs to be tested.

First bowl, you can see all the components,

MSG, cumin, sugar, the spice, the red oil,

the [speaking in foreign language].

If it doesn't pass his test,

it doesn't go out to the customer.

If it's not good enough for him,

it's not good enough for anybody else.

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[chef speaking in foreign language]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[chef speaking in foreign language]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[chef speaking in foreign language]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

Approved, onto business.

We're in the finishing kitchen.

I just wanna show you this.

[kitchen staffs speaking in foreign language]

You can see the pull of the dough and the crackliness

as a symbol that they've actually done this by hand.

It's not machine made.

And I think that is actually really quite important

because that texture on the top

and on the surface of the noodle

is what allows the noodle to hold onto that sauce.

The reason why that this noodle is so thick

is because the sauce is thick.

The reason why the noodle is so intense

is because the sauce is so intense.

Oh, she's making some now.

Whenever it's being served,

you can see all of the flavors that go into it,

sesame seed, sesame paste, garlic in rapeseed oil,

chili oil, Sichuan peppercorn, MSG, and sugar,

salt, soy sauce, black vinegar,

[Lucas speaking in foreign language].

All of those individual components are on the side,

but when it's added all together,

it's almost like before you mix it,

you can anticipate

what these individual components taste like,

and when you do mix it, it becomes cohesive.

By the way, just pause,

she's holding three bowls at once.

It's layering aromatics,

whether it's deep cooked things like chili oil

or fresher, greener pops,

everything they need to make the liangfen.

I have a sense that right now,

at this time in the morning, it's about 8:30,

very, very chill, very calm,

everyone's getting ready for the storm.

But if they're going to be serving 3 or 4,000 bowls

of these snacks throughout the day,

it's gonna get a little bit crazy a little bit later.

We got a table, starting to get busy.

It's time to eat this sweet water noodle.

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

[chef speaking in foreign language]

[Lucas speaking in foreign language]

Look at these noodles.

[suspenseful music]

I love the experience

of seeing each individual component of flavor,

the chili oil with the chili paste, the sugar crystals,

the cumin, little bit of that sesame, freshly ground,

but the magic is in the mix.

They were really insistent on me

mixing this sufficiently and properly.

Mixing is doing two things.

Number one is bringing all those flavors together,

obviously,

number two is because there's oil in here

but there's also water in the form of soy sauce,

those flavors need to emulsify a little bit.

Some of that starch that comes off the side of a noodle,

just like in Italian pasta dishes,

is going to help this sauce become a thick, messy

but cohesive bite.

I mean, look at this.

There may be are three strands of noodles in here.

And look how thick they've, there you go.

Wow.

Hmm.

Actually delicious. [chuckles]

First thing you get is a,

like barbecuey, earthy sort of sweetness,

but then once that flavor settles in your palate,

becomes spicy,

and that spicy is a bright spice.

One of the things people get wrong about Sichuanese food

is they only think about the spice in Sichuanese cooking.

But one of the really important flavor profiles,

one of the important flavors of Sichuanese cooking,

especially in Chengdu, is sugar.

Sichuanese food, as well known as it is for spicy food,

only got the chili pepper in the 16th, 17th century.

Somebody needs to fact check me on this.

It was the spice that we get from Sichuan peppercorns,

that numbing tingly,

plus a little bit of that spice

from things like cardamom and cinnamon

that produced a little bit of that tingly flavor

on our lips,

but also give a little bit of that earthy spice note.

Those flavors are so important inside of tian shui mian

because that is the backbone,

and the sprinkling bright zest on the top is the chili oil.

A little bit of that sesame seed at the back

helps bring the entire thing together.

It like anchors it in a little bit of nuttiness.

I mean, it's a delicious, hefty sweet bite.

And unlike every other noodle that we have here in China,

this is not slurpable.

Look at how thick this thing is.

Inside of the noodle is almost respite

for how flavorful the outside sauce is

but it also has to be soft.

And you can tell,

it's got a little bit of that

what Italians look for, al dente.

And the center is still a little bit white,

still a little bit of that flour,

that's where that texture comes from.

The buzz of the spice counteracted by the gentle sweetness,

really, really nice snack.

Tiny portion, we can eat a couple of other things.

This has become such a steady, normal part

of the routine of being in Chengdu,

whether you're a tourist or otherwise,

that these little bowls,

these little snacks can start to demarcate your day.

It's a really wonderful culture, I think.

Really fun, wonderful little ritual.

That was Zhang Lao Er.

I don't like to use superlatives,

but this is probably one of the best bowls of tian shui mian

that you can get in Chengdu,

the capital of Chinese snack culture.

We are here for snacks,

we're here for street eats,

so onto the next.