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4 eating
Photograph of the finished Guangxi old friend noodles

China · Bún nước măng chua đậu xị

Guangxi old friend noodles

45 min Hands-on time
MediumDifficulty
6 stepsSteps

Method

  1. 1 Rinse the pickled bamboo shoots several times, then squeeze out the excess water and cut them into strips.
  2. 2 Chop the fermented soybeans with garlic and ginger, then sauté them in oil for 2 minutes until fragrant.
  3. 3 Sauté the pickled bamboo shoots with the fermented bean mixture for 5 minutes until the bamboo shoots are fragrant and have absorbed the flavors.
  4. 4 Sour bamboo shoots and fermented soybeans are the foundation of the dish; the absence of one would render it a different dish.
  5. 5 Simmer pork bones to make broth, then stir-fry thinly sliced pork and season with chili sauce and vinegar.
  6. 6 Blanch the rice noodles, then pour in hot broth with bamboo shoots and meat, and sprinkle with chopped scallions.

With an appliance

  • Pressure cooker 1 hr 10 min

    Instead of simmering the bones in step 5, cook under high pressure for 35 minutes, then let it cool naturally for 15 minutes. This replaces the approximately 2 hours of simmering on the stove, so the broth is finished an hour earlier without drying out. The bamboo shoots, fermented bean curd, and sliced meat should still be stir-fried separately as in steps 1–5 before adding them to the broth; cooking them together under pressure will make the bamboo shoots mushy.