Crossing the Bridge Noodles

A bowl of broth under a seal of hot fat, into which raw slices and noodles are dropped at the table and cook in the bowl.

Chicken, Pork, Egg. Not vegetarian — contains chicken, pork.

Ingredients

For the broth

• 1 chicken carcass and 500 g chicken wings
• 200 g pork bones
• 2.5 litres water
• 40 g ginger, sliced
• 4 spring onions
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons rendered chicken fat

To go in raw

• 150 g chicken breast, sliced as thin as paper
• 100 g pork loin, sliced as thin as paper
• 2 quail eggs
• 100 g rice noodles, soaked soft
• a handful of pea shoots or chrysanthemum leaves
• 2 spring onions, shredded
• 50 g beansprouts

Method

1. THE BROTH DOES THE COOKING AND THE SEAL OF FAT IS WHAT LETS IT. A layer of rendered chicken fat floated on top stops the surface giving up heat, so broth poured in at near boiling is still hot enough minutes later to cook paper-thin raw meat dropped into it. Without the fat the bowl cools in a minute and the meat goes grey and stays raw.
2. SO THE BOWL MUST BE SCALDING AND EVERYTHING ELSE MUST BE THIN. Fill the serving bowl with boiling water and leave it while the broth finishes; tip it out at the last moment. A cold bowl takes the heat the meat needed.
3. Carcass, wings and pork bones blanched from cold water 10 minutes, drained and rinsed of every piece of scum.
4. Back into the pot with fresh water, ginger and spring onion. Brought to a bare simmer and held 3 hours. It should not roll; a rolling boil emulsifies the fat and the broth turns cloudy, and a cloudy broth cannot be sealed properly.
5. Strained and seasoned with the salt. Taste it hard at this point -- nothing is added later and the raw ingredients will dilute it.
6. Chicken and pork sliced ACROSS the grain as thin as you can manage, laid out on separate plates. Half-freezing the meat for 30 minutes first makes this far easier.
7. Noodles soaked until pliable but not soft, drained.
8. Everything raw arranged on plates at the table before the broth leaves the stove.
9. Broth brought back to a hard boil. The hot bowl emptied, the rendered fat spooned into it, and the boiling broth poured on. The fat will spread into a visible film.
10. AT THE TABLE AND IN THIS ORDER: the quail eggs first, then the meat slices one at a time so they separate, then the noodles, then the leaves and beansprouts last. Each goes in raw and is stirred under.
11. The meat turns from pink to white in about 20 seconds. Eaten straight away, starting with the meat while the leaves soften.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under China · All recipes