Hot Oil-Poured Noodles (You Po Mian)

The story

Xi'an's famous street noodles are built on one dramatic moment — hot oil hitting chili flakes and raw garlic, sizzling loudly and blooming into toasted chili oil in two seconds. You get the whole show with dried noodles from any supermarket.

Ingredients (6 + pantry staples)

• Wide or any dried noodles — 10 oz / 300 g
• Garlic — 4 cloves, minced
• Crushed red pepper flakes (or Chinese chili flakes) — 1.5 tbsp
• Scallions — 1, sliced
• Soy sauce — 2 tbsp
• Black vinegar — 1 tbsp

Pantry staples used (don't count toward the 6): salt, cooking oil (3 tbsp). Not stocked yet? See the pantry page.

Steps

1. Boil the noodles. Drain and pile into a bowl.
2. Pile raw garlic, chili flakes and scallions on top of the noodles. Pour soy sauce and vinegar around the edge of the bowl.
3. Heat 3 tbsp oil until shimmering (about 1 minute), pour it over the chili pile — it will sizzle loudly. Toss and eat.

Swaps

No black vinegar? Rice vinegar plus a squeeze of lime. Add a handful of spinach to the noodle pot in the last minute.