Any recipes for this would be appreciated!
Yea, that stuff is really good. My wife used to make it.
I’m not sure but don’t you just cook the right kind of noodles, drain them and put them in a bowl of ice, then place then in your eating bowl and grate carrots and cucumbers over the top and apply sesame dressing.
I may be missing something, but I’ve also been thinking of making such mian lately, because my wife bought this huge bottle of salad dressing at Carrefour recently and it’s exactly the right sesame dressing for such a dish.
I look forward to more enlightened comments from others.
But how to make the sesame dressing?
Liangmian was the first Taiwanese food I found that I liked, and I’d eat it several times a week from one nearby stand. It was really spicy and had lots of shredded chicken. When summer comes and I can’t fathom downing the usual hot, oily fare, “cold noodles” really hits the spot.
[quote=“Redmenace”]But how to make the sesame dressing?
Liangmian was the first Taiwanese food I found that I liked, and I’d eat it several times a week from one nearby stand. It was really spicy and had lots of shredded chicken. When summer comes and I can’t fathom downing the usual hot, oily fare, “cold noodles” really hits the spot.[/quote]
I believe it is a peanut sauce with some sesame seeds in it. My wife makes some great peanut/almond butter at home and then uses that spread to make an incredible cold noodle dish. It is the cold noodles, some finely julliened cucubmer on top, and then pour the peanut sauce. Some of our local neighbors have been buying her pb spread to make their own noodle sauce - its a great dish, especially in the hot summer months. I wouldn’t make the sauce with store-bought pb … it sounds gross to be honest.
Anyway, I’m a guy so I could wrong on some of that. I really just eat and enjoy … 
*Now my old lady tells me the sauce may or may not include peanuts - sometimes only based on sesame paste. Anyway, I’m sure there are many ways to tweak the sauce. Yeah, and shredded chicken too …
Why do you need to make it, its as cheap as chips literally
Don’t forget to add liberal amount of finely chopped garlic!
I recall the first time I tasted these, a friend and I were backpacking up near the Montana. Canadian border. He was a PhD candidate from Beijing and a self-styled cook. We didn’t take much with us but he came up with this dish usuing oiled down peanut butter, insead of soy butter, some sesame seeds he had in his bag. Cooked regular spagetti noodles, smotherd the noodles with the buter,oil and garlc. Shredded some peepled cucumbers and lightly tossed it. Then he set it up on a rock in an ice cold stream so the water bathed the outside of the pan. I din’t think much about it at the time but when we had morning caught fresh trout and fried potato O’brien, the noodles just went the extra mile. They were excellent.
Isn’t this from Japan?
My Japanese friends used to make it all the time and say that is what everyone ate as kids in the summertime for lunch when mom just wanted to throw something quick and easy on so the kids could get back to playing.
Think maybe they called it somen or something.
If I was going to attempt to make it, I’d use a bit of sesame paste,soy sauce, bit of vinegar of some sort,maybe a tiny bit of chill and garlic. Mix it in or on top of the cooled down noodles, serve with shredded carrot and cucumber. I guess it’s completely wrong (and tastes like crap).
I know there are no peanuts involved in the recipe.
Hygiene, for starters. The last time I bought any at a noodle shop, the woman was handling money, noodles and toppings with the same hands.
[quote=“hairy knuckles”]If I was going to attempt to make it, I’d use a bit of sesame paste,soy sauce, bit of vinegar of some sort,maybe a tiny bit of chill and garlic. Mix it in or on top of the cooled down noodles, serve with shredded carrot and cucumber. I guess it’s completely wrong (and tastes like crap).
I know there are no peanuts involved in the recipe.[/quote]
You don’t know how to make it, but you’re certain ‘the recipe’ (???) doesn’t involve a peanut paste.
More power to you dude.
Hygiene, for starters. The last time I bought any at a noodle shop, the woman was handling money, noodles and toppings with the same hands.[/quote]
The one really bad food poisoning type jag I ever got here was from a plate of these for lunch. Only before 12am is my rule now
The Atlantic just posted a recipe for something that looks similar (I really wish it would become standard to give both western and the original “foreign” names for dishes!):
food.theatlantic.com/recipes/rec … tables.php
The recipe above is for “Whole wheat noodles with spicy peanut sauce and vegetables”, which sounds more in the satay vein - but sometimes so are liangmian in Taiwan, I think.
For cold noodles, the Korean version is my favourite. Served with spicy sauce and on a couple of ice cubes.
PS: I think you avoid them before 12 pm, right? I do admit however that Taiwanese usage of 12pm/ 12am seems opposite to the rest of the world.
yeah that’s right it may be time to move back home I guess
Here are URLs for three recipes from the 'net:
This one says it’s Taiwan-style.
This one says it’s Sichuan-style.
This is from a cookbook written by an American; he claims it’s from Hunan and Sichuan.
The ingredients in the Taiwan one sound just like what I would expect.
Noodles:
* 200 g (7 oz) dried noodles
* 100 g (3.5 oz) chicken breast
* 60 g (2 oz) oriental cucumber, julienned
* 60 g (2 oz) carrot, julienned
Dressing:
* 1/2 cup cool water
* 4 teaspoons sesame paste
* 2 teaspoons peanut butter
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* 2 teaspoons white sugar
* 5 teaspoons soy sauce
* 4 teaspoons Chinese black vinegar
And if one doesn’t have Chinese black vinegar, I would imagine one could substitute another vinegar (and/or add some hot peppers too).
Thanks for the inspiration. I may give it a try one of these days too.
Made this just now, it was really good thanks. Similar to the style of a stand that used to be in the basement of the Wannian dept store in Ximending, I always used to stop there for a plate. There are a lot of good looking sichuan recipes on that site, I’m going to try some more.