RADICAL EXPRESSIONS
52 Thousand-year-old Chinese Characters That Are Surprisingly Relevant Today
Huang Weijia
This book explores 52 Chinese characters from their ancient roots to modern usage. Each chapter contains explanations of the history and legends associated with the character, offering intriguing perspective on Chinese culture; quotes and idioms formed by the character that are insightful and fun to use in daily conversation; and strokes broken down by order, with space to practice handwriting. The book is suited for beginners to advanced Chinese learners, and anyone else interested in Chinese culture.
It’s not cold, grilled, or noodlelike in any way: So what is the street delicacy called kao lengmian (烤冷面, literally “grilled cold noodles”), and why was it the most popular midnight snack among Beijing urbanites according to data from takeout app Ele.me this past summer?
Lengmian (cold noodles), or naengmyeon, is a classic Korean dish with buckwheat noodles served in a cold spicy soup. Kao lengmian is served hot by frying a sheet of starch in oil and an egg on an iron griddle; rolling it up with fillings like sausage, onions, and coriander, and chopping the roll into small pieces. The “noodle” part comes from the fact that the roll is actually made from cold noodles pressed together, creating the grooves on its surface.
Despite some street vendors trying to cash in by advertising their kao lengmian as “authentically Korean,” the two products are unrelated. There are many stories about the origin of the Chinese snack, with some tales even tracing it to Liu Yu (刘虞), an official from the Eastern Han dynasty (25 – 220), or to Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty (1616 – 1911).
However, there is no historical evidence backing these claims, and kao lengmian may be a rare Chinese delicacy invented entirely in the modern day. According to one urban legend, kao lengmian emerged in Mishan city of northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province in the 1990s, when a street vendor barbecued cold noodles with savory sauce and made a hit with the hungry students filing out of class, who spread it across the town. It’s unclear when the noodle
1. Wash and chop the onion and coriander, and cut the sausage into halves.
2. Mix the vinegar, sugar, chili garlic sauce, and sweet soybean paste in a bowl.
3. Heat the oil in a pan over low heat. Fry the two pieces of sausage until they change color, and
set them aside.
4. Soak the cold noodle sheet in cold water for a few seconds and place it in the pan to fry with
the leftover oil over low heat.
5. Break the egg onto the noodle sheet and spread it over the surface with a spatula.
6. Turn the sheet over as the egg solidifies and continue frying.
7. Brush the sauce on the noodle sheet, and sprinkle with chopped onion, cumin powder,
and coriander.
8. Add the fried sausage pieces and roll them up the sheet, and brush the sauce on the surface again. 9. Take the roll out of the pan, cut it into 3-4 cm segments, and serve.