Chef Lucas Sin is joining TODAY to share and prepare Beijing-inspired recipes to celebrate the 2022 Winter Olympics. He shows us how to make saucy fried zhajiang noodles with pork belly and a steamy hot pot with lamb, beef and tofu.
Zhajiangmian directly translates to "fried sauce noodles." The sauce itself — a fermented soybean paste cooked in oil — is a Beijing street food staple, and just one of the many Northern Chinese culinary traditions that we've served up at Junzi Kitchen. Every household's sauce is different, but we've made ours from three different sources: yellow soybean paste, Pixian fava bean paste and sweet bean paste, all coming from different Chinese provinces. The result is a deep brown, fried and caramelized sauce that adds immense earthy and savory flavor to any dish.
Hot pot is a popular communal way to eat throughout China, especially in the winter, and each region of China has its own take on the feast. In general, hot pot consists of an herbal broth in which participants cook their own food. Thinly sliced meats, fresh vegetables and seafood are popular. Beijing-style hot pot incorporates many influences from the Northeast and Mongolia, including an emphasis on very delicately sliced beef and lamb. Hot pot also features a DIY sauce bar that includes interesting flavor profiles such as chive paste, fermented tofu and sesame.
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