Chengdu 'Sweet Water' Noodles (甜水面)
Thick noodles sort of unique within the greater Sichuan Noodle Universe.
I could imagine the world of Sichuan noodle dishes could be… confusing for a newcomer. Sort of like that old Jim Gaffigan bit where he jokes that pretty much anything at a Mexican restaurant is “tortilla with cheese, meat or vegetable”, a lot of the Sichuan noodle universe is very much… “noodles with chili oil, MSG, and soy sauce”. Like, the difference between, say, a Dan Dan Noodle and a Chongqing Xiaomian probably isn’t super obvious to those new to the sport.
Like, a quick and dirty run down might look something a bit like this:
Dan Dan Noodles (担担面). From Zigong theoretically, but definitely popularized from Chengdu. Uses thin alkaline noodles, dresses with chili oil, soy sauce, sesame, MSG and toasted Sichuan peppercorns. Tops with ground pork, yacai, and scallion.
Yibin Burning Noodles (宜宾燃面). From the city of Yinbin. Uses thin alkaline noodles, dresses with MSG and chili oil (traditionally a local variant called ‘xiangyou’). Topped with toasted peanuts and sesame seeds, as well as a heap of yacai.
Chongqing Xiaomian (重庆小面). From the city of Chongqing. Uses thin alkaline noodles, dresses with a spicy chili oil, MSG soy sauce, stock, sesame, and a generous amount of toasted Sichuan peppercorns. Can be thought of as broadly similar to Dan Dan conceptually but much more *mala* (perhaps a fitting analogy of the difference between Chongqing and Chengdu?).
Wanzhou Zajiangmian (万州杂酱面). From Wanzhou (now administratively under Chongqing) – uses thin alkaline noodles, topped with a spicy meat sauce. Outside of Sichuan, can sometimes be seen as ‘Sichuan Zhajiangmian (四川炸酱面)’ as a misnomer.
Hongshao Beef Noodles (红烧牛肉面). Can be enjoyed with a variety of noodles, though most common to see are thin alkaline noodles. Soup noodle, defined by the Sichuan-style red braised beef with tops it. Usually served in pork stock and some of the braising liquid.
Cold noodles (凉面). Uses thin alkaline noodles, served cold. Mixed with seasoned soy sauce, chili oil, toasted Sichuan peppercorns, sesame, garlic water, and vinegar. Topped with peanuts, bean spouts, cucumbers – anything fresh.
Leshan MSG noodles (味精素面). Uses thin alkaline noodles, mixed with soy sauce, MSG, and chili oil. Topped with Yacai and scallion.
Sweet water noodles (甜水面). Uses thick non-alkaline noodles. Mixed with seasoned soy sauce, garlic water, and chili oil.
Further, there’s a million little exceptions and regional variations here too. Like, if you happen to be someone well versed with Sichuan noodles and any of the ‘definitions’ above were slightly off from your understanding, that’s to be expected. But the fundamental idea is that this entire edifice of noodle dishes are formed via a different mixes and ratios of components that aren’t too dissimilar push comes to shove.
But I want to zero in on that last noodle dish – sweet water noodles. To get it out of the way, the titular ‘sweet water’ refers to a sugary seasoned soy sauce that’s used when dressing – but that’s not what makes the dish unique. There’s other entrants that make use of ‘sweet water’ (e.g. cold noodles). What makes sweet water noodles special is the noodle itself.
It's… thick.
Specifically, the variety of noodle is called gungunmian (棍棍面) or “stick noodles”. They’re a type of noodle that’s primarily associated with the neighboring Shaanxi province, and unlike many of the others above, is explicitly a non-alkaline noodle. Production-wise, they’re basically a dead ringer for Japanese udon noodles: so much so, that you could probably use the terminology *gungunmian* and udon interchangeably… and you wouldn’t really be wrong.
Origin wise, the only thing that’s clear about Sweet Water Noodles is that (1) they came from Chengdu and (2) they date back to at least 1910, when writer and historian Fu Chongju recorded in his Biji (a genre of Chinese literature) that’s a little tough to translate) “Chengdu Tonglan” (成都通覽) that:
“甜水面，席馆晨售，每碗十六文，太粗无味，挑担者六文一碗。
Tianshuimian are sold in the morning at some restaurants. It’s 16 Wen [Qing dynasty Chinese currency] for a bowl, 6 Wen for street workers. The noodles are too thick and have no taste.
So like… not really selling the dish here (Fu Chongju obviously wasn’t a thick noodle guy), but it is cool to see that this actually appears to be one of the earlier entrants in its category. Off the top of my head, MSG noodles supposedly hit the in the post war period, and I’ve heard that Wanzhou Zajiang noodles only really became a classic post reform-and-opening.
In the end however, it is definitely one of those times where it can get a little frustrating just how fractured and fuzzy food history tends to be. I have so many questions! How is it that gungunmian is a thing in basically this one pocket of Sichuan, a whole mountain range away from the province where it’s a cultural staple? Were there other similar noodle dishes that simply faded away? And for that matter, it’s really quite hard not to notice the similarities to Udon (which has its own crazy and convoluted story)…
But no matter. Not a historian, so going too far down that rabbit hole would likely just be chasing ghosts in the wind. We’ve got a recipe to get to, but it would probably make sense start with the noodles themselves:
How to Make Gungunmian
Ingredients:
High gluten flour, preferably a Chinese noodle flour (e.g. the Saibeixue 塞北雪 brand) or an Italian 00, 200g. Chinese noodle flours and Italian 00s are finely milled, making them preferable for this sort of application. But because we will be cutting the noodles (not pulling), bread flour would be able to work in a pinch.
Salt, 4g. Or ~¾ tsp.
Water, 100g.
Oil, 1 tbsp. Not in the dough – this is to coat after boiling.
Process:
In a bowl, mix the salt in with the flour. Then, slowly drizzle the water in bit by bit, mixing it with a chopstick. You will have a relatively shaggy dough. Press and squeeze into a ball, and knead for 2-3 minutes on a work surface. Transfer back to a bowl, cover and let it rest for 15 minutes.
Knead the dough for 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a work surface, flatten the dough into a rough sheet with your hands, then fold in half. Flatten and fold again, repeating 6 more times. (Alternatively, you can also pass the dough through a pasta maker at the widest setting, folding in half in between each pass – same thing). After a final fold, place back in the bowl, cover and let it rest for another 15 minutes.
Repeat this one more time: knead for 1-2 minutes, flatten and fold 6-7 times, rest for a final 15 minutes.
Now we will cut the noodles: dust your work surface, then roll out the dough into ½ cm thick sheet. Using a ruler for guidance, cut the noodles into ½ cm wide strips to get roughly rectangular ‘sticks’. Gently loosen and slightly pull the noodles as you work. Dust the noodles again once all are cut.
To boil the noodles gently add them to a pot of boiling water bit by bit. Be careful that the noodles do not clump – give it a gentle jiggle with chopsticks. Once it comes up to a boil, add in one cup of cool water (ala boiling dumplings). Once it comes up to a boil once again, remove and strain.
Move to a bowl and coat with the tablespoon of oil.
Sweet Water Noodles
There will be three core components here to dress the noodle:
1. Sweet Water Soy Sauce.
‘Sweet water’, i.e. tianshui is, at its core, simply a seasoned soy sauce – just like we discussed in the post last week. It’s the type of thing that you can make a big batch and have hanging around – like, if you have a midnight craving for some Sichuan noodles, simply mixing some [whatever boiled noodles] with a bit of sweet water and Sichuan chili oil will likely hit the spot.
You will need:
Soy sauce (生抽), 100g (~100mL). A Chinese soy sauce will be strongly preferred.
Slab sugar (片糖) -or- jaggery -or- dark brown sugar, 25g.
Spices. Note that sand ginger is annoyingly sometimes labelled ‘dried ginger’ in English on some packages – use the characters to confirm. If you cannot find it, substitute with dried ginger or dried galangal. If you cannot find Tsaoko, you can substitute it with Indian black cardamom:
star anise, 1 pcs;
sand ginger (沙姜), 2 pcs;
cinnamon (桂皮), ½ stick;
tsaoko a.k.a. Chinese black cardamom (草果), 1 pcs.
Add everything to a small pot. Over a low flame, dissolve the sugar into the soy sauce, then cover. Cook over low for 15 minutes, or until large bubbles are forming and it reaches about spoon coating consistency, like so:
This amount will be enough for ~12 bowls of noodles. It will be able to keep 2-3 months in the fridge.
2. Garlic Water (蒜水).
This is quite easy, although you will need a mortar or food processor (or MacGuiver something up). You will need:
Garlic, 6-7 cloves.
Cool water, 3 tbsp.
Crush the garlic, remove the peels, and in a mortar pound into a paste. Mix with the cool water.
This amount will be enough for four bowls of noodles. It cannot keep.
3. Sichuan Red Chili Oil (红油).
This dish requires hongyou, i.e. Sichuan red chili oil. We have an old recipe for one, but… there’s a couple things that I do differently when making chili oil today (forgoing straining, going way more intense with the spices/aromatics, de-seeding in a smart/non-obsessive way instead of a stupid/obsessive way). So do feel free to use your favorite chili oil recipe – if you’re new to the sport, the renowned Wang Gang’s recipe is a good one and roughly similar to what I do these days.
That said, sometimes when penning these recipes… I do feel a little awkward telling people “first, make a big batch of chili oil” willy-nilly. While it’s definitely something to have on hand if you’re into Sichuan food, I do feel the pain of reading a recipe… only having it lead to like five different sub-recipes. So if you’re feeling lazy, you could make a hongyou approximation with something a bit like:
Red, fragrant chili powder, e.g. Shaanxi Qinjiao (秦椒), Korean Gochugaru, Kashmiri Chili Powder, 2 tbsp.
Optional: spicy chili powder, e.g. cayenne pepper, 1 tsp.
Oil, ¼ cup. In an ideal world Sichuan caiziyou, but peanut would be good too.
Lao Gan Ma chili crisp, ¼ cup.
If using, mix your two chili powders. Heat up the oil until faint wisps of smoke are forming around your wok/pan, ~190C. Dip the hot oil into the chili powders and mix well. Add the Lao Gan Ma and mix well.
This amount will be enough for four bowls of noodles.
Making a sweet water noodle:
Per bowl of noodles, you’ll want:
Cooked noodles from above, 100g.
Chili oil, 2 tbsp.
Sweet water soy sauce, ½ tbsp.
Garlic water, ½ tbsp. This will include the crushed garlic AND water, FYI.
Crushed toasted peanuts, 2 tsp. See note below if you’re new to toasting peanuts!
Toasted sesame oil (麻油), ¼ tsp.
Sichuan peppercorn powder (花椒), ¼ tsp.
Sugar, 1/8 tsp.
MSG (味精), 1/8 tsp.
Mix everything together.
Notes
On toasting peanuts:
To toast peanuts, toss however much you’d like to toast in a skillet or wok over a medium-low flame. Toast for about five minutes, or until the peanut skin begins to blacken. Remove, then peel by gently blowing the now-browned skins. Lightly crush in a mortar or chop with a knife.
You can also use roasted peanuts to substitute.
On portioning:
Alright, so I know the portioning got a little awkward in this recipe. These street food sort of things are always a little difficult because (1) they’re designed to be ‘snack sized’ and (2) they tend to feature a bunch of pre-prepared components that’re whipped together on the spot.
Basically, one serving here is a snack – two servings will be a small meal. We designed this recipe around four servings in mind, though as written you will have extra ‘sweet water’ by the end of it all (you do need a certain quantity for one batch, as it’s kind of difficult to use “1/3 of a cardamom”).
Everything keeps here quite well except the noodles and the garlic water – both the ‘sweet water’ and the lazy chili oil should be able to keep in the fridge for 2-3 months. So feel free to scale things up, and just whip up those two components whenever you’re feeling in the mood. You can also use the same topping mix to dress [whatever packaged noodles] too, of course.