Hunan Fried Fish Noodle Soup (鱼粉)
An awesome (and pretty easy) street snack from Hengyang, Hunan.
Classic street snacks throughout China – and Asia at large for that matter – can be a bit infamous for being hard to cook at home, but it's not the case for this one. The above is Hengyang yufen or 'fried fish rice noodle soup', and it's actually one of those 'feed yourself in 30 minutes flat' sort of affairs – just some rice noodles in with a delicious, mildly spicy milky fish soup that is way more than the sum of its parts.
It's from the city of Hengyang in central Hunan, where you can find little yufen joints dotted across the city, but it's a common enough sight in home kitchens around there as well.
Because this is Hunan food, after all.
Why Hunan Food is (often) easier to make at home
I feel like there's this certain characteristic of different cuisines that's not really talked about all that much: that is, the size of the overlap between restaurant cooking and home cooking. So like, for example, in Cantonese cuisine, Har Gow is a super classic Dim Sum, but pretty much no home cook in their right mind is gunna be making it unless they've got something to prove on YouTube. On the flip side, braised pomelo skin is a classic Chinese New Year dish, but it's kinda hard to find at restaurants.
Certain cuisines seem to have a clearer distinction than others – for example, French cuisine seems to be much more separated on that front than, like, Italian.
And much like Italian cooking, the food that you get at a great restaurant in Hunan's gunna look and feel pretty similar to a meal whipped up by a talented home cook, of which there's plenty. And on that note, this dish is rather straightforward:
Hengyang Fried Fish Rice Noodle Soup
This makes 2 bowls.
Note on scaling up: the quantity of fish that we used (2 fillets) would actually be enough for four bowls (two liters) of soup. So if you want to scale up to 3-4 portions, scale everything up but keep the fish quantity the same. Scaling past that point, you'd probably want to look at increasing the fish quantity.
Fish fillets, 2 (we used Tilapia - 罗非鱼) -or- ~300g of fish bones. Fish bones with a touch of meat still attached is a common route for this dish.
Rice noodles, 200g. Vietnamese rice noodles would work well here. Alternatively, there is a Chinese style of rice noodle that’s rather common abroad under the name of ‘Jiangxi rice noodles’ which could also be used, but you may need to soak or boil the noodles for longer - refer to your package.
Aromatics:
Garlic, 2 cloves. Minced.
Ginger, ~½ inch. Minced.
Scallion white, 1. Cut into sections.
Chilis, 2. Sliced. We used Heaven Facing chili (朝天椒). Thai bird's eye would have a similar flavor but be much spicier, so only use one if you're using bird's eye. But really, any not-smoked chili would be totally fine. You can even use fresh chili.
Liaojiu a.k.a. Shaoxing wine (料酒/绍酒), ~1 tbsp.
Napa cabbage, ~30g. Sliced into ~1.5 inch sections.
Optional: poached eggs, 2-4.
Seasoning:
Salt, 1.25 tsp.
MSG (味精), ⅛ tsp.
White pepper powder (白胡椒粉), ⅛ tsp.
Sliced scallion greens to finish.
Process:
Slice 2 fish fillets (or prepare ~300g fish bones) into 'domino sized' pieces (~2 inch by ~1inch). Set aside.
Boil 200g rice noodles according to package instructions. Strain, rinse under running water to stop the cooking process.
Mince 2 cloves garlic and ~½ inch ginger. Slice 2 chilis. Cut 1 scallion white into sections and slice the green part.
In a wok, add enough oil to get about ~1 inch deep. Heat to 190C, or until faint wisps of smoke appear. Add the fish, keeping over a high flame - the temperature should dip to ~140C. Fry til golden brown, ~3 minutes. Shut off the heat and remove the frying oil - leaving the fish and a thin smear of oil.
Add the chilis and aromatics. Swap the flame back to high. Brief fry, ~30 seconds, then swirl in ~1 tbsp Shaoxing wine. After another brief ~30 second fry, add in hot, boiled water. It should quickly return to a rapid boil, so cover, and let it boil for ~8 minutes.
At that point, the soup should be good and milky. Add ~30g sliced Napa cabbage, cover, and cook for ~2 minutes. Then add 2-4 optional poached eggs and the seasoning - 1.25 tsp salt, ⅛ tsp MSG, ⅛ tsp white pepper powder.
Transfer to serving bowls. Sprinkle over sliced scallion greens.