One Hot Noodle

About author / Amy Powell

World traveler; gourmet 30 minute meals; lover of exotic ingredients; winner on FoodTV's Chefs vs City; graduate French Culinary Institute. Her recipes will tantalize your taste buds.

China: inventor of pasta, birthplace of dim sum, hot pot hot spot, and home to some of the early thinkers of heat preservation during dinner preparation. I suppose I always assumed that issues of getting a hot meal on the table for the family was an issue exclusive to hyper-scheduled kids and over-worked American parents. Not so. In fact it turns out that even prior to the invention of the microwave people in lands as far away as the Far East grappled with dinner and how to get a hot meal on the table at the time you need it to be hot.

So halfway around the world, on my most recent and far-flung adventure, I discovered a little province of China called the Yunnan where they have been working on solving this dilemma for decades. The story goes (according to my bible, aka. Rough Guide to China), that there was once a Qing scholar who spent his afternoons in a building by the lake, deep in study. His wife would bring him his lunch but by the time she crossed the bridge over the lake to his study, the noodles she carried would be cold. Smart woman that she was, she discovered that if she covered the noodles in a layer of oil on the broth, the oil would trap the heat and the noodles would still be steaming hot when they reached their destination. So to this day, Crossing-the-Bridge Noodles, or qiguo ji, is one of the most popular dishes in the region.

On this trip into the Yunnan with my two good friends, I was determined to sample the local food. I literally made a list, as suggested by my bible, with Crossing-the-Bridge noodles at the top of my must-do. Even though tiny stalls and closet-sized restaurants devoted solely to this dish littered the capital city of Kunming, three weary girls after a long day of travel wanted the quickest meal possible at the closest restaurant to our hotel. We assumed this restaurant, which happened to be called Yunnan Delicacies, would have to carry this most famous dish. It did not. We happily ate everything else the restaurant offered, all of it superb. But this only strengthened my resolve to find the most famous of Yunnan delicacies come our next supper.

We spent the following day hiking in the Shilin Forest, a sort of park made up of a collection of surreal and fantastical limestone rocks that have been carved out the earth over a couple hundred thousand years. Once again exhausted and starving, we wandered out of the park looking for the quickest hot meal we could find. We were in luck as a perky Chinese woman of Sani (a Chinese minority group) descent, beckoned us to her collection of plastic tables and chairs with the promise of Crossing-the-Bridge Noodles. Our money was running low, but this is China, and by pooling our limited resources we managed to find 120 yuan ($15), just enough for a noodle bowl each.

Out of the kitchen came a collection of plates for each of us. On each plate we found thinly sliced raw chicken and pork, a variety of sliced deli meats (again mostly pork), a raw quail's egg, a dish of sliced green onions, chopped cilantro and garlic, wood ear mushrooms and some pickled veggies. Last came the bowl of noodles and a cast iron pot in which we discovered a richly aromatic chicken stock with pieces of chicken on the bone and a variety of greens.

Now for the quickest meal I ever made myself in a restaurant: into the pot first went the egg followed by the raw chicken and pork, the deli meats, pickles and mushrooms, scallion-cilantro-garlic mixture and last but not least the noodles themselves. We stirred this all the while with our chopsticks, allowing the meat and egg to cook. After a minute or so we added some chili paste. This clung to the oil, turning the liquid a fire-y orange.

What followed this was silence. This is the silence of deep meal-time satisfaction. It was a silence punctuated only by slurping, tearing eyes, and lots of sniffling because it is certain this noodle dish stayed hot. Our eyes welled and our bellies filled and we knew that as long as we had this one dish, dinner would never be cold again.

Serves/Makes: 4

• 10 cups roasted chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup dried wood ear mushrooms
• 16 ounces rice noodles
• 1 boneless thick cut pork loin
• 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast
• 1/4 pound mixed deli meat (that can include ham, chorizo, hot dog, salami, etc.)
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 4 scallions
• 2 cloves garlic
• 4 cups fresh baby spinach
• 2 eggs
• garlic chili sauce