Sichuan MSG Noodles (味精素面)


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MSG noodles – yep, you read that right (a direct translation of the Chinese – 味精素面). They’re a classic dish from Leshan, a great food city a couple hours south …

43 replies
  1. Chinese Cooking Demystified
    Chinese Cooking Demystified says:

    Ok, so a few notes:

    1. When I’m saying that Lao Gan Ma can be subbed in, I’ve talking about the spicy chili crisp sort not the black soybean chili. When I use Lao Gan Ma as a chili oil sub, I try to get a spoonful with more oil and less ‘crisp’. The reason you’ll want to cut the MSG a bit if going that route is because Lao Gan Ma is already, like, uh… packed to the brim with like the maximum possible quantity of MSG.

    2. So for the most part MSG is MSG, but you’ll find two types different ‘grain sizes’ of MSG – the one that look like larger crystals (almost as large as like small sprinkles), and the smaller sort that’re a bit more of a ‘jagged powder’. With this kind of recipe where the MSG isn’t dissolved, it’s best if you use the latter. The former can totally be used too, just do a bang up job mixing them into the sauce (or give them a quick crush beforehand).

    3. Randomly when I was sorting the tags for this video, I decided to toss in “how to cook with MSG”. Haha, the SEO was off the charts for that one! So I’m guessing that some of you might have that exact question, so let me just roll off some general guidelines: (1) MSG is best used in three ways: balancing spicy/chili-laden stuff, using it to bring out the natural umami of other umami rich ingredients (e.g. a touch of MSG with fresh mushrooms helps bring out that taste a bit), and as a general seasoning that can help mellow out flavors sort of like sugar can (2) when using MSG for the first purpose – balancing heat – you can go a bit heavier on the MSG like we did here. For the latter, really just use a sprinkle (like, no more that 1/8 tsp per person per serving), otherwise it’ll start to get that sort of monotonous ‘processed food’ kind of taste (3) MSG is best used at the end of the dish – especially at high temperatures, it’ll degrade and lose flavor (so don’t rub your steak with it before searing – if you really want, you could add a couple sprinkles on top after you flip and let them dissolve… but tbh I don’t feel the standard Western slab of steak is the most obvious use for MSG).

    4. Regarding the noodles, astute observers might notice that we were actually 1% higher hydration that what we had for burning noodles (~43%) and that our sodium carbonate ratio was higher (1/2 tsp for each despite scaling the recipe back 30%). Basically, we wanted to give you guys a noodle recipe for this one that’d make exactly two bowls of these noodles (without any excess). We like nice round numbers, so we decided to err on the side of slightly-higher hydration – which to be honest felt about right. For the sodium carbonate, the quantity doesn’t need to be an exact science. We just didn’t feel like called for a weird 1/3 tsp amount or what have you.

    5. If using Jianshui/Kan Sui/Asian Lye Water for this instead of powdered sodium carbonate, you can just straight up use a half teaspoon of that, no need to overthink things.

    6. Continual hat-tip to Alex the French Guy cooking for being the source of our first learning the baking soda  sodium carbonate trick. I know he got it from a NYT Cooking article so maybe after the fifth time I’m bringing it up here, I might be nearing the end of the requisite-credit-giving… but if for some weird reason you don’t know him, definitely check out his channel. Probably the best cooking videos on YouTube after Wang Gang imo.

    7. Also feel free to straight up add some blanched veg in there. When we got this dish in Leshan it also came with a bit of blanched cabbage, which was also nice.

    8. So in general, I’ve gotten tired of arguing with the anti-MSG crowd. It’s all cherry picked studies and such, so really… I’m probably not interested in a debate. The most cogent anti-MSG argument I’ve heard from comes via Sarah Tracy from the article “Tasty Waste: Industrial Fermentation and the Creative Destruction of MSG” – basically, she argues that because MSG tastes good, it can allow junk food manufacturers to more easily feed us, well, junk (and FYI, I emailed her and she clarified that she didn’t think there was anything wrong with home cooks using it). Even if we decide to make that leap with her (not necessarily where I’m at… I personally feel like junk food is fine in moderation, and that MSG is no more scary or addictive than granulated sugar is), then it’d follow that using MSG at home could ‘level the playing field’ of sorts. I.e. that if your body’s actually just craving some MSG, maybe it’d be best to sprinkle a touch on some fresh vegetables instead of reaching for the Doritos. I dunno. At some level, you kind of just have to accept scientific consensus… else it’ll drive you down a crazy rabbit hole when neither you nor me have the requisite background to parse what’s what. You might not totally trust the FDA, fine, but that doesn’t mean some random goofball nutrition blogger’s necessarily better.

    That’s all for now. I might scribble some more notes down in a bit 🙂

    Reply
  2. Minh Quan Vo
    Minh Quan Vo says:

    Fun true fact from the rest of the world (aka classified information for the US): MSG is totally safe for consumption. Unless you inject it under your skin like some researchers in the 1960s to 80s.

    Reply
  3. Char Stone
    Char Stone says:

    Do you have any recommendations for a starter burner? I've been cooking a lot of recipes from y'all on my electric stovetop, but it just doesn't get got enough quick enough.

    I've looked around at different makes and models and I figured I'd just ask someone's opinion I trust and I definitely trust the opinion of the people who helped me get from making bland fried rice to being comfortable with a bunch of awesome Sichuan dishes.

    Reply
  4. Out of The Hat
    Out of The Hat says:

    I believe the hysteria started because some people might have had actual symptoms of it, but then I also know someone with an allergy to spinach and obviously we all know that just because it's dangerous for one person doesn't change that it's perfectly safe and even actively healthy for the majority.

    Reply
  5. Daniel Su
    Daniel Su says:

    For these types of noodle dishes with oil + flavoring + small vegs, I like to heat up the oil and pour it on the bowl as the last step. It helps bring out the flavor more, and gives the scallions a little bit of a toast.

    Reply
  6. Justinitiative
    Justinitiative says:

    The video is nice and everything, but saying that "racism" is the cause for the mistrust of MSG as a food additive completely tries to use emotion to skirt the fact that there has been scientific research done by credible bodies in multiple countries to show that MSG isn't safe to eat in regular to high quantities.

    Reply
  7. Thomas Mace
    Thomas Mace says:

    Looks so good! Just wondering where to get MSG in the msg-phobic USA. Chemically extract it from a bag of Doritos? Oh, and I was blown away that you gave Wang Gang a shout-out in the description box. I don’t speak a word of mandarin but watch him obsessively.

    Reply

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