Tomato, Garlic, and Basil* in China's Noodle Heartland (荆芥拌面)

Jingjie mixed noodles! A homecooking classic from the Henan province, this noodle dish features a lesser known combination of (1) tomato (2) garlic and (3) basil.
0:00 - wait what
1:48 - Stewed Tomato and Eggs
3:42 - Garlic water and seasoning
4:15 - Fresh noodles, if you want
6:47 - Assembly
7:18 - Other seasoning choices?
FULL WRITTEN RECIPE
... is over on the Substack! Free as always, of course:
chinesecookingdemystified.sub...
______
And check out our Patreon if you'd like to support the project!
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Outro Music: คิดถึงคุณจัง by ธานินทร์ อินทรเทพ
Found via My Analog Journal (great channel): • Live Stream: Favourite...

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Hey guys, a few notes: 1. If you just came here straight from the thumbnail, the “basil” in this dish is Jingjie (荆芥), Ocimum basilicum var. pilosum, i.e. ‘lemon basil’ or ‘hoary basil’. 2. Jingjie was actually an interesting one to track down. I’m sure there’ll be some comments here saying something along the lines of “it’s actually catnip!”, as Jingjie is a *local* name for this plant in Henan. Outside of Henan, the same characters can refer to a separate plant that’s employed in TCM that’s in the catnip family. 3. Over on the Patreon Discord, there was a touch of disbelief, as one of our (absurdly knowledgeable) users had previously obtained the seeds for specifically Henanese Jingjie, and the taste didn’t match with what he’d heard about Lemon Basil in the States. The tentative conclusion was that confusion was arising from Lemon Basil vs ‘Mrs Burn’s Lemon basil’. The former is what was used in the video and is common in cuisines throughout southeast Asia, the latter is quite lemon-y and is apparently popular among home growers in North America. 4. Of course, there is always a possibility that Steph could’ve been missing something in her research. Whenever you do this sort of thing, you have to make judgement calls on the credibility of various sources. For example, there’s also a bit of noise in Chinese that Henan Jingjie *is* Thai Basil (or catnip, etc etc), and we found the sources that claim it to be Ocimum basilicum var. pilosum most compelling :) 5. In any event, even though these sorts of botanical dives can be *interesting*, from a food perspective… really, I think any of the above would work fine (well, maybe not catnip). I mean, it’s noodles, garlic, and tomato and eggs - even good ol sweet basil would taste good, right? 6. If you use dried noodles in place of fresh, it’ll be a bit more difficult to mix and the flavor’ll be a touch more difficult to absorb into the noodles. But it’ll be tasty nonetheless. Anyway, that’s all I can think of for now. Hope y’all have a happy Dragon Boat!

[@qiaonasen3559]

Love your channel keep the videos coming. Do really enjoy reading your stuff on substack. I wish you two could cover more ancient cuisine for example imperial or noble cuisines from various dynasties. Happy Dragon Boat Festival! ♥♥🐉

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

@@qiaonasen3559 Cheers! Any dish in particular you're interested in?

[@qiaonasen3559]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified i don’t have any particular dish to choose from but I would love if you two could do a small segment on a late song dynasty cook book by Madame Wu 浦江吳氏中饋錄

[@percytw]

tomato with egg 番茄炒蛋 is a common homestyle dish here in taiwan too, i never thought of it as a northern chinese dish is tomato with egg also found in southern china, or is taiwanese cuisine being influenced by all parts of china why a northern chinese dish is found here? (as with beef noodle soup and guabao 刈包)

[@lisacastano1064]

​@@percytwmy mom was from Taiwan and when we visited my cousin found out I love eggs and tomato and made some with chopped pork and basil I still make it that way.

[@Braindouchedotnet]

Bourdain once said something like "if the Italians and the Chinese are both cooking something it's probably a good idea."

[@nurlagrande]

nobody cares stop acting like he was omniscient

[@nurlagrande]

also if you need him to make you aware of such a well known common fact you might need to pick up more than a cookbook

[@GoldenBeholden]

@@nurlagrande You okay?

[@Lucy-lx3dn]

@@nurlagrande who hurt you lmao

[@LashknifeTalon]

Bonus points if the instant a nation colonizes another one, the colonized/colonizers adopt the food instantaneously, no questions asked. For example, basically everyone in the former French empire seems to have decided "Baguette + local ingredient = sandwich", and Ethiopia was occupied for less than a decade and they still serve lasagna there today.

[@NickFegley]

4:35 "As culturally automatic as... baking in North America." You just unlocked something for me that might be obvious to someone else, but is truly profound to me! When I (an American) made banana bread for my coworkers in Henan, Zhengzhou, one of them asked me for the recipe. My recipe is super basic, so I wrote it down real quick and shared it with her (with a few notes) and she was horrified by the complexity. I couldn't get my head around her reaction; it's not like I made a soufflé or something! But now I get it. I suspect that my Chinese friends are probably similarly baffled by how impressed I am by handmade noodles. Thanks for this awesome video, and double thanks for giving some more attention to Henan cuisine.

[@MaoMaster69]

did not expect to see steph going at a ball of dough like an italian winemaker today

[@OlEgSaS32]

Quentin Tarantino has entered the chat

[@lesslighter]

@@OlEgSaS32 Hidetaka Miyazaki also entered the chat

[@ElementEvilTeam]

@@lesslighter I like the dirty feet lady

[@JBlizzyFan]

​@@OlEgSaS32KZbin user JBlizzyFan has entered the chat

[@mayanemain1389]

WAIT HOLD UP PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO THOSE MINT FRIED RIBS, I'M BEGGING Y'ALL

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Okay, twist our arm haha Not next video but maybe the video after

[@muffinmonster2023]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified that would be great!

[@lillianhovey7936]

I just wanted to say thanks for making these videos, my wife moved here from northern china when she was a kid, she can't cook and hasn't had much contact with her mom since she came out. these videos have been a big help putting together the flavours of her childhood.

[@Linh.19]

In Việt Nam this herb is called « lá é ». There is a fantastic dish in the mountain city of Đà Lạt called lẩu gà lá é, which is a flavorful hotpot/soup of chicken, oyster mushroom, bamboo shoots and tons of lemon basil. You usually dip fried tofu skin and bún noodles in it ! So so good

[@chondro2390]

Glad to see you guys finally broke down in the face of the culinary tide and decided to make a tomato and egg dish, despite previously stated opinions lmao

[@nikobatallones]

They have before, right? The biang biang noodles video, I think.

[@chondro2390]

@@nikobatallones yeah but that is where they mentioned they didnt like it very much and would never make a true tomato and egg stir fry video

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Still not as crazy about it as the rest of the world, but it’s an undeniably fantastic noodle topping haha

[@Twisted_Logic]

Honestly, it makes perfect sense that another culture would independently discover that tomato, garlic, and basil taste amazing together. It's too perfect of a combination if you happen to have all 3 local

[@BBarNavi]

mexicans have exited the chat

[@ProcrastPerfection]

I tried searching “Chinese food” and “cooking Chinese food” when I forgot the name of your channel and you didn’t come up in any of the early results! Someone has got to fix the algorithm for you guys!!

[@squidjam]

I am so happy that you included Doña Angela from "De mi rancho a su cocina" when talking about making tortillas. Thanks!

[@suzaynnschick158]

This may be the spur that finally motivates me to try cooking tomato eggs. I just don't like scrambled eggs, but this looks amazing.

[@kaizerkoala]

The combination of noodles and tomato sauce is just... WORK. This one is very similar to "ก๊วยเตี๋ยวหมูสับ". It's also can disguise themselves as a Vietnamese dish easily.

[@skrunglywungkus]

excited every single time a new Chinese Cooking Demystified drops! Any chance some Shandong cuisine is coming down the pipeline soon?

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Yeah we should delve into Shandong more for sure! Any dishes in particular you're interested in seeing? We've had Dezhou chicken on the list since forever

[@skrunglywungkus]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified i honestly know nothing about it! I have a friend from Shandong but he’s not a huge kitchen nerd like me 😅

[@ctsilva45]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified dry fried chicken! A la San Tung in San Francisco

[@lilyflower5576]

This is one of my favorite dishes 😭😭😭

[@artonion420]

Another fantastic and inspiring episode, thank you so much

[@ctsilva45]

Can confirm the effectiveness of stepping on dry doughs to knead them. I do this for my ramen noodles

[@TheKipchak]

I've actually found lemon basil at a local nursery in the herb section

[@Wingedshadowwolf]

This looks like a nice summer dish!

[@SparkRattle]

I'm in the camp where I htought Jingjie WAS actual Thai basil. I grow it here in my farm so I've always used it in many dishes I make. I also prefer it over other basil for roasting chicken. A really great herb to have.

[@mossnodachi350]

I do love the slow tolerancd of tomato and egg throughout the years. Would dicing the tomatoes as you did here be a personal preference, like how you two both learned to prepare it to make the combo tolerable? Either way, definitely excited to try this. Been looking for more noodle recipes to work on! Especially with some fresh homemade noodles!

[@supercarpro]

Fancy herbs is where the herb garden helps, they got lemon basil and more at the local ace hardware even

[@stevenfaber3896]

This is a very interesting way to spice up a typical pasta night. Thanks for this!

[@TheDistur]

Sounds good!

[@Snails69]

cant wait to watch this video

[@delyar]

BEAUTIFUL new patio

[@abxwang]

From my home province!

[@moehoward01]

Dust the noodles with corn starch, not flour. The noodles will absorb flour and stick together. They'll absorb almost none of the corn starch, keeping them unstuck.

[@alfianfahmi5430]

Italians 🤝 Chinese Noodles, tomato, garlic and basil 😋👌

[@MouZ245]

There are so many thirsttrap-videos and shorts on youtube but between all of them the thumbnails of your videos are in the top 10%.

[@misterpillows2800]

Another great video! Is this dish enjoyed hot or room temp?

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

It's a cold noodle dish, so room temp :)

[@fish3977]

I have been watching the Flavourful Origins documentary series (surprisingly good about treating different ethnicities as, well, distinct and respecting their languages and culture btw) and it has been really funny to run into many traditional (at least few generations old) foods that seemingly have flavour profiles and ingredients I would definitely not associate with chinese food

[@deigue]

Hoooly ... LOOK AT THAT WOK!

[@UraniumFire]

Ive been adding cooked ramen noodles to my tomato and eggs on occasion. It just seemed right (and delicious).

[@amnasana.k1336]

Noodles look good

[@Default78334]

So, if one did have a pasta roller, would it make sense to just use that for the whole laminating and rolling out part of the noodle making?

[@TazzieVioletta]

Could you do another video about China's contribution to 'vegan' cooking? Seitan, tofu, 素鸡，素鱼，腐皮，钱张: just to name some off the top of my head. So many amazing Chinese meatless protein choices!

[@chanapolpimsen2647]

5:33 this should be behind paywall

[@kylemeyer4266]

I grow Chinese basil (from Baker creek) and it's a bit different from the lime basil/lao basil, the lemon basil or another citrus basil (Mrs. Burn's) I also grow. It seems to be a bit less citrusy and has bit of a holy basil profile taste in there as well. I'm also growing an italian basil, persian basil, holy basil, purple basil, two Thai basils, cinammon basil and buffalo basil.

[@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407]

Woah, what do you do with all these basil? (Just curious)

[@kylemeyer4266]

​@@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407I cook a lot of thai, lao, cambodian, vietnamese food. Lots of salads, soups and herb/lettuce wraps because I'm eating low carb. I don't always use ALL of the basils, some come in a mix, are fun to grow and are good for the pollinators.

[@tktyga77]

Could make for some excellent dal base as well, especially with the three side by side & perhaps with roasted lentils with the five spices & hing (asafoetida, like Indian msg), the last taking on allium qualities once cooked. In any case, the convergent evolution trio of tomato garlic & basil shown inside is the kind of thing that would certainly qualify as comfort meals even in a restaurant, just as its Italian cousin is known for

[@lemonz1769]

We use lemon basil in Myanmar too. Usually in fish or seafood dishes

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

What's it called in Burmese?

[@bea3558]

I thought both of you hated tomato and egg?

[@lilchinesekidchen]

is holy basil a good substitute?

[@cowdoc123]

Now that y’all are in Thailand, what base oil are you using? Are you still able to get virgin rapeseed oil?

[@markchen8376]

Replace the veg oil into pork lard, you'll find a whole new flavour profile (meaty and more layers of umami). Some restaurant would use deep fried eggs to dip in that pork lard fried miced tomato sauce to mimic meat like texture.

[@EnneaIsInterested]

Whoah, Chinese Shakshuka???!

[@amaladiguna8873]

Sambal kemangi is now more and more used here in Indonesia and it does usually contain tomatoes, so it's pretty shocking to hear the flavor combo appear somewhere else!

[@noahmottelson9047]

Is this eaten cold? Or do you reheat the noodles perhaps?

[@justin908]

❤

[@chaoton]

I'm Thai and a tad curious about how difficult it is for you to find authentic ingredients here, and how often do you need to import them if they're not available?

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

There are a couple places we get ingredients. Huai Khwang market is our local market and it might be surprising just how much you can get there. Tons of crossover between Chinese cooking and Thai cooking, ingredient wise. There are also a couple vendors there with a bit more of a restaurant focus that will carry some more 'Chinese' fresh ingredients like Dacong (Welsh onion, Chinese leek), Screw pepper, Lotus root, etc etc. Further, given the area there are a couple Chinese grocers around on the Huai Khwang side of the intersection. These spots are decent to pick up random stuff that the market doesn't carry like Chinese vinegar, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, etc. There are also grocers in the area that are ethnically Chinese - Yunnanese, specifically - from Northern Thailand. These are some very fun places to shop and have a lot of interesting ingredients, like actively fermenting laozao (ข้าวหมัก), Yunnanese jerky, and so forth. There's also similar shops on Lazada/Shopee Once in a blue moon we'll find ourselves going down to Chinatown, as there are some good shops there as well. This can be good for rarer ingredients, especially Cantonese ingredients. Any cracks are then filled with Taobao, which is easy to send to Thailand with a forwarder. In less than a week we can get pretty much anything (that's not fresh) from China to our door :) Bangkok is probably one of the best places to cook Chinese food outside of China. Los Angeles/Vancouver/London might have better Chinese supermarkets, but the Thai/Chinese fresh market crossover and the Taobao-ability give Bangkok a solid edge imo

[@chaoton]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified Thank you for taking your time to answer me and even provided Thai translation! 🙏🙏🙏

[@n0etic_f0x]

I am able to find it as I grow many basil. Holy Basil, Egg, and Tomato to me taste very from china Chinese rather than American chinese

[@Koenigg99]

What the heck....my granddad is from Henan and I don't think we've ever had basil in our food before

[@dinesh665]

Lovely recipe, and does not have any meat. Can you take this as a theme to show home made recipes that do not have meat?

[@amongus-cj4cs]

Pls do stuffed eggplant dim sum recipe

[@jimmyyu2184]

Do you have to do the steps on top of a chair? Isn't it safer to do it on the ground so you don't fall over?

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Yes, doing it on the ground would be better. Steph just doesn't like her feet to be too close to the floor as a personal thing, if that makes any sense

[@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407]

I kinda remember watching a Ramen youtuber always foot kneeding his dough on the table. Don't know why either, maybe easier for the camera and lighting??

[@sundrr_4280]

for free????

[@Kokkikoulussa]

Tomato-Egg looks like 番茄炒蛋 - In Winter I use canned Tomatos... This kind of I know from Hong Kong...

[@lynxloco]

What's the dish at 0:10 called?

[@AldonaDye]

Is this a cold noodle dish?

[@muxecoid]

Here is how I will distort this dish: Use shakshuka instead of chinese method for eggs and tomatoes. Use european basil. 4 spices mix (sichuan pepper, cloves, cardamom, star anise) Cheapest dry noodles. With decent ingredients and decent process the result simply can't be bad.

[@liamtahaney713]

Man, hunanese food is the best

[@FixedGearFox]

Scrambled eggs, stewed tomatoes and noodles??? What have I been doing my whole life...

[@thastayapongsak4422]

The orange 7-11 bag...

[@Swordphobic]

Say, do you folks have any recipe suggestions for people that have problems with digestion (low fat, low heat)?

[@Ko1234567890S]

Yum

[@colinfinnell2673]

how do you guys feel about tomato ripeness? Because in a lot of Italian cooking videos when tomatoes look the way that the ones you are using they say that they're Unrape and not fit to use.

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Me personally? I think there's a small element of silliness to that sort of only-eat-fresh-tomatoes-at-the-peak-of-summer culinary religiosity. Obviously, those sorts of tomatoes are the most delicious, and stewed tomato and eggs might be a nice application! But if you find yourself wanting a bit more of a hit of 'tomato' flavor out of season, it's an easy fix: add some tomato paste in the mix.

[@lisacastano1064]

​@@ChineseCookingDemystifiedor use a can of tomatos

[@darkmann12]

I reckon as long as you're cooking them, it doesn't matter so much. I'd probably care more about ripeness if it was a raw thing

[@PraxisPragma]

"Knead this with her feet" Quentin Tarantino has joined the chat.

[@michelhv]

Can’t wait for the Marco Polo conspiracies!

[@mattzolovsky8779]

Wait... the OTG guy sounds really like him...

[@fretless05]

Is Chinese dark vinegar the same as black vinegar? We have vinegar called black, but I don't know that I've seen "dark." Also, it seems that the dish is served cold, or at least not hot; did I get that right?

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Yeah I know our using the term 'dark vinegar' is a bit ambiguous. It's because "black vinegar" refers to a specific type of Chinese vinegar - Chinkiang (镇江) vinegar - and in our recipes when we say "Chinese dark vinegar", we're implying that any of the 'big four' Chinese vinegars (Chinkiang, Shanxi Mature, Baoning, Yongchun) are okay to use. I don't say "Chinese vinegar", because there's also Chinese white vinegar, red vinegar, or rice vinegars which are quite different. The most 'correct' vinegar for this specific recipe would be Shanxi mature. But any of the big four would work (though Yongchun would add a touch of sweetness to the dish)

[@fretless05]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified Thanks! That makes a lot of sense. It's no surprise that there are more than one type of vinegar in China, but in my local Asian market here in the US, I think most of the choices are Chinkiang. I'll have to pay more attention in that aisle next trip to see if I just missed the other choices.

[@lesslighter]

whats magical is that uncle roger hasnt actually probably reacted to any of these vods

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Nigel's a cool dude and he's smart enough not to try to challenge Steph lol

[@astridwolf911]

Earlyyy

[@ggad1899]

Given the problems in the States with H5N1 avian flu running amok unchecked (don't get me started on them letting it rip into the dairy cows herds and ruin our meat and dairy)... Anyway, I'll be substituting soft tofu for the eggs here. Should still be tasty!

[@DangerSquiggles]

Would cooking the eggs in the manner shown here not inactivate any viral particles contained in an egg?

[@squidward5110]

Bro I'm not stepping on dough strike one

[@butchnighthawk1673]

noodles

[@ohnodontbethat]

Garlic water sounds so misleading, that sounds delicious

[@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407]

When spelled out like that I think of vampires lol. Probably because garlic and holy water are supposed to repel them, you'd put them together hahahaha

[@jordanhodder8481]

What better evidence could you ask for that some flavor combos are meant to be 😅

[@deadpeach07]

it's weird bcs that's the only basil we have in iraq despite Italy being closer than southeast asia 🤔

[@timmccarthy9917]

More vegetarian content plz!

[@notYisan]

not one of our western food in china videos. lol

[@Ahaok34]

Stell dir vor du wärst ein Aal... Ein absoluter Aal... Ein totaler Aal... Zweifellos ein Aal...

[@Hapidjus_]

I feet (err, feel) like this video might attract a very different target audience than usual :')

[@user-wg1fp4zn6s]

Chinese pizza 😂😂

[@Carloshache]

What's next? You descover some kind of ancient lasagna covered with stinky tofu from the Fujianese mountains?

[@abydosianchulac2]

Looks delicious, but I have to say the toasted sesame oil threw me a bit. I feel you both use it in many more dishes than I would have thought called for it, since the flavor is so potent (and aggressive given its mouth-coating oiliness). Is this a preference for you two, or is the oil really used that universally that frequently over there? I just feel like it's a flavor I've run into very rarely stateside, either dining out or in family recipes.

[@nikkiewhite476]

A lot of authentic recipes I have formed use it.

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Toasted sesame is quite common - if anything I say that we use *less* of it compared to some other people :) Perhaps you're sensitive to the taste of it? There are certain tastes that seem to hit me stronger than others (e.g. bitter melon, the pith of oranges/chenpi, etc) If you find the toasted sesame oil to be too strong, you could alternatively opt for white sesame oil (i.e. untoasted) or a fragrant peanut oil.

[@matthillthehatmill8889]

Man you can't go giving out this kind of Feet content for free, the bottom will drop out of the market

[@koiranbutki]

are you chinese or japanese?

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

I (Chris, the narrator) am American. Steph, the brains of the operation, is Chinese :)

[@koiranbutki]

@@ChineseCookingDemystified cool

[@koiranbutki]

are you chinese or japanese?

[@gooblepls3985]

@@koiranbutki ?

[@koiranbutki]

@@gooblepls3985 what is troubling your mind my friend?

[@hamishfox]

Love the content but those eggs look very over cooked to me

[@Zelda_Thorn]

not giving out the feet pics for free sis

[@noob19087]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but posting your feet on the internet is generally not a good idea. Look it up. There are some really unsavory types out there.

[@ratiquette]

-No- fuck yeah MSG!!!

[@xero110]

I'm sorry, but wikiFeet just got a new entry to their database. I'll never understand those people, but I'm not here to shame anyone.

[@leesagrrl]

Strange fungus on Steph's mic... Maybe from kneading with her feet? : )

[@booloo3616]

no way this guy think he raguesea

[@totot99]

Damn we have ragusea simp glazer before gta6

[@jaysonlam8935]

How is this a recipe? 😂

[@alanovski.]

why soak the noodles in cold water afterwards? Is the dish eaten at room temperature?

[@nikkiewhite476]

It stops the cooking process. It you just drain then they will stay hot and will cook more turning mushy and then if left long enough will develop dry edges. Want noodle that you are not serving immediately should be in a bath of ice water.