Cook this
The working recipe — the Market List, the Method, and where it lives or dies
I
Origin
Shanghai — Jiangnan culinary tradition
II
Description
One of the simplest and most profound dishes in Shanghainese cuisine: plain noodles dressed with a few spoonfuls of scallion oil (spring onions fried low-and-slow in oil until caramelised and just crispy), soy sauce, and nothing else. The scallion oil is made in quantity and kept at room temperature — the slow-frying at 150°C caramelises the spring onions and creates an extraordinarily sweet-savoury oil.
III
The Thread
—French beurre blanc (fat carrying flavour onto simple carbohydrate)
—Italian aglio e olio (oil-dressed pasta)
—Japanese chahan fried rice with scallion oil
IV
Flavour Context
Intensely sweet-savoury caramelised spring onion; the oil carries the flavour to every strand of noodle; simple, profound, deeply satisfying — the Shanghai approach to flavour distillation
Pillars V — VII
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