Dan dan noodles (担担面) take their name from the shoulder pole (dan dan) from which street vendors once carried their portable kitchens. The dish is one of the defining street foods of Chengdu and one of the most internationally recognisable Sichuan preparations. The authentic Chengdu version has almost no liquid — it is a dry-tossed noodle with a complex paste of sesame paste, chilli oil, ya cai preserved vegetables, Sichuan peppercorn, soy sauce, and a small amount of minced pork, finished with a ladle of boiling noodle water to loosen the paste slightly.
The sauce: 2 tbsp sesame paste, 2 tbsp chilli oil (with sediment), 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorn (ground fresh), 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tsp dark soy sauce, 1 tsp Chinkiang vinegar, 1 tsp sugar, 2 tbsp hot noodle cooking water. Mix in the serving bowl before adding noodles. The meat sauce (zhaozi): Fry 100g minced pork with 2 tbsp ya cai (Yibin preserved mustard greens), a little soy sauce, and Shaoxing wine until the pork is cooked and beginning to caramelize. The ya cai provides saltiness and texture. The noodles: Thin fresh egg noodles are traditional. Dried wheat noodles work. Cook until al dente. Drain well. Tip into the prepared sauce bowl. Toss vigorously. Top with the meat sauce, a spoonful of extra chilli oil, sliced scallion. The Western restaurant version often adds a large amount of liquid broth — this is not traditional Chengdu dan dan. The authentic version is a sauced, tossed noodle.
Adding too much liquid: Authentic Chengdu dan dan is a dry-tossed noodle, not a soup. Over-sweet sesame paste: Use pure sesame paste (zhima jiang), not sweetened sesame sauce.
Fuchsia Dunlop, Land of Plenty (2001); Fuchsia Dunlop, The Food of Sichuan (2019)