Figure 1. The chinese word biang comes from the sound that my heart makes when I see this dish

紅燒牛肉麵
Wai Po's Beef Noodle Soup
(serves 6 people)

ingredients:
 - soup
   - 6 quarts water
   - 2 lbs beef chuck (cut into 1 inch cubes)
   - 1 lb beef marrow bones (optional)
   - 3 tbsp vegetable oil
   - 1 garlic bulb in cloves
   - 2 inch piece ginger (sliced)
   - 1 stalk of scallions (quartered)
   - 2 tbsp doubanjiang (spicy bean paste)
   - 1/2 cup light soy sauce
   - 1/2 cup dark soy sauce
   - 1/2 cup shaoxing (or sweet cooking) wine
   - 1 yellow onion (peeled and halved)
   - 1 large tomato (quartered)
   - 1/2 an apple (decored)
   - 4 star anise
   - 2 chinese cinnamon sticks
   - 2 oz rock sugar
 - serving
   - flour noodles (cooked)
   - baby bok choy (blanched)
   - sesame oil (optional)
   - scallion (sliced)
   - tomato (sliced
   - 1 pint soup (heated)

instructions:
_soup_
1. Bring 8 quarts of water to a boil. Blanche and rinse the beef bones / chuck in batches. Set them aside for now.
2. In a large pot on high heat, bring the vegetable oil to near the smoking point. Flash fry the ginger, garlic and scallions for roughly 1 minute.
3. Add the doubanjiang to the pot and continue stirring the mixture for 1-2 mins, trying not to burn the sauce.
  - *Note*: This step aresolizes the spice from the doubanjiang. Make sure to turn on your vent for this step.
4. Add the dark and light soy to the pot. Add the beef to the pot as well and mix thoroughly to coat the meat in the mixture. Let cook for another 3-4 minutes.
5. Add the 6 quarts of water and the cooking wine to the pot. Bring it up to a boil and then lower the heat to medium.
6. Let the soup cook for another 1-4 hours depending on how tender you want the beef to be. Make sure to add water periodically as the broth should be at a rolling boil.
7. In the last 30 minutes of the boil, add the apple and rock sugar to the soup.
8. Strain the soup into a serving or storage container. Set the beef aside and discard the rest of the stew materials.

_serving_
1. Ensure that the broth is either just hot from cooking, or being heated before mixing the ingredients.
2. In a pot of boiling water, cook the noodles to just before done and set aside.
3. Using that same pot of boiling water, blanche the bok choy (or other leafy green) and set aside.
4. In a large bowl, add the beef and noodles side by side. Drizzle a splash of sesame oil on top and add the broth, bok choy, tomato and scallions.

Figure 2. Mmmmmmmmmm

A Memory

My mother was raised in a small cottage on an oil refinery in Kaohsiung, TW. Looking at it today, the oil refinery doesn’t look too different from a sugar factory in the UK, or an old estate in Long Island. That stunning brick complex sprinkled into that mountainous Asian backdrop always seemed so out of place, yet so appropriate; visiting always felt eerily like walking into a dream.

My mother and her brothers would always talk about wai po’s (grandma) cooking. From the spice dishes of Hunan, to being smoked out by fumagated peppers, to the various cusines of China they often had fond and wholesome memories centered around food.

I only learned this recipe this year and having learned it I feel a little bit closer to my family, and maybe a little bit closer to Taiwan.

Beef noodle soup is a dish that’s loved by many Taiwanese people, so I hope cooking it helps to preserve the feeling that one has when they visit that tiny island.