This northern noodle dish, called Zha Jiang Mian (???), is undoubtedly one of my favorite dishes that Grandma Chang makes. I can easily eat a few bowls of these noodles when I was young (still can!). When I came to the UK, I missed my Grandma's tasty noodles so much that I dared to try to cook it myself. My first few attempts at emulating this family classic was "alright," but it was missing something. I followed my Grandma's verbal recipe diligently, even using ??? (bean paste) that I bought from Chinatown. But it still didn't work. So, I asked Grandma Chang again, and she told me that the secret was in the ???. It was a particular brand that she used that gave it that unique flavor. She bought me a few bottles of it, and finally, the taste was much closer to what it should taste like. But, it was still lacking something, something that I fear no ingridient or nor my skill can match, it's Grandma Chang's cooking. Here's how I did it: 1. get yourself some minced pork 2. put a few cloves of garlic and slices of ginger in an oiled pan 3. stir fry the minced pork until the moisture starts to come out and the color turns grey 4. if the pork is "smelly," add a few splashes of rice wine 5. add the secret ??? (bean paste) 6. add dark soya sauce to color 7. add sugar and salt to taste 8. reduced the pork + sauce until slightly thickened 9. boil some noodles 10. slice fresh cucumber 11. add the pork sauce to the noodles with cucumber 12. serve! add dark soya sauce to color

i love food and making it, so i've decided to start a new set dedicated to food and my creations, hope you enjoy... first off is ?? with cheese, sausage, mushroom and lemon mayonnaise ~ a dish i ate whilst in taiwan and later found the recipe to, kinda tricky to make at first but here's how i do it: mix together 2 eggs and whatever meat & vegetables you want in a small bowl. (i prefer my omelettes kinda runny so i don't mix too much and i use a fork.) next heat up some butter in a small-ish pan until it starts to bubble and spread evenly across the pan ~ i prefer to use a fairly small frying pan to get a thicker omelette ~ pour the mixed eggs and stuff into the pan and put onto the highest heat. leave to fry for about 1 minute and then using the fork lift the edges of the omelette into the centre and gently tilt the frying pan so all the liquid egg stuff falls into the gap you have made with the fork... repeat until satisfied. usually i do this for roughly 1 minute again and then grate some cheese on top ~ next i place a flour fajita wrap on top (i've read that it's supposed to be rice flour or something (?) but it all tastes the same to me ~ personally i just use "old el paso" wraps from asda.) gently flip the pan onto a plate and then roll up (this takes some practise.. first few times was a mess... but just make sure you don't make your omelette too thick and it should be easy enough.) add sauce and enjoy! ^^