白汤奥灶面 (White Soup Fish Bone Broth Noodles) & 苏式焖肉 (Suzhou Style Braised Pork Belly)
Dinner @ "昆山奥汤面馆", a noodle shop purporting to offer Fish Bone Broth Noodles, otherwise also known as "Aozhao Noodles" (奥灶面), a specialty of nearby Kunshan (昆山).
A RMB7 bowl of noodles with a RMB11 side dish of braised pork belly.
First, the pork belly could hardly keep its shape - it literally melts in the mouth with full well-seasoned lardy goo. You can't push (soysauce) braising any further than this delicate result!
I have tried the red soup style of "Aozhao" noodles earlier. ("Aozhao" Noodles come in 2 forms - red soup and white soup) - the red soup was sweeter and more soya-saucy. Supposedly brewed from the bones, fins and tails of "Green Fish", there were no distinct hints of fishiness - this white soup variant was more of a blander umami generic taste.
In all honesty, it was a passable bowl of noodles - I have no way to compare it against any benchmark for authenticity.
白汤奥灶面 (White Soup Fish Bone Broth Noodles) & 苏式焖肉 (Suzhou Style Braised Pork Belly)
Dinner @ "昆山奥汤面馆", a noodle shop purporting to offer Fish Bone Broth Noodles, otherwise also known as "Aozhao Noodles" (奥灶面), a specialty of nearby Kunshan (昆山).
A RMB7 bowl of noodles with a RMB11 side dish of braised pork belly.
First, the pork belly could hardly keep its shape - it literally melts in the mouth with full well-seasoned lardy goo. You can't push (soysauce) braising any further than this delicate result!
I have tried the red soup style of "Aozhao" noodles earlier. ("Aozhao" Noodles come in 2 forms - red soup and white soup) - the red soup was sweeter and more soya-saucy. Supposedly brewed from the bones, fins and tails of "Green Fish", there were no distinct hints of fishiness - this white soup variant was more of a blander umami generic taste.
In all honesty, it was a passable bowl of noodles - I have no way to compare it against any benchmark for authenticity.