Mince Meat Sauce Noodles (Zha Jiang Mien)

Summary: This is a simple Chinese noodle dish that my mom used to make all the time. It's considered comfort food for many people. You can make this dish dry or with soup.

Ingredients:

• Noodles (I usually use egg noodles, but rice or flour noodles will work also)
• Ground Pork (use how much you feel like eating, I used 1/2 lb.)
• Chinese Bean Sauce (Black, Spicy, Meat varieties all work)
• Soy Sauce
• Garlic, minced
• Soy Sauce
• Chinese Cooking Rice Wine or Sherry
• Pepper
• Oil
• Garnish: 
• Cucumber, cut into thin sticks
• Green Onion, diced
• Optional: Chicken Stock (I used a bullion cube here)

Step 1: Cook the noodles until al dente, drain and put in a serving bowl when finished. Put a tiny bit of oil in a pot and saute garlic until fragrant.

Step 2: Add in the pork and stir until garlic is mixed through.

Step 3: Add in the bean sauce. Start out with a big spoonful, you can adjust later. Add in a spoonful of soy sauce and rice wine. Stir to incorporate together.

Step 4: Taste the meat sauce. Add more bean sauce to your desired tastes. Add in pepper to taste. If you are making it dry style, pour pork over noodles, add cucumber, green onion. I like to mix it well with the noodle before eating.

Step 5 for wet style: Heat up the chicken stock, add salt to taste if needed. Pour hot stock over the noodles, pile on the cooked pork, add the cucumber and garnish with green onion.