Simple Yet Decadent, Scallion Oil Noodles Are Peak Jiangnan Comfort Food

Walk into a noodle shop (miàn guǎn, 面馆) on any street corner in China, and you’ll know where you are. Dan dan noodles (dàndànmiàn, 担担面) orient the traveler in Chengdu, hot dry noodles (règānmiàn, 热干面) in Wuhan, fried sauce noodles (zhájiàngmiàn, 炸酱面) in Beijing. In Shanghai, the local shops sling scallion oil noodles (cōngyóu bànmiàn, 葱油拌面). 

Scallion oil noodles, like the other aforementioned iconic noodle dishes, are a type of dry mixed noodle (bànmiàn, 拌面) that harken back to a shared origin as street foods sold by vendors carrying shoulder poles (whence the name dan dan mian, which means, literally, “bearing burden noodles”). Traditionally comprising just a handful of flavoring ingredients and no substantial quantities of vegetables or meat to speak of, these were the cheap and cheerful breakfasts and lunches of the working class. 

A common trait of these different styles of banmian is that they rely on powerful fermented sauces (jiàngs, 酱) for flavor. In Shanghainese cooking, also known as benbang cooking (běnbāng cài, 本帮菜), the starring jiang is soy sauce, particularly dark soy sauce. In English, we would describe benbang cai as dark, unctuous, glossy, balanced on a knife’s edge between sweet and savory. In Chinese, the tidy phrase 浓油赤酱 (nóngyóu chìjiàng) captures it: “thick oil, red sauce.” 

Scallion oil noodles, which have five—and only five—critical ingredients (scallions, fat, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and sugar), are a straightforward expression of this style. The soy sauce, wine and sugar are the benbang flavor backbone, and the soul of the dish comes from infusing fistfuls of fresh scallions in oil or fat until the aroma fills the entire room like a luxury candle.  

To learn more about the dish’s background, I spoke to Chris St. Cavish, an award-winning food writer and Shanghai resident of over 20 years who also happens to be working on a compendium of China’s noodles. He’s gone deep on scallion oil noodles, and after sampling them all over the city and cooking them himself dozens of times, he sees this dish as “just one of many children from Shanghai’s love affair with scallions.” Scallion, which grows year-round in the Yangtze delta, is the star ingredient in many Shanghainese cakes, pastries, savory dishes and even candies, as well as in scallion oil noodles’ soupy sister, Yángchūn noodles (阳春面). So it’s no wonder, then, that scallion oil noodles—the marriage of benbang saucework and the beloved local allium—is THE noodle dish we associate with Shanghai.  

When you have nothing in the fridge except for a wan bunch of scallions languishing in the crisper, reach for this recipe. The whole thing comes together in half an hour—10 minutes if you make the scallion oil sauce ahead of time. 

The Secret Ingredient to Scallion Oil Noodles: Pork Fat

This dish is one you smell with your mouth. Scallion oil is a ghost—you will not taste the bite or umami of the onion, but its scent compounds, carried by the oil, will surround and haunt the palate. Traditionally, this dish, like most other iconic Jiangnan dishes, was made with pork fat. Pork fat is solid at room temperature and therefore has a grippier hold on the noodles. Its mouthfeel is unparalleled. I tested this dish with just vegetable oil and with a mixture of both vegetable oil and pork fat, and the mixture with pork fat won handily. If you use high quality fully rendered pork fat, you will not taste pork (because that isn’t the point); you’ll simply achieve a greater alchemy out of your humble ingredients.

Ways to Tweak Your Scallion Oil Noodles…Or Not

Many versions of this dish call for garlic, shallots and other alliums to support the scallions. You could add them if you need to clean out the crisper, but this dish is really about simplicity and terroir. Onions, shallots and even garlic are fairly uncommon in Jiangnan home cooking, but lovely, delicate-stemmed scallions grow year-round. 

I feel torn about my decision to include oyster sauce—another non-canon ingredient in Jiangnan—in this recipe. It’s a cheat code for depth of flavor, but it puts us on a different philosophical path, one that prioritizes technical perfection. I do it because it ramps up the umami another notch, but feel free to omit. You could also swap it for a modest amount of dried shrimp, the small meaty ones; this is a common variation in both home and restaurant kitchens. Dice the shrimp and cook them with the scallion greens so that they, too, can infuse the oil.

Choosing the Best Noodles, Which May Not Be the Most “Authentic” Noodles

You want a straight, thin wheat noodle to make proper scallion oil noodles. In my local Chinese supermarkets, I have “Shanghai noodles” or “Yangchun noodles” readily available both dried and semi-fresh. These are interchangeable marketing terms for the noodles traditionally used for this dish, made of just wheat flour, salt and water. In the Shanghai region, people have a fascinating historical preference for noodles with a very soft bite. As Chris writes in his forthcoming book: 

“The Southern Song dynasty influx massively expanded wheat consumption in Jiangnan. Even before their arrival, wheat was grown in Jiangnan in a double-cropping rotation: rice in summer, wheat in winter. But the wheat best suited to this area’s soil, rainfall and growing window is traditionally soft and low-protein, which makes for more tender pastries, dumpling skins and…noodles. By contrast, northern and northwestern wheat varieties are hard and high-protein, better for breads and pulled noodles. So when the northerners arrived, they had to adapt, until eventually people’s preference for a softer texture matched the softer wheat.”

I like my noodles to have a bit more chew, so I prefer The Mala Market’s alkaline wheat noodles to Shanghai/Yangchun noodles and somen (which is the Japanese name for this style of non-alkalized noodle), even though they are “wrong.” Whatever style you choose, make sure the noodles are good quality, because cheap noodles will disintegrate easily and clump together. 

For more delicious non-soupy noodle options, check out Xueci’s Yibin Fresh-Chili Beef Noodles (Shengjiao Niurou Mian, 生椒牛肉面) and Yunnan Rice Noodles With Tofu (Douhua Mixian, 豆花米线) or Taylor’s Jisi Liangmian (鸡丝凉面): Cold Noodles ft. Shredded Chicken.