Chengdu Tomato & Fried Egg Noodles

Cut the 300 g of pork belly into roughly 4 mm sheets, then cut those sheets into thirds to get strips. Mix them with 1/8 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp MSG and 1/2 tsp soy sauce, then coat everything with about 3 tbsp of oil.

💡 Oiling the pork before it goes anywhere near heat sounds backwards when the point is to render fat out. It is a head start — a little oil in a cold pan gets the heat into the meat evenly instead of scorching the first strips to touch the metal.

Put the pork into a cold wok or pot and set it over a medium flame. Fry it slowly for 15–20 minutes to render out as much fat as you can. Lift the crispy pork onto a paper-towel-lined plate and keep the lard.

💡 A cold start is the whole method. Drop pork belly into an already-hot pan and the outside seizes shut, trapping the fat inside — which is the one thing this recipe cannot afford, since the lard is the base of the soup AND the frying medium for the eggs.

Separate the whites and greens of the 4 scallions. Slice the greens and keep them back as a topping. Finely mince the whites together with the 4 cloves of garlic and the inch of ginger.

Cut a small x into the 450 g of fresh tomato and drop them into boiling water for about 1 minute, until the peel starts coming away. Peel them and cut into rough chunks.

Put the peeled tomato into a blender with the 175 g of canned tomato, 1/2 cup of water, 1/4 tsp salt and 1 tbsp of Shaoxing wine. Blend on a smoothie setting until it is genuinely smoothie-smooth.

💡 Blending is not a shortcut here, it is the shop's actual texture. CCD note the Chengdu noodle shops' soup has no chunkiness at all — it is obvious to them the tomatoes are blended.

In a pot, warm 4 tbsp of the rendered lard and add the minced garlic, ginger and scallion whites. Fry over a medium flame for 1–2 minutes, until fragrant.

Add the 1 tbsp of tomato paste and the 1 tsp of mild red chili powder, and fry for about a minute until the oil takes on their colour.

💡 Frying the paste before the liquid goes in is what separates a deep, roasted tomato flavour from a raw, tinny one. The chili powder here is for colour and fragrance rather than heat — CCD call it optional but recommended.

Pour in the blended tomato. If it is frothy, let it bubble on medium-high for a few minutes until the foam subsides.

Add the 2 cups of water or stock, 1/2 tbsp sugar, 1 tsp chicken bouillon powder, 1/2 tsp MSG, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp white pepper. Mix well and simmer for at least 30 minutes.

💡 'At least' 30 minutes, and CCD mean it — this is where a thin tomato liquid turns into a soup with body. Meanwhile the pork is resting and you have time for everything else.

Season to taste: a little salt if it is not salty enough, or a little more sugar if your tomatoes came out sour. Keep it warm while you sort everything else.

💡 This is the one place to actually taste and adjust, because tomatoes vary wildly. The sugar is not making the soup sweet — it is correcting acidity.

Make the pickled-chili-oil substitute: finely mince the 15 g of fresh chilis with the 3 cloves of garlic, and fry them in 1.5 tbsp of oil over a medium flame for about 2 minutes, until the chilis start to dry out a touch. Mix in 1/2 tbsp of rice vinegar and keep it in a bowl.

💡 The vinegar going in off the heat is what fakes the 'pickled' in pickled chili oil. CCD point out the real shop, Kangji, sells this oil over the counter because customers kept asking for it.

Fry the eggs. Per serving, crack 2 eggs into something easy to pour from — a Pyrex jug is ideal — being very careful not to break the yolks.

💡 CCD are specific about the unbroken yolk: break it and the egg turns oily. In half a cup of smoking lard, a burst yolk simply drinks the fat.

Heat a round-bottomed wok until very hot, swirl in 1/2 cup of the rendered lard, and take it over a medium-high flame until the fat is smoking. Slide the eggs in — they will puff up almost at once. Swirl gently so they cook evenly, and spoon hot lard over the yolks to set them.

💡 Smoking lard sounds alarming and is exactly right. That violent heat is what blisters the white into the frilly golden edges the whole dish is designed around — CCD describe those nooks and crannies as perfect for absorbing the soup.

Once the yolk is mostly set — about 1 minute — flip. Cook about 45 seconds on the other side, then flip again and take the eggs out once they are as brown as you like them. Drain the excess oil and set them on paper towel.

Boil the noodles — 100 g dried per serving — until roughly al dente. CCD's Sichuan-style noodles took about 4 minutes, but follow your own packet. Drain and put them straight into the serving bowls.

Build the bowl: noodles, then the two fried eggs on top, then smother everything with the tomato soup. Finish with the crispy pork belly, the scallion greens, a sprinkle more white pepper, and about 1/2 tbsp of the pickled chili oil.

💡 Pour the soup over the eggs, not under them. The eggs are meant to sit in it and soak — that is the entire architecture of the bowl.