MUZIChinese Matrix
Sichuan Cuisine · FFET10206
Glass noodles stir-fried with ground meat and chili bean paste, the meat clinging to the noodles like ants on tree branches.
A deep white porcelain bowl holds mung bean noodles coated in glossy reddish-brown sauce, with browned ground pork clinging to the strands, ginger, garlic and green scallion, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the bowl.
The regional cooking of Sichuan and Chongqing, known for its wide range of flavour types.
Ants climbing a tree is a Sichuan dish of mung bean glass noodles stir-fried with ground meat, usually beef, and chili bean paste. The name comes from the bits of meat clinging to the noodles, like ants on tree branches. The noodles are soaked, the meat is fried with ginger and bean paste, and stock is added so that the noodles take up the sauce. No dated text and no specific place of origin were found.
Ants climbing a tree is soaked mung bean glass noodles stir-fried with ground meat and seasoned with chili bean paste. The meat is usually beef; the 2 recipes use ground pork, or ground beef or pork.1,2,3,4
No dated text was found. The dish's connection to Guan Hanqing's Yuan-dynasty play Dou E's Injustice is a folk tale; there is no proof that the play mentions the dish, and the play itself was not checked.1,2,3,4
Sichuan. The dish is classified as Sichuan cuisine, with support from a 2002 cookbook. A specific place of origin is not identified.1,2
The glass noodles are soaked beforehand. The ground meat is fried with ginger and chili bean paste, stock is added, and the noodles go in for 1–2 minutes to take up the sauce.3,4
The name comes from the meat clinging to the noodles like ants on branches. The noodles resemble branches, and the other ingredients resemble leaves and ants. A folk tale also explains the name.1,2,3,4
No reviewed material measures how far the dish has spread; this entry rests on 2 home recipes published under their authors' names.3,4
Legend has it that a poor daughter-in-law named Dou E cooked ground pork with mung bean noodles for her sick mother-in-law. The old woman asked what the ants in the bowl were, and the young woman answered that it was ground pork.
Told in: A folk tale told in the introduction of a recipe article. The article ties it to Guan Hanqing's play Dou E's Injustice, but it gives no proof that the dish appears in the play, and the play was not checked.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the simpler way I make it at home, in the Sichuan style: the glass noodles are soaked, the ground meat and chili bean paste are fried before the noodles go in with the stock. The amounts and steps mainly follow the named recipe that uses ground pork and chicken stock. A second named recipe, which uses ground beef or pork, is my comparison, and I leave out the optional fermented black beans it mentions. How I fry the meat and how far I let the sauce reduce are my own judgment at home.
Allergens: soy, wheat
