Tag Archives: Chinese noodle recipe

A Clever, Distinctive Riff on Lasagna

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Get ready for the incredible dan dan lasagna.
Get ready for the incredible dan dan lasagna.

Chances are this will be the most unique lasagna you’ve ever sunk your teeth into.

That’s because in this version, the classic Italian dish veers Chinese — big-time.

The expected wide, frilly noodles with tomato sauce, abundant ground pork, and loads of stretchy cheese are there. But so are numbing Sichuan peppercorns, spicy chili oil, fragrant five-spice powder, and salty, funky preserved mustard greens.

Meet you new bestie, “Dan Dan Lasagna.”

This inventive recipe is from “Kung Food” (Clarkson Potter, 2023), of which I received a review copy. It was written by culinary content creator, and TikTok, YouTube and Instagram sensation, Jon Kung.

Born in Los Angeles, raised in Hong Kong and Toronto, and now living in Detroit, he pivoted from hosting pop-ups during the pandemic to growing a social media presence. His food emanates from what he calls his third-culture kitchen, seasoned and flavored by his personal experience as the child of immigrants who grew up in a new culture adopted by his parents. Feeling neither wholly American or Chinese, Kung considers his cooking American Chinese, or Third-Culture Chinese, a blend unique to his own upbringing.

The result is a collection of 100 recipes that tantalize with fun and flair, such as “SELT (Spam, Egg, Lettuce, and Tomato)” sandwich, “Spaghetti and Lion’s Head Meatballs,” “A Clay Pot Inspired By Jollof Rice,” “Hong Kong Chicken and Waffles,” and “Chile Chipotle Mango Pudding.”

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Cacio E Pepe Goes Sichuanese

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Cacio e pepe goes Asian with Sichuan pepper.
Cacio e pepe goes Asian with Sichuan pepper.

Fly By Jing’s chili crisp and Zhong dumpling sauces are mainstays in my fridge because they are the perfect finish to so many dishes.

So when founder Jing Gao debuted her cookbook, “The Book of Sichuan Chili Crisp” (Ten Speed Press),” I couldn’t wait to leaf through it.

The book, of which I received a review copy, takes its title from the delicious “fly” (hole-in-the-wall) street-food eateries that Gao and her parents would grab a bite to eat at in Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan region.

Her father, a nuclear physics professor with a Chinese visa, moved the family around annually for his job. Sichuan food became the one constant in Gao’s life. And it became her calling after she left the corporate business world to start Baoism, her own restaurant in Shanghai that operated for two years. All the while, she kept refining the condiments that were her cooking touchstones.

After traveling to a natural foods trade show in California, and discovering the dearth of Asian food brands that existed, she launched Fly by Jing in 2018 through a Kickstarter campaign. Today, these popular products are sold in Whole Foods, Target, and Costco.

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