The Szechuan Original Soup Noodle 清湯炸醬麵 at Tofu Village in the Outer Sunset is a soup version of Northern Chinese Zhajiangmian. Noodles, greens, and broth laid on the bottom of the bowl, and the top had sliced scallions and a large portion of meat sauce (soft ground pork, sweet bean paste, and some other savory ingredients).
Zhajiangmian is generally a heavy dish, so I appreciated how presenting it as a soup lightened everything and kept the salty and savory elements from overpowering the wheat noodles. The server tried to steer me toward the Dan Dan noodles, and I was glad I resisted the temptation to take her advice. It was the perfect lunch for a chilly day.
In terms of categorization, I’m curious to hear how this compares to the Zhajiangmian soups at Spicy Town in Fremont and Chengdu Style in Berkeley. There are no pieces of tofu in the sauce or cucumber garnish as in Northern versions of zhajiangmian, and it’s not at all spicy or numbing. I didn’t taste any Sichuan chili bean paste (doubanjiang), which a Sichuan based blogger says is added to versions of zhajiangmian in Sichuan province. This doesn’t appear to be the soup-less Sichuan zhajiangmian Jonathan Gold described at LA’s Mian or the za jiang mian 杂酱面 Jay Friedman described in Lucky Peach.
