Traditional Chinese home cooking is a lot about having a general dish idea, and then using what you have in your kitchen to make it happen. It’s stress-free, there are no precision measurements to follow, and it works just as well here in California as it did back in my home province of Yunnan. I hear a lot of people find Chinese cooking daunting, especially when there are specific sauces or ingredients that are hard to find outside of China, but I’ve got a well-curated list of easy-to-source substitutions, and answers to all your other Chinese-cooking questions. So, I invite you to join me on Friday night as I cook dinner for my family – Chinese noodle soup for the soul (with a healthy green veggie pairing too, of course).

– Mei Zhang

Download the Recipe Card Here

Meet Mei Zhang

Mei Zhang is the founder of WildChina Travel, and author of Travels Through Dali: with a leg of ham.

She was born in Dali, Yunnan, and later moved to the United States where she completed her graduate studies at Harvard Business School and began a career in corporate consulting at McKinsey & Company.

Mei was recognized in The Daily Beast’s 2012 list of Women in the World for founding sustainable travel company WildChina, which has been a Conde Nast Traveler Top Travel Specialist winner several years running.