For many people with multicultural experiences, cooking is one way to evoke a culture that’s absent. Unsurprisingly, there are a couple of dishes that immediately transport me back to places in China; and in summertime, one bowl of cold noodles lightens up my Sinologist heart, bringing back hot, sweaty summer days in some backwater provincial capital.

One recipe that I make every summer is “怪味凉面” (guaiwei liangmian, “cold strange flavor noodles”). The closest to match my memories¹ comes from a YouTube cooking channel: Two chefs cook on camera, commenting in a heavy Beijing accent, and even livestream events like their New Year’s banquet at home.

Interestingly, I haven’t found any well-translated authentic recipes of “怪味凉面” yet, and as we are very much headed towards more scorching summers, people here in Europe might enjoy this dish too, minus the cultural flashback. Here’s a translated version of the video – note that a lot of Chinese cooking follows the rule of thumb and rarely follows exact measurements. The proportions given are something I figured out through other recipes.

Ingredients

Makes about 2-3 portions.

• 2 tbsp Chinese sesame paste
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark rice vinegar
• Sesame oil, to taste
• Seasoning: Salt, MSG, sugar, ground Sichuan pepper, white sesame seeds, all to taste
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• Small scallion, chopped
• 1/3 cucumber
• Wheat noodles, per person ca. 60-70g

Notes:

• Use Chinese sesame paste, as it’s prepared differently from tahini. If you can’t find it, tahini works too, but might affect consistency when combined with the soy sauce and rice vinegar.
• MSG is not needed, but mentioned in the video. Switzerland uses Aromat instead, but please don’t use that.
• Noodles are a topic in and of themselves. You can use ramen noodles, even spaghetti or soba noodles, but the taste will be different and the sauce sticks differently to each type.
• The base paste without any fresh ingredients (no ginger, no scallions) lasts about 10-15 days in the fridge according to the video.

Procedure

1. Cook the noodles until al-dente, rinse them in cold water and drain. Arrange in 2-3 bowls.
2. Chop the cucumber into thin strips (here’s a cutting technique).
3. Slowly add the soy sauce to the sesame paste, continuously stirring. The sauce will change consistency; once it starts turning creamy, add the rice vinegar. In the end, the sauce should have a creamy consistency.
4. Add the seasoning, mix well.
5. Add ginger, scallions and the sesame oil, mix well.
6. Arrange cucumber on top of noodles, cover with sauce.
7. To taste: mix some sesame oil with chili oil, drizzle over.
8. Enjoy!

When my sauce gets too thick, I add it to the bottom of the bowl. The lukewarm noodles will turn the sauce creamy and easy to mix.

More Recipes!

Before YouTube and the Internet, there were recipe books, so I carried armfuls of them back home to recreate all the flavors I loved. However, Europe is not the place to get donkey meat or some fancy plant; and I always struggled to translate these recipes into my European context.

Here are two websites that my Chinese cooking is based on, as they come close to all the tastes that I miss:

Red House Spice: Wei Guo is based in England and is my go-to source for Chinese cooking. She manages to keep all the delicious flavors while also working within the limits of our supermarkets.

The Woks of Life: The Leung family is based in the US and is my other important source. Some of their recipes are only possible because the US has many more Asian grocery stores with a wider selection, especially when it comes to fresh produce. Some other recipes are influenced by US culture (“Chinese take-out”), written with a US audience in mind.

Last modified on 2026-06-27