Fuchsia's emergency midnight noodles (Fu xia fang bian mian) from Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking (page 288) by Fuchsia Dunlop

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Ingredients

spring onions
Chinkiang vinegar
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Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

bbbtravels on September 21, 2025

I've made this many times with both noodles and leftover rice, and often crack in an egg or two either right after adding the sauces for more of a Pad Thai-ish egg situation. I rarely have chili oil on hand so instead slowly heat up some oil with crushed chili flakes while the noodles cook. Easy, quick, and tasty.
Delys77 on February 10, 2022

Made as directed except we omitted the olive vegetable as we had none. Overall very easy and quite tasty. I think it needs the runny egg personally as it makes it all very luscious, but I also went a bit lighter on the oil, not for heat but mostly for oiliness. I think given the few ingredients here, quality is also quite important as all the ingredients stand out.
corylavell on May 10, 2021

This is so very simple, but such a lovely back pocket cupboard-is-bare recipe with some of my favourite flavours. I’ve made it with buckwheat noodles and fresh and dried ramen noodles, and it’s always great. Some greens on the side make it a meal. The olive vegetable really makes it and is totally worth finding if you can - but I bet other green coloured pickles would be delicious if you’re not lucky enough to live close to a well stocked Asian grocery. Think chopped gherkins or pickled mustard greens.
excurvatus on July 28, 2019

This satisfied a noodle craving! Made with homemade chili oil, without scallions or olive vegetable (didn't have either) it was totally satisfying. I might do 150g noodles per person instead, would use up the extra sauce and be a bit more filling.
Rinshin on August 23, 2016

This simple noodle dish may be appropriate for those who love searing, hot, spicy, mind-blowing food. I reduced the amount of my own homemade chili oil with bits to half called for and it was way, way too spicy for me. Dunlop's taste must run towards very spicy foods and I'll remember next time to even notch down further on her recipes. Besides the searing heat, there really wasn't much going on with the taste because all I tasted was heat. I topped it with a fried egg as suggested and Japanese seaweed condiment (black) and takanazuke which is pickled mustard leaves since I did not have black olive vegetable shown on this photo.
Bloominanglophile on August 29, 2014

I just made this for my lunch with the optional fried egg and olive vegetable. All the flavors complemented each other beautifully--so glad I tried this! I also like how you can, if needed, mix each person's sauce to their taste in separate bowls. My daughter can't tolerate much spice, but this recipe makes that easy to deal with.
Zosia on February 08, 2014

Served with stir-fried choy sum (page 178) and topped with a fried egg, these flavourful noodles made a quick and delicious supper that was a nice change from my usual Italian-inspired pasta dishes.