Immanent Noodles (A Guide) by Melanie Xu

My mum initially made these as an approximation to Xiao Mian (which enjoyably translates as “Small Noodles”) but we were limited by what was available in Newcastle in the 90s and how many Sichuan peppercorns we hoarded back from China. Completely oblivious to this scarcity as a child, I would ask for “mian” all the time. So mum would make the noodles wi…