San Francisco Garlic Noodles

Chef John's take on the legendary Thanh Long garlic noodles — butter, a mountain of garlic, an umami "secret sauce", and Parmesan.

From the Food Wishes episode · original blog post

Scale the recipe

Servings:

Salt warning. The sauces vary in saltiness by brand, and scaled-up batches compound it. Mix the full sauce, but toss in only ~¾ of it, taste, and add the rest only if needed.

Ingredients

AmountIngredient

Process diagram

Cooking for Engineers style process-flow diagram: sauce ingredients whisk together, garlic cooks in butter, sauce joins the garlic butter, boiled noodles are tossed in, Parmesan finishes, green onion and chili flakes garnish.
Read left to right: each row is an ingredient stream, each merged cell is a step that combines them. Click to open full size.

Detailed method

  1. Mise en place first — this dish moves fast. Mince the garlic finely (a garlic press works; you want it near-paste so it melts into the butter). Grate the Parmesan. Slice the green onions. Once the pan starts, there is no time to prep.
  2. Whisk the secret sauce. In a small bowl combine the soy sauce, oyster sauce, Worcestershire, fish sauce, sesame oil, and cayenne (amounts ). Whisk until the oyster sauce fully dissolves. Set it next to the stove.
  3. Boil the noodles. Drop egg noodles into a large pot of well-salted boiling water. Cook until just tender — a shade before al dente, since they finish in the pan. Before draining, scoop out about of the starchy noodle water. Drain; do not rinse.
  4. Cook the garlic in butter — gently. While the noodles boil, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook 1–2 minutes, stirring constantly. It should sizzle softly and smell sweet; the moment any edge turns golden, pull the pan off the heat. Browned garlic turns the whole dish bitter.
  5. Add the sauce. Pour about ¾ of the secret sauce into the garlic butter and stir. It will bubble and thicken slightly in a few seconds. Keep the rest of the sauce for adjusting later.
  6. Toss in the noodles. Add the drained noodles and a splash of the reserved noodle water. Toss with tongs over medium heat until every strand is coated and glossy, 1–2 minutes. If it looks tight or greasy, another splash of noodle water brings the sauce back together.
  7. Finish with Parmesan. Off the heat, add grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and keep tossing until it melts into the sauce. Done when the noodles are shiny and the sauce clings instead of pooling. Taste now — this is where you add the held-back sauce if it needs more punch.
  8. Garnish and serve immediately. Pile into bowls, top with green onion and chili flakes. These noodles wait for no one; the sauce tightens as they cool.

Protein topping

Classic pairing: roasted Dungeness crab — how Thanh Long serves these noodles. Seared scallops or lobster tail also work; skip delicate white fish, the noodles will steamroll it.