This homestyle Cantonese dish pairs scrambled eggs and shrimp with ginger, garlic, and Chinese chives—a classic flavor base in Chinese cooking. Brining the shrimp with baking soda helps keep them plump and tender. Not in the mood for shrimp? You could easily make the dish with roast pork, or no meat at all.

One of the problems with ordering dan dan noodles at a Chinese restaurant is that you never know exactly what you'll get. Are they gonna deliver the hardcore Sichuan version swimming in red-hot chile oil and laced with pickled zha cai (mustard root) and mouth-numbing Sichuan peppercorns? Or can you expect the equally delicious but totally different Chinese-American version with more pork, a vinegary soy-based sauce, perhaps some greens, and a sprinkling of peanuts?

The pork is the odd man out in the traditional recipe. Fortunately, much like with the beef in Sichuan mapo tofu, the pork is not the star player of the dish. Its role is mainly textural, adding a bit of meaty, bouncy chew that clings to the slippery noodles as you slurp them up. Having already addressed an identical issue when finding a suitable replacement for ground beef in my vegan mapo tofu recipe, I knew what I had to do here: I chopped up a bunch of mushrooms in a food processor, then employed the Chinese technique of dry-frying—cooking them slowly in oil—until they were mostly dehydrated, lightly shriveled, and deeply browned. The resulting little nuggets have great texture and a flavor that is not really pork-like, but savory and rich in its own unique way.

The remaining aromatics are simple. A few tablespoons of chopped preserved Sichuan mustard root, some garlic, and a splash of Shaoxing wine to deglaze the skillet once it's all been stir-fried together.

Cumin lamb falls into a wholly different category, however. Given that it's slightly rich, has that wonderful cumin spice yet remains quasi-delicate on the palate, there are countless great pairings for this dish. Anything from S. Rhone/Languedoc stuff, to Cornas, to Loire Cab Franc, to Sangiovese, to Nebbiolo, to Burgundy... there are so many choices. Favorites of mine include the Cab Francs from Baudry (A bargain!), Montevertine "Pian de Ciampolo" from Tuscany, older Bordeaux (mostly left bank or Pomerol) and also the wines of Leon Barral. The Barral wines are magic."— Collin Casey, Namu Gaji (San Francisco)

Cooking fresh Chinese wheat noodles in a big pot of water doesn't produce a high enough concentration of starch to be effective, but cooking it in far less water than is recommended (I cook eight ounces of fresh noodles in about a quart of salted water) yields you a pot full of silky, semi-opaque liquid that combines marvelously with the sauce base.

One of the secrets to making a restaurant-style stir-fry is water-velveting —marinating meat with egg white, wine, and cornstarch, then blanching it, allows it to achieve an almost unnatural level of silkiness. This recipe shows off the technique, pairing water-velveted chicken with savory oyster sauce and both fresh and rehydrated dried mushrooms.

The second great thing about making dan dan noodles—it's an exceedingly simple dish to make. Once you've put together your roasted chile vinaigrette (which holds for months in the fridge, by the way), it's just a matter of cooking your noodles, frying your chopped pork, and throwing everything together.

This take on fried rice looks to the sea for inspiration—we make the dish with fresh crab (if you can get it; use canned if you can't) and season it with fish sauce. We tend to prefer jasmine, medium-grain white, or sushi rice for this and all our fried rice recipes. Long-grain rice works, but it doesn't get the same chewy-tender texture as shorter varieties.

"A lot of people like sparkling wines with really robust, spicy noodle food history|https://noodleinsight.com/ because it is clean and the bubbles accentuate the dish's spice. On the other hand, if the food is really spicy, I love wines that help to tame the fire and have relatively low alcohol (chances are, I'll be drinking a lot of it very quickly!); my favorites are classic Mosel kabinett or spätlese rieslings. For sweeter dishes, especially ones that showcase crispy duck or pork, I'm a huge fan of cru Beaujolais. For either category, try to find wines from classic vintages and quality-minded producers. The more specific the site, the better; if the most you know of the wines provenance is "Mosel", it might be a good opportunity to dig deeper to find one with a town and vineyard designation. The wine will reward you."— Eamon Rockey, formerly of Aska (Brooklyn)

Yes, these are derivative of jalapeño poppers, but jalapeños are great, refried beans are great, and golden brown and crunchy is great, so why not stick them all together? Crisp on the outside and creamy in the middle, they come out of the fryer super hot, so make sure you've got plenty of cold beer on-hand.

"Depending on the preparation, you've got lots of options. Ma po tofu, for instance, works with a lot more than Riesling. Recently, we had some of the Barbieto "Savannah Verdelho" Madeira with it, and while it was a bizarre idea at the onset, it was completely nuts with the dish. Generally the sweetness in the sauces of mushu and Peking duck make for potentially awful non-riesling pairings. If the kitchen at your particular restaurant has a deft hand, Peking duck can be great with juicy cru Beaujolais or juicy Grenache-based wines, like those from Grammenon. There are some non-Riesling options for mushu, but honestly, this is an example of why Riesling is such a steadfast go-to wine.