Ro Geng Mian (Ba Genh) - Pork, Bamboo, and Mushroom Noodle Soup

One of Bryan's favorite Taiwanese dishes is the pork noodle soup shown above. This very common Taiwanese dish is called "Ba Genh" in Taiwanese, or "Ro Geng Mian" in Mandarin, and consists of pork and fish paste nuggets in a thick soup flavored with black vinegar (or Worcestershire sauce), white pepper, mushrooms, and lots of cilantro.

This recipe is adapted from Taiwanese Homestyle Cooking by members of NATWA

Ingredients

6-10 dried mushroom pieces

1/2 lb pork butt or shoulder (can also use ground pork)

1/2 cup sliced bamboo shoots

1/2 lb prepared fish paste

6 cups water

2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

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Marinade

1 T soy sauce
1 egg, beaten
1 t salt
1 T sesame oil
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Soup flavoring

1 T minced garlic

1/2 t sesame oil

1/4 t white pepper (can add more to taste)

1 1/2 T Worcestershire sauce

1/2 cup cilantro (coarsely chopped)

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Mix 4T cornstarch with 4 T water and mix to form a milky liquid.

click image to see larger image

Preparation

Wash 6-10 dried mushrooms and soak in hot water until soft (about 10 minutes). Slice to desired size.
Drain and rinse 1/2 cup of sliced bamboo shoots.

1) Cut up about 1/2 lb of pork butt into 1/2 inch pieces.

2) Mix the pork together in a bowl with the marinade and marinate for at least 2 hours.

After marinating, mix the pork with the fish paste (available in the freezer sections of a lot of Asian grocery stores. I have bought this both at Super 88 and also at C-Mart).

Combine in a pot the water (6 cups), salt (2 tsp), sugar (1 tsp), mushrooms, and bamboo shoots. Bring the pot to a boil. Form a ~1 inch "nugget" with a piece of pork and some fish paste and drop it into the boiling water.

Boil until all the pork nuggets are floating. The soup will look a little something like this:

At this point, you can do one of two things. If you want the thick soup by itself, stir the thickener into the soup and bring to a boil. You can then add the soup flavoring agents. Feel free too adjust the flavors to taste. Serve with chopped cilantro on top.

Alternatively, you can boil some noodles and add it to the soup. I used fresh noodles (purchased from the refrigerator section of Asian supermarkets). Because fresh noodles give off a lot of starch, I was able omit the thickening agent since the soup was already pretty thick once I added the noodles.

Final product with noodles!