I didn't cook this, but it makes me think about cooking aesthetics/cuisine.

炸酱面 zhajiangmian from one of a dwindling number of "cash only" places in the San Gabriel Valley, one of those places where the old auntie speaks no English and they just serve a limited menu of non-trendy food cooked they way they like it and assume you must like it that way, too. (Kam Hong 家乡in Monterey Park.)

For me (subjective taste alert!—I believe it's allowed) this is the kind of ideal taste aesthetic for Chinese food. Vibrant, fresh. A lot of Chinese-American restaurant food is soul-crushing not because it's "inauthentic," and not because dish X or dish Y technically does or does not exist in China in way A or way B, but because it misses the mark of Chinese "taste aesthetics." There needs to be a good balance of fragrant, fresh, texture, moisture, oil etc. It's the polar opposite of those viral British Chinese takeaway plates, which are not far from the so-called "New York Chinese food" that transplants to California complain about not being able to locate. Green food vs brown food.

Anyway, as to cooking— One thing of note is using only huang dou jiang, no tian mian jiang, in the sauce. The sauce includes not only meat but also diced pressed tofu / 豆干. Tomatoes aren't standard in zhajiangmian, but totally make sense. The noodles are home-made. Homemade personal touches that fall within the range of a dish that has a lot of variations while still hitting the target of what the dish is about.

What do you think?