About the dan dan noodles (aka dandan noodles, dun dun noodles or dandan mian)
First of all, let me tell you that
dan dan noodles is only one of the names of this Chinese dish. Let me show you the others (English, Chinese, etc.), because it'll be more useful for you (not just for your culinary and/or Chinese knowledge, but also for your information searching online and offline about it). Here comes the list:
- dan dan noodles
- dandan noodles
- dun dun noodles
- dun dun mian
- dan dan mian
- dandan mian
- tan tan noodles
- tantan noodles
- tan tan mian
- tantan mian
- dan dan mein
- dandan mein
- tan tan mein
- tantan mein
- dun dun mein
- dundun mein
- 担担面 (in simplified Chinese)
- 擔擔麵 (in traditional Chinese)
- dàndànmiàn; dàndàn miàn; dàn dàn miàn (in Pinyin)
- daam1 daam 1 min6 (in Jyutping, i. e. this is the Cantonese pronunciation)
- dàndār miàn (Chengdu pronunciation, Sichuanese dialect)
- 탄탄면 (in Korean)
- 担担麺 (in Japanese)
Dan dan noodles photograph
If you never saw
dan dan noodles I'll show you a photograph and you'll be able to recognize this dish in future:
By Steven G. Johnson - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4381140 (Dan-dan (dun-dun) noodles served at a Sichuan restaurant in Shanghai, China.)
Facts about this Chinese dish
Dan dan noodles is a noodle dish originating from Chinese Sichuan cuisine. It consists of a spicy sauce containing preserved vegetables (often including zha cai (榨菜), lower enlarged mustard stems, or ya cai (芽菜), upper mustard stems), chili oil, Sichuan pepper, minced pork, and scallions served over noodles...
The name refers to a type of carrying pole (dan dan) that was used by walking street vendors who sold the dish to passers-by. The pole was carried over the shoulder, with two baskets containing noodles and sauce attached at either end. As the noodles were affordable due to their low cost, the local people gradually came to call them dandan noodles, referencing the street vendors. Literally, the name translates as "noodles carried on a pole", but may be better translated as "peddler's noodles"... Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandan_noodles (Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License).
More about the Sichuan cuisine
If you want to know more dishes from the Sichuan cuisine (in Chinese: 四川菜), you may read it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_cuisine.
At the end: about the Chinese cuisine:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Chinese-cuisine.