hello hi everyone! Wesley here. Today we're diving back into our series on foods from the Bay Area restaurant scene with a request that a few folks from the Oakland subreddit have been asking for, which is the Hot and Spicy Chow Mein from the one and only, absolutely legendary noodle and dumpling shop, Shan Dong in Oakland, CA.

For the Bay Area locals that are not familiar, Shan Dong is a LONG time staple of the Oakland restaurant scene, offering hand made noodles, dumplings, and Chinese comfort food right in the heart of Oakland Chinatown. While their Hot and Spicy Chow Mein may at first glance look like a pretty typical chow mein (with its inclusion of carrots, zucchini, and onion, paired with a dark soy sauce noodle marinade), it is unique not only because it can be ordered featuring Shan Dong's handmade noodles, but also because of their approach to creating the "hot and spicy" qualities that the dish's name promises. Today we'll be doing this with a combination of Chinese fermented chili paste "doubanjiang," lao gan ma "chili crisp oil," and my personal favorite, a healthy handful of dried toasted tian jin peppers. Hope you try it.

It will be out on Friday August 13, 2021, so bookmark the recipe here, and be sure to subscribe and hit the bell on YouTube to get notified when it’s out!

Woo Can Cook is a series where we reproduce fun foods and recipes from my childhood. Some of them are authentically Chinese and/or pan-Asian, but a lot of them are odd Americanized versions that I inherited from my parents and grandparents while growing up in the Bay Area/California.

We're live streaming every Tues/Thurs at 6:30PM PST, with new recipes out every Friday!