Tan Tan is one of my favorite ramen. And a couple weeks ago I decided to check how hard it would be to make at home.
Turns out, it’s a super easy recipe, if you can get all the ingredients.
The recipe I used:
https://thewoksoflife.com/tan-tan-ramen/#recipe
The only change I did was to increase the amount of sesame paste by 50%
Sichuan pepper provides a numbing effect. It’s usually combined with spicy chili to make the Chinese “mala” taste.
The numbing effect was the most memorable part of my experience of trying tantanmen when I was in Japan a long time ago; I hadn’t encountered Sichuan pepper before that, so it was quite surprising!
If you’re getting the numbing effect then there’s some mixed into one of the ingredients you used. If not, you’re missing out on an interesting ingredient that you can use in the dish.