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Taiwan Chao Main

A stir‑fried noodle dish with pork, mushrooms, onions, bean shoots, and herbs.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Taiwan Chao Main

Timeabout 50 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak noodles as recommended on the packet in boiling water, then strain in a colander. Take care not to overcook.

Make the meat sauce

  1. Fry garlic, then add pork mince and five spice powder, frying the spice to enhance flavour.

  2. Add mushrooms and soy sauce, then a pinch of sugar and enough water to cover the meat. Cover and simmer for about 50 minutes before adding the onions for a further 10 minutes.

Stir-fry and serve

  1. In a wok, heat some oil to a high heat and lightly stir-fry the spring onions, then add the carrot sticks. Add additional soy sauce and a cup of boiling water.

  2. Add noodles and toss through the mixture in the wok.

  3. Add bean shoots and garlic chives. Toss together and serve on a large plate.

  4. Pour meat sauce over the noodles and garnish with coriander leaves.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

714Calories
37 gProtein
28 gFat
78 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 13 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pork100g cooked242
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Chive1 tbsp (3g)1
Waternot in our table0
Beannot in our table0
Coriandernot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Garlic + mushroomtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,700 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Pork + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  4. Rice + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,515 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fine rice noodles
Form the bulk of the dish and absorb the sauce as they are tossed through.
Fatty minced pork
Provides richness and savoury flavour, with fat carrying the spice aroma through the sauce.
Light soy sauce
Adds salty, savoury depth and colours the sauce and noodles.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows and sweetens as it fries.
Chinese five spice powder
Adds warm, aromatic flavour, bloomed in the fat to release its aroma.
Chinese mushrooms
Add earthy, umami flavour and chewy texture to the meat sauce.

The step that matters

Do not overcook the noodles. Fine rice noodles keep softening after draining and in the hot wok, so overcooked noodles turn mushy and clump. Cooking them just until tender leaves enough texture to hold up to tossing.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, garlic, pork, mushroom, sauce, sugar, onion):

  1. Gingerfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, garlic, pork, mushroom, sauce, sugar, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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