Ants climbing a tree –cellophane noodles stir-fried with minced beef (蚂蚁上树) is a famous dish from Sichuan cuisine. It is hot, savory, and super easy to cook. You will love this lovely Sichuan dish.
About the name
This is a lovely story about the name, in In Guan Hanqing’s Dou E’s Injustice, the heroine’s mother-in-law was old and sick, lying in bed all day long. Dou E shouldered the responsibility of taking care of her. Although they were very poor, Dou E still wanted to cook delicious dishes for her mother-in-law with the wish of helping her recover. One day, she did not have enough money to buy pork but only a small piece. Backing home, Dou E minced a small amount of pork and stir-fried it with Chinese vermicelli. When serving this dish, the old lady asked why there were so many ants on it. The ants actually were the minced pork. After the explanation, the old lady gave the dish the name Ants climbing a tree. Nowadays, it has become quite popular in restaurants and daily kitchens.
Another possible reason for the name is to describe the texture of the dish. Minced pork is described as “ants” while the cellophane noodle is described as the “tree”.
The noodle
The noodle used in ants climbing a tree can be mung bean cellophane noodles (粉丝) made from mung bean starch. The name can be translated as bean thread noodles. Cellophane noodle is a big group in China and you may find them called as saifun outside China. In addition to these mung bean cellophane noodles, we also have cellophane noodles made from yams like sweet potato cellophane noodles. Sometimes, you may find they have named glass noodles as they will become transparent after cooking.
You can use both sweet potato glass noodle which is quite popular in Korean cuisine too or simply use mung bean glass noodles.
🥘 Ingredients breakdown
- Glass noodles- either sweet potato starch noodles or mung bean starch noodles.
- Doubanjiang– the soul of Sichuan food, giving this dish a mild spicy flavor.
- Aromatics- ginger and garlic, enhance the flavors.
- Light soy sauce- provides a basic savory taste
- Dark soy sauce- darken the color, but need to spare the amount.
- Minced pork – is working as a flavor enhancer and our ants.
- Sugar- helps to combine all of the flavors together.
- dou-chi fermented black beans give the dish a lovely nutty flavor. You can skip this if you don’t have it by hand.
Instructions
Marinade the minced beef or pork with a pinch of salt. Then finely chop the ground meat so we can have more ants and improve the texture.
Soak Chinese vermicelli in warm water until soft around 10 minutes Move out and drain.
Heat up oil in a wok and fry the ground pork until aroma and crispy.
Add doubanjiang, minced garlic, sliced ginger, douchi if using and chopped scallion in a wok and stir-fry over medium fire until the oil becomes red and you can smell the aroma.
Add soaked vermicelli, and add around 1 cup of water. Heat until it thickened once again. Add light soy sauce, dark doy sauce, and sugar. Give a big stir-fry to mix everything well. (There is no need to cook off all the liquid as the vermicelli continues to adsorb liquid after transferring out).
Ants Climbing a Tree-vermicelli recipe
Ingredients
- 200 g mung bean vermicelli
- 1 cup minced beef or pork
- pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 1 tablespoon Doubanjiang
- 1/2 tsp. dou-chi , optional
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp. dark soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon scallion white , white part and green part minced separately
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 cup water or chicken stock
Instructions
- Marinade the minced beef or pork with pinch of salt. Soak Chinese vermicelli in warm water until soft around 10 minutes Move out and drain.
- Heat up oil in wok and fry the ground pork until aromatic and crispy.
- Add doubanjiang, minced garlic, dou-chi if using, sliced ginger and chopped scallion in wok and stir-fry over medium fire until the oil becomes red and you can smell the aroma.
- Add soaked vermicelli, and add around 1 cup of water. Heat until it thickened once again. Add light soy sauce, dark doy sauce, and sugar. Give a big stir-fry to mix everything well. (There is no need to cook off all the liquid as the vermicelli continues to adsorb liquid after transferring out).
- Sprinkle chopped green onions and serve hot.
Nutrition
I made this dish for dinner tonight and it was so delicious! I am Chinese, but where I live there is very few options for authentic and homestyle Chinese food. Thanks for blogging – I am very excited to try all of your recipes!
Thanks Kat for stopping by and your warm not. I am so glad you love this dish the same as me.
I took Chinese cooking classes many years ago from a woman who grew up in Harbin. She made a dish called “braised green onions with 3 meats.” The dish had white meat chicken, pork and shrimp, plus Hoisin sauce and, of course, green onions. Have you heard of such a recipe ? I can’t find it any where. Also, I’ve tried your mapo tofu and your eggplant, potato and green pepper dish. All loved these 2 dishes–thanks!
Hi Bill,
I am quite sorry that I do not think I ever heard or tasted the dish you are referring. Sorry that I did not help. I will keep searching for sure.
Elaine! This looks so amazing! That steam coming off of the dish is a great capture! Going to try this dish in the future and will let you know how it goes!
Thanks Frances. That day is quite cool so I get the steam recorded. Happy cooking!
Hi Elaine,
I really love your recipes. My parents are from China, though I didn’t grow up there and now I’m trying to learn to cook authentic Chinese dishes.
I was wondering, would this dish make a good cold dish? Like a salad? That way I could make it beforehand, put it in the fridge, and then take it to a friend’s house.
Looking forward to your reply. Please keep posting your wonderful recipes 🙂
Hi Sophie,
We do have a salad version using vermicelli. But I am not sure whether this one can be a cold dish as there are fried beef and using Doubanjiang. If you love to make it as a cold version, replace doubanjiang with chili oil, skip fried beef and add some leaves vegetables like spinach or root vegetable like shredded potato. I will make a cold version soon.
I grew up not loving glass noodles. My whole family loves it except me. When my grandma fries it during Chinese New Year, I’d never eat it. How funny things changed and I love it so so much. Yours looks spectacular. 🙂
Thanks Ai Ping.
This happens to many people. We call those ingredients as half live ingredients like coriander, green onion, celery and others. I have a friend who never eat coriander and celery before his twenties, but he is crazy about them now.
Hi
Is Doubanjiang simple chilli bean paste?
Thanks,
Caroline
Hi Caroline,
yes, it is Chinese chili bean paste.
Can I use black bean paste + chilli oil as a substitute?
Sounds good.
Hi, I really love the history about the dishes that you write for the blog. Thank you!
Thanks Scott for your lovely feedback. I will bring more interesting history stores along with the recipes.
I am so thrilled to have found your blog, I has been looking for authentic Chinese recipes for a long time. I am making this tonight, I can’t wait!!! The pictures are so wonderful on all of your recipes.
I am wanting to make this but I am having a hard time finding doubanjiang. What would be a good substitute?
Hi Stephanie,
Doubanjiang is the most essential seasoning. I do not suggest skipping it. If there is no way to get doubanjiang, you can add more soy sauce but you will end up with another homestyle cellophane stir fry dish.
Totally agree- if possible get Pixian la (missing the accent) doubanjiang. (the “la”
indicates it is “spicy” doubanjaing- there are added medium heat peppers during
fermentation.) Amazon currently sells a very nice version of it that keeps well in
the refrigerator. It is worth it- I’ve made this dish for over 20 years and it is only
in the last year (when I go the made in Pixian product) that I realized how tasteless
the imitations were. Pixian is the name of a city very famous for the quality of this product.