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
Hello. I havent tried this yet, but I have a question. In the ingredients, it says 2C. water or chicken stock, but no where in the directions does it state when to use this. Please specify! Thank you.
Hi Kathy,
It is used in step 4.
i have tried this yesterday ,its so good i love so much, was eating while speak to myself , i should make this early in my live. thx so much
You are the most welcome, Mai.
Soooooo good. Reminds me of ma’s Cooking.
I am new to cooking. How long do I soak the noodles for?
Around 10 to 15 minutes.
My mom is visiting me, and she cooked this very dish, and she told me “Ma yee san su” Apologies for the poor pin ying, as I am not a fluent Mandarin speaker, but it’s wonderful dish. Thank you for sharing this recipe. I am now making your black sesame candy tonight. So excited!
Happy cooking with your sesame candy and thanks so much for giving me such a great comment. Made me a day.
I haven’t made it yet, but this sounds like a dish that i’d really enjoy!
I have one question:
– Is it possible that you meant, “1 teaspoon SCALLION white , white part and green part minced separately”?
Scallions…sometimes called green onions…have white and green parts. Shallots however are more like small purple onions.
Yes,
It should be scallion. Sorry and thanks for the nice catch.
This recipe uses way too much vermicelli. Also please do not soak them before they go into the wok. They will not absorb any flavour at all and it will take you hours to reduce the massive amount of liquid this recipe calls to add in. Not good
Hi from Central Canada
I followed your recipe exactly and it turned out perfectly. All the credit is for you, of course 🙂
Thanks for this recipe and your entire site – i’m a big fan
Thank you, Stephen! Another comforting comment for sure. Happy cooking.
Very very good. Ground pork and beef in general has been rather expensive for some reason in our area recently, so I ended up using finely minced chicken this time, and it was still just as delicious. I also added some chopped celery and dried black mushrooms that I had on hand. The textures of slippery glass noodles, slightly crunchy celery, and always unique black mushrooms together were amazing. This is a very beautiful dish. I have always loved the creative name too.