Din Tai Fung Cucumber Salad Copycat (凉拌黄瓜)
Adding to the cucumber salad recipes on 3Jamigos, I recently came across a copycat of Din Tai Fung’s cucumber appetizer. Just in case you aren’t familiar with Din Tai Fung. It is a global restaurant conglomerate from Taiwan that specializes in noodles and dumplings. There’s one in the Valley Fair mall in San Jose. The running joke in my house is wild horses could not drag me to a mall, I hate shopping. But put a RamenNagi, a Somi Somi, a Marugame Udon, or a Din Tai Fung there? I’m all in, Babee. It’s off to the mall we go.
I love cucumbers as a side dish to a rice bowl like Taiwanese Pork Belly Rice, Lu Rou Fan or Jia Yi Turkey Rice. Perfect as a Banchan or appetizer at Korean BBQ. It’s crispy and refreshing, the ideal way to balance a meal.
Cucumber Madness
Ok, confession time. My mom taught me how to draw the bitterness out of a cucumber by doing the following. Cut the end of the cucumber off, take that end piece, and place it back on the end, kinda like putting it back together, and rub the exposed side of the cucumber with the cut end. Apparently, this draws the bitterness out of the cucumber. Does this make sense? Don’t know, but my mom told me always to do it so I do. If nothing else, cut off the ends of the cucumber and throw those out. I hear that’s where the bitterness is concentrated. Do you rub the ends of cucumbers? Enquiring minds want to know. 😉
Here are two other refreshing cucumber recipes from the 3jamigos archives…yep, crazy for cukes.
Cool Hand Cuke (Cucumber Salad from A Common Table)
Cool as a Cucumber Banchan (Simple Asian Cucumber Salad)
And now, try this one…a take on Din Tai Fung’s Cucumber Salad. 凉拌黄瓜真的很好吃!
Cucumber Salad Din Tai Fung Wannabe
Ingredients
The Star
- 1 lb cucumber Persian or English
- 1/2 tbsp kosher salt
The Dressing
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 2 cloves garlic minced or grated
- 1/2 tbsp chili oil or chili crisp
- 1/2 tbsp sesame oil
Garnish
- Toasted white sesame seeds
- thinly sliced green onions (scallions)
Instructions
- Slice cucumbers into ½” rounds and place in a large bowl or colander. Sprinkle with salt and let sit for 30 minutes.
- Rinse off the salt with water and place cukes on a paper towel. Pat cucumbers as dry as possible.
- In a bowl, mix together soy sauce, rice vinegar, sugar, grated garlic, chili oil and sesame oil.
- Add dry cucumbers to the bowl and mix with the dressing to combine. Let marinate in fridge for 10-30 minutes. Garnish with roasted white sesame seeds and scallions serve.