>a tube of noodle paste

Tasting menu at WD-50, course #6

A bowl of hot soup garnished with green onions arrived at the table with a small tube of soft white sesame-flavored paste. Okay, gee whiz tabletop cooking time.

I squeezed it out exactly the way I do tooth paste. It cooked upon contact with soup and became instant noodle strands.

They had marshmallowy texture. They were savory. Quite good, in fact.

How did they do that?

I think the key is protein. Some proteins become solid at temperatures as low as 65 degrees C/150 F, whereas starches thicken at much higher temperatures. So, my guess is that the paste was primarily protein-based. Like soy. Faster cooking parts of the egg white (all right, ovotransferrin). Salt and acid in the soup would have helped the soft paste coagulate.

Wine pairing
Poulsard Stephane Tissot 2004 (Arbois, France)