Interesting video/article about Chinese Noodles

FYI: Jim Thurman and Clarissa Wei put together this video/article.

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How is the food at the place in the video?

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Malan has been friggin horrific for years, and once the opening hype was over, Shaanxi Gourmet’s various noodles just became straight gross. Hand made doesn’t mean made well; regional doesn’t mean it’s any tasty. The new Heavy Noodling II was barely edible, no doubt due to low prices and weak soup stock.

Chengdu Taste’s upcoming Mian is gonna blow minds and print money for Tony Xu. Can’t wait; glad they have benches set outside already.

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Agree on those - mostly was asking about
LaoXi and China Tasty

jim brought up the topic almost two weeks ago

(CLICK HERE).

looking for candidates for best handmade noodles as of 2015. the title apparently evolved.

i recall chuckling when sweethome grill was touted in the original article on the strength of the broth and not the actual noodles. shouldn’t be surprised by their inclusion again, though the recommendation is now based on how well the noodle pairs with either the lamb or beef broth.

true, but shaanxi as a regional cuisine is supposed to be the most obsessive about their noodles and i would set my expectations fairly high as a consequence. i agree about shaanxi gourmet - their noodles never did anything for me.

[quote=“CiaoBob, post:4, topic:2115, full:true”]
Agree on those - mostly was asking about LaoXi and China Tasty
[/quote].

CT has noodles that rival liang’s primarily in length. IMO the rivalry ends there. i was underwhelmed by the various noodles and recommendations by their staff, but YMMV.

i liked laoxi both for the noodles and the execution of various recipes.

(yes, i had secret asian men t-shirts made with the same logo as my avatar. i have mainly mediums left.)

SIZIST!!!

I really enjoyed LaoXi the one time I went, but I prefer thicker noodles (a la JTYH). I would drive out of my way for (the old) JTYH. For me, LaoXi is “merely” a very good choice if you’re kind of in the area.

some think size matters.

Only mediums? Way too small for my super muscular physique. :smile:

Ok, folks a little lesson on how sausage, err, noodle articles are made. My original idea to go with the noodle video was simply to give a round-up on 4 or 5 notable places that had opened since the original 2012 “Top 10” list Clarissa wrote. I was asked if I could make it a “10”, so it was expanded to include those from Clarissa’s list that fit, concentrating on hand-shaved and hand-pulled. And, again, and as always, I do not write the headline, so YMMV on terms like “finest.” (mine do) I was sick as all get out, but had to make the drive down and talk (squeak and croak really) to the manager at China Tasty to set-up the video shoot, then had to finish up my part while I was even sicker. I re-wrote each passage, but the end credit probably means I’ll get 1/2 the check. Was it weak? Hell, yeah, but so was I. There were some details I would have added had I not been in Urgent Care twice that week. And, yeah, I know…boo hoo :slight_smile: FWIW, as usual, I can’t say I disagree with TonyC at all here, though perhaps not in as strong of terms, but that’s just me :slight_smile:

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We appreciate the effort. :slight_smile:

Hope you’re feeling better!

all the L and XL sold out pretty quick. i need to order more.

Thanks for the wishes paranoidgarliclover, but I managed to pick up the flu bug in my weakened state, so I’m still not feeling better yet. On a BRAT diet right now. Yay, crackers, yay toast :frowning:

While I’m still not 100%, I finally feel up to attempting to tackle this while its still this year. Folks, any time you see “(b)est” “finest”, etc. in one of my articles, you can be certain it wasn’t put there by me. I rarely do superlatives. About the farthest I will go is “one of the best” or “one of the better.” Now, on to the “choices”:

I’ve stated before, that aside from their cold skin noodles - which I do like - I prefer the noodles at Xi’an Kitchen over Shaanxi Gourmet.

The JTYH branch, O’Heavy Noodles: noodles are great, but it’s weak sauce (literally), at least with what I had there and I recall TonyC tweeting similar. Someone else I know summed it up: “Great noodles, but kind of bland.” Haven’t managed to get to JTYH since the “downhill” reports.

I like China Tasty’s beef noodle soup and the noodles are very good. Some Yelpers panned China Tasty’s beef noodle soup, complaining that they couldn’t taste any soy sauce or five spice. It’s not supposed to be niu rou mian! (facepalm)

I concur with paranoidgarliclover about Lao Xi when it comes to thickness. Yes, their knife-shaved noodles are much slimmer. As barryc has mentioned, Lao Xi is more about other dishes (and I’ll add other noodles).

Being a freelancer, I can’t eat my way through entire menus a la Mr. Gold or other full timers, but of these, Liang’s noodles were the most impressive of the lot. As always, YMMV.

Another reason I don’t like to do lists. Another potential candidate opened the weekend before it ran.

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Bumping this thread because I went to Xi An Tasty (CAUTION: YELP LINK) the other night (mentioned at the very bottom of the list) and thought it was pretty outstanding.

I preferred just about everything I had there to the versions at Shaanxi Gourmet (which I also enjoyed, for the record), especially the “Chinese Hamburger.” Noodles were great, that chinese hamburger was quite good, and the pita bread in lamb soup was really awesome. I’m certainly no expert, but I really enjoyed it, so thanks @JThur01!

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had lunch at xi’an tasty in MP this week, the hand made noodles were as you would expect at a shaanxi place. very good and worth adding to the list.

we ordered the noodle with egg and tomato mainly to compare to the versions at kam hong

and liangs

it’s hard to mess up tomato & egg, but the tomato with egg was the least well received dish at our table. the serving was smaller than the versions of liang’s & kam hong, and despite that, they managed to get the noodles tangled while stir-frying, a small detail perhaps. but it further complicated the transfer of noodles that were about 18" in length while trying to eat family style.

the standout dish was the braised meat with sauce on noodles. the (hand made) noodles were cut like wonton wrappers, but about 3 times the thickness. the sauce with just a hint of spice complemented the braised meat. (there are two versions of the translation on the menu. order the $7.59 version and not the $6.99 version)

if you order spicy and they ask you if you want mala - you will get tongue numbing mala with noodles with beef brisket (spicy). to their credit, the two waitresses (who speak only mandarin) stood there and watched me go through numerous napkins to wipe off the perspiration that dripped from my forehead without changing facial expression and replenished our water without prompting a number of times.

.

you have been warned.

total price before tax and tip was under $23. we rounded up to $30 because of the water refills.

it’s not just noodles there. the plan is to go back and try more of the menu.

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Biang biang mian with braised meat in the 4th pic?

we saw that one didn’t order it. the plan is try it on the next visit.

we ordered: “Braised Meat in Preserved Sauce Hand Made Noodle $7.59”


the biang biang noodles are just below it on the menu

I suppose this is a good spot for this since it’s another Clarissa Wei piece.

Via KCET, by Clarissa Wei, on where to find Chinese cold noodles in Los Angeles.

snicker.

what she calls Dongbei Da Lapi reminds me of japanese hiyashi chuka (from the now defunct ramenya on the west side)

i like the version at chef geng’s myself

the version at happy table looked good but they seriously overcooked the noodles. BAD!

the version at thousands nasty, er thousands tasty - it was just wrong. it reminded me of the creatures that managed to infect spock on an episode of star trek.

the chef geng take on naengmyeon not bad


but the shen yang version is on a par with

yu chun in K-town

but yu chun also offers the hot broth as a contrast

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