The unexpected noodle is the tastiest kind

I didn't want to do it. When I had the unexpected luck to travel to Europe for work last week,  I told myself I'd just enjoy the local, delicious food in Switzerland and Germany. I was in London for a day too, but England understandably gets a pass, because curry is what I always want to eat there. I find it hard to shake off my original impression of bland English food no matter what the food press has to say about the offal revolution occurring in their "gastropubs". For once, I told myself, I wasn't going for noodles, at least  in Zurich or Germany that is... but ten days is an awfully long time.

Let me start off by saying, regional varieties of a cuisine can be quite charming and just as fascinating as indigenous food. Witness the harmonious marriage between Chinese and Cuban food. Chinese cuisine is the prime example, it's different in just about every country depending on local produce, tastes, and the region of the people that emigrated to that country. Its usually very interesting to try, with the exception of one traumatizing  experience in Dublin when an order of Orange Chicken arrived swimming in concentrated orange juice.  Italian cuisine is another great example. The heavy, tomato-sauce centered dishes that came to the US along with Southern Italians would not be recognized as bonafide by a modern day Italian, Southern or otherwise. The fried chicken and cheese combination smothered in tomato sauce we call Chicken Parmesan sounds like a horrific nightmare to most Italians, but to me it's just delicious.

The softening of my resolve had begun the night before in Cologne. The kitchen had already closed at the local German restaurant I had wanted to try and I found myself outside the only restaurant still serving food after 11 PM, a Turkish restaurant called Osman Bey. I had an incredible meal there that really put the Turkish food we are getting in NY to shame. So I was a little more open the next day when I wandered past an unassuming Chinese restaurant near the train station in Dusseldorf called 'Track 21". I did a double-take as I passed because I noticed that the restaurant was full of East Asians. They also had a menu outside where I saw this horribly grainy but wondrously authentic looking hot pot advertised. 

Hot Pot Dusseldorf style

I was lured in by the great variety of Sichuan dishes I saw on the menu, the notable absence of aryans, and an incurable noodle addiction.  The restaurant looked like the type you should find in the vicinity of a train station- bare bones and unpolished - just like our favorite noodle joints in NYC.  Usually I try the Dan-Dan noodles in a Sichuan restaurant, but I needed noodle soup and went for the another Sichuan perennial offering, spicy beef noodle soup. I started out with a little cold boiled chicken in chili sauce which was  pretty divine. I love when chicken comes with the bone on as opposed to anonymous, chopped up, and dried out pieces. 

Tasty boiled Chili Chicken

The soup was very spicy and the broth was light but very flavorful. The noodles were e a thicker egg variety like Dan Dan noodles and served soft, but not so soft that they were runny and flaky. I drank the fiery broth down to the last drop.

Spicy Beef Noodle Soup

I was really surprised to get such a good bowl of noodles in Dusseldorf. I expected mainly to find Asian restaurants that catered to local German tastes but I was delighted to be proved wrong. If Track 21, despite it's godawful name, was in NY, I would actually go to it, and regularly. In the meantime, if you ever find yourself craving noodles near the central station in Dusseldorf, you've got the spot.

Wicked Satay noodles in the heart of Silicon Valley

I changed roles at work in January and as a result I have been spending more and more time in Cali. There are so many great Asian places to eat at in Silicon Valley that I fear I'll never really make a dent in them, but I'm having fun trying. I decided to head out to Rengstorff Pho in Mountain View with my colleagues and product managers extraordinaire Roupen and Saurabh. I chose Rengstorff Pho because I had read it was famous for it's Satay style noodle soup. a drool-worthy dish I hadn't tried before.

Witness the deliciousness- Satay noodle soup

 Any restaurant in the valley that's any good at all is overun with customers around lunch time, so we walked into the half-empty restaurant with some slight trepidation. This turned out to be a false alarm though, because by the time we were ready to order 5 minutes later, all of the seats had filled up. As we walked in, I noticed a plate of chicken rice on a table, one of my all time favorite things to eat, so of course we had to add that to the order.

Roupen (left) and Saurabh (right) know they are in for a good meal.

We all picked at the chicken rice, which I thought was very good- but nothing mind blowing. I liked it as a shared appetizer. I would definitely order this again, but I'm interested to know, where is the best chicken rice in the valley? A blogworthy topic in itself, especially for a Singaporean, who are famous for their love of this dish. Thank god I finally found a place to share random, useless, and esoteric knowledge like that.

Tasty Chicken Rice

We also asked for some summer rolls- always an automatic order for me-  which were about twice as long as the ones that  I'm used to and were utterly fresh and delicious.

Great summer rolls (or whatever they call them out West)

 For our main course, we unanimously decided to try what seems to be the de-facto house special,  the Satay noodle soup. We washed this down with some fresh young coconut juice that I would definitely recommend ordering--  I love it when there are fresh slices of coconut in my drink.

Don't be jealous

The soup was the vibrant color of a good tomato or Mulligatawny soup and was thick but not overly so like a bisque. The broth, which had a perfect medium level of spiciness,  was laced with peanutty goodness and fat, broad rice noodle similar to Ho Fon. I also like these noodles in thicker beef based broths like the beef stew at Yogee Noodle back home in NYC. In the Satay broth, having more surface area on the noodle increases the intensity of flavor. Speaking of flavor intensity, Rengtorff Pho claims not to use any MSG on their website- always a great thing.

The meat was the same kind that is used in Pho Tai,. That meat is usually referred to as "eye of round" on a Vietnamese menu and is essentially a thinly sliced and raw roast beef that cooks in the hot soup. The quality of the beef was excellent but in a powerful Satay broth, it's the meat that absorbs the flavor of the broth rather than the meat flavoring the broth as it does with Pho. Saurabh mentioned that each bowl must have at least 1,000 calories with all those peanuts and noodles. While that's a buzzkill, it's really all about balance. It's perfectly fine to go out and binge all night on hookers and coke every odd evening as long as you go to church the next day.

Wutup soup!

A handsome man and his noodles.

Great thick noodles perfect for the Satay broth

We loved this place and I would definitely go back.  The three of us ate like kings for about $20 each. Next time, even though I'm really into the Satay soup, I may just check out the regular Pho, unless of course I'm planning to go to church the next day.

Tom Chang loves spicy beef noodles

If there is one thing I’ve learned over the almost two years I worked for Tom Chang at our Silicon Valley startup, MobileIron, it’s this. Tom Chang LOVES spicy beef noodles.  I joined him and our colleague Bennet Woodward as he was he was half way into a 3 day marathon of spicy beef noodle soup eating. Tom had already eaten the same for dinner the night before and was looking forward to eating them again the next day a at his favorite Las Vegas noodle bar at the Venetian Hotel. I’ve eaten those noodles before, at his suggestion, and they are very tasty.  Las Vegas is actually a wonderful place to find authentic Asian food, but I digress. What I actually want to say here is this- Tom Chang loves spicy beef noodles. 

Bennet (left) and Tom (right)-  smiling in anticipation

Silicon Valley Chinese food can be really excellent. The closer you get to the heart of tech and the Asian engineers that actually make the world run, the more authentic Asian choices you are going to find. There are plenty of Asian malls at major intersections just jam-packed with interesting looking restaurants to explore. Ai noodles in Cupertino was in one of those developments with at least 15 restaurants—it would be a great place to do a noodle crawl one day. The first item listed on the menu at Ai noodles is the spicy beef noodle soup, and as we walked in I noticed many people eating it. Here’s a little tip for the uninitiated, when you see  lots of Asian people all eating the same thing in a restaurant, order whatever they are having- you probably can’t go wrong. We started out with a little spicy, garlicky cucumber snack which I always love to order. Make sure you aren't going on a date after eating these.

Spicy cucumbers

Tom also likes a scallion pancake

 The cucumbers are essentially a ubiquitous chinese cruditee-- one of the few vegetables I've seen in the panoply of Chinese cuisine that isn't served cooked. These were tangy and crunchy but not too terribly spicy. They have a very decent scallion pancake here too that is fried just the perfect amount. We topped off the appetizer parade with an order of spicy Sichian Wonton-- I thought these were just OK- the filling seemed to be a little chewy- Charsu BBQ pork perhaps?

Sichuan Wonton - not so special

Finally the piece de résistance arrived- the spicy beef noodle soup. It's offered with thin or thick noodles and all three of us opted for the thick noodles. They had a floury, homemade texture and they were fresh. They were also perfect sopping up the broth. They were served al dente- have I mentioned that gloppy noodles, with a few exceptions like Dan Dan noodles, are gross? 

The main feature- spicy beef noodle soup

Thick homemade noodles perfect for this soup

There was a thin meniscus of oil on the soup but that's nothing to be deterred by, sometimes us soup lovers just need to soldier on. The broth was beefy and just spicy enough that I managed to work up a sweat towards the end of the bowl. Tom was a little disappointed by the beef that day, it had some tendons in it but I actually enjoyed the texture. The meat is supposed to melt in your mouth but I didn't mind that it was a little chewy.  My favorite element of the soup was the noodles themselves- but everything working in concert made a really excellent $7 lunch.  How lucky are we to love food that also happens to be dirt cheap?  In an alternate universe, I wouldn't bat an eyelash to pay $20 for a meal like this. I no longer working for Tom since I changed roles with the new year, but I'd say our noodle future is still very bright. Plus, I continue to kick his ass at Words With Friends, but that's a story for another day.

Noodles for Dessert? Yes please.

Last night we stopped into one of the Tong's favorite ChiuChow restaurants in Richmond, JC Kitchen. The Tongs go there for the fantastic sweet and sour pork among other things. The food was delicious but the blogworthy item was what we had for desert- pan fried noodles with sugar and vinegar. 

Big Plate O' fried noodles

Served with sugar and Chiangking vinegar

The noodles are crunchy on the outside and warm and chewy in the center- the sugar on the noodles made me think of cereal, but the counterbalance of the vinegar reeled me back in to the more savory nature of this desert.

Carved up like a pizza- and sprinkled with sugar and Vinegar to taste

Crispy on the outside - chewy on the inside.

These noodles loosely approximate well-done shoestring fries in texture. They are also slightly reminded me of shredded wheat.

A big hit with the Tongs

Ian's sister Carol mentioned that there was also a Jewish tradition of making sweet noodle casserole dishes-- we call them Kugels, or noodle casseroles. Somehow that had escaped me- probably because I'm not a big fan. I think it will be time to revisit that notion at the next big Jewish festivity. Many thanks to the Tongs for the excellent meal and company, and for introducing me to my first Chinese noodle dessert!

Vancouver is winning

The soup dumpling perched delicately on my spoon at Dinesty restaurant in Vancouver, BC was the unintended and delicious consequence of events that were set in motion 170 years ago when the Qing dynasty refused to sell opium to the British Empire. As a result, a war ensued in which the port of Hong Kong became a British colony and, for other than a brief period when the Japanese occupied Hong Kong during WWII, remained so until July 1, 1997, when the land was finally returned to China.

The HK Chinese, who had prospered greatly over the post war decades while those on the mainland adjusted to a new social order and economic system, were not eager to be repatriated to China. As members of a relatively prosperous colony with British Commonwealth status, Hong Kong citizens were able to immigrate to nations such as Australia and Canada with relative ease. Vancouver, with its temperate climate, natural beauty, and relative proximity to Asia became the prime focus of Chinese immigration. British Columbia was transformed, and as a result, I was able to partake of a delicious Xiao Long Bao dumpling at this extraordinary restaurant called Dinesty today. 

Ian, Will, Taimei, and me @ Dinesty

Richmond, the city next to Vancouver where most Chinese Canadians make their home, is bustling with Asian stores, restaurants, malls, and businesses of every kind. The majority of the signage is in Chinese, and sometimes English too. The density and diversity of the food choices in Richmond will boggle your mind, and with an Asian population of over 100,00,  your restaurant will need to be very good to succeed. Richmond is where we found Dinesty, thanks to our friends' Will and Taimei's suggestion. Will and Taimei live in NYC too, but Will was raised Richmond and judging from his choice of restaurants, he seems to know his way around a chopstick.

Dinesty seems like a Taiwanese/Shanghainese hybrid much like the world famous Din Tai Fung of Taipei, a restaurant with outposts in Shanghai, Beijing, and even LA and Seattle. They are especially known for soup dumplings, but also for the all around greatness of just about every dish on the menu and the crispness and efficiency of service. When I ate at Din Tai Fung in Beijing with Ian and Joan last year the food was excellent, but the price was steep for Beijing; around $150 for three of us. Dinesty reached the same level of excellence as Din Tai Fung for only $20 each, although the excellent soup dumplings at DTF have just a slight edge over Dinesty for depth of flavour.

My first impression as we walked to our table after a very small wait was, every single dish on every table looked incredibly delicious. I wanted to grab dishes off other people's tables on the way to ours but I felt that might be frowned upon. I was also impressed with the open kitchen-- nothing to hide here. And did I mention speed? Will ordered for the table and within a few minutes the food began to flow in an uninterrupted stream of deliciousness.

Love the open kitchen

We started out with some spicy, garlicky cucumbers with just the right amount of crunch and these were quickly followed by some braised pig ears dusted in Mala (Sichuan) peppercorns, one of Will's favorites. I found the interesting texturally, they were loaded with cartilage, but a little bland in the flavor department.

Ears and Cukes

As you can see, Ian had fun with his pig's ears:

Can you hear me now?

This was followed by some remarkably fresh and garlicky pea shoots

Green and healthy but most of all- delicious pea shoots.

And then the food just kept coming-- The soup dumplings or Xia Long Bau were light and delicious but a little less fatty and smaller than I am used too. Dainty is a good thing when it comes to Xiao Long Bao- the dumplings aren't as filling, and they aren't as messy to eat. After eating dumpling's at NYC's best soup dumpling restaurant, Joe's Shanghai, where the XLB are much plumper and fattier, my plate often looks like the scene of minor border skirmish. There are many other dumplings I would like to try at Dinesty, including an intriguing looking and most certainly hand rolled pan-fried pork dumpling that is much longer than the more common half-moon shaped variety.

Scrumptious and dainty Xiao Long Bao

The table started getting really crowded after that with so many delicious dishes we had to eat as fast as we could just to keep up- I've posted the rest of the meal below. What about noodles you may ask? Well... we did have a chicken soup, it was pretty nice but not a heavy hitter, the noodles were pretty soft...as they were intended to be in this type of soup I suppose, but this meal really wasn't about noodles. There are a dozen or so noodle dishes on the menu, and a few of them, including a spicy sesame noodle in a broth that looks like a relative of Sichuan Dan Dan noodles look like they could be pretty exciting. As far as diversity, quality of food, and the tastiness/fun factor- the $20 I dropped at Dinesty is by far the best value for money spent on a meal in 2013. And its just a great place. I really, really wish I could taste every dish on the menu-- and I wish NY could support a restaurant of this caliber. Instead of opening the umpteenth Sichuan restaurant in NYC in 2014, it would be great if we could have a Dinesty or a Din Tai Fung in NY. Is there anybody out there?

Delicious pork that we wrapped in pancakes- NOT Mu Shu tho

The very best Shumai- shrimp on top meat and a little soup on the bottom

Chicken Soup with soft noodles

Turnip Cakes

Turnip Cake- interior view

Really delicious beef roll

Will

Taimei

Too many noodles and not enough time in LA

I'm spending a lot of time in California over the next month or two and there are just so many amazing places to eat out here there really just isn't enough time or room in my stomach for it all. Thankfully I've been doing some yoga out here because to eat all of this food without doing a little work is just a recipe for disaster. Yesterday I met my very good friend and fellow noodle junkie Michala for lunch in LA's Little Tokyo at a ramen place she loves called Daikokuya.  We had to wait around 20 minutes to be seated at the counter- but these noodles are definitely worth waiting for.

Michala and I are dead fucking serious about our noodles!

The first thing Michala mentioned was that although there were many great "set menu" options to add a chicken, beef, or even delicious looking tuna sashimi with rice for a few extra bucks, it just wasn't worth it because countless sessions at Daikokuya had taught Michala to concentrate on just the ramen, or else one risked committing the sin of leaving unfinished ramen in the bowl. She also told me not to get distracted by the spicy miso ramen,  a rather serious temptation for me.  The correct thing to order at Daikokuya is the Daikoku Ramen, essentially a deliciously milky and porky Tonkatsu style ramen.

Daikoku Ramen don't be jealous

 As usual, my piggy nature prevailed and I just had to order the "chicken and egg" bowl along with my soup- which also comes with a delicious little cabbage salad slathered in a lip-smackingly good ginger miso dressing. These were delicious and possibly a nice small meal by themselves- so I would have done well to heed Michala's warning... but I just can't change my nature at the drop of a dime.

The soup had a creamy texture but the fat didn't coat my tongue like the Tonkatsu broth in the Akamaru modern at my favorite NY ramen standby Ippudo. If anything, it was a little lighter, and that is welcome at lunch time, because, although I'm sure everyone would love to, we can't all just find a bed and curl up into fetal position after lunch. The flavor of the broth was very porky and meaty and redolent of the sesame seeds that bathed in it. Although It lacked the finishing punch of Ippudo- that punch is slightly incapacitating. Even so, a similar sensory overload can be obtained at Daikoku too- for a few dollars more you can add the Kotteri broth made with more back fat. In my opinion, the soup is very delicious as it is although I would love to try the augmented option on one of these visits.

Another crowning glory to this ramen is the inclusion of an egg. No, I did not have to pay an extra $2 for it- it came with the soup. What ingredient is more delicious and welcome than a half boiled egg in one's ramen?  Especially when one isn't nickel and dimed about it.  I also loved the balance of ingredients: scallions, sesame and bamboo - they were well appreciated for their taste, color, and texture. The noodles were toothsome and al-dente and really everything you could ask for in a traditional yellow ramen noodle. And the pork; delicious, center-stage, and just fatty enough to have great texture without being over-indulgent.

The Pork is center stage- 2 lovely pieces.

This was a great bowl of soup, what a sin that I wasn't  able to finish the whole bowl. Take Michala's advice, don't get distracted, all you are going to need is this soup. And the price is just right- $9 for an ample serving of ramen. Did I mention they have free pureed garlic and pickled ginger to add to your bowl? You really don't need to pay for any add-ons here at all.  This ramen is about half the price of an outing to Ippudo to NYC, and every bit as good too. The cost of ramen-living is just too high in NYC, but its just right here in LA.

It's a Pho King Long story

This week I found myself in Silicon Valley for my company MobileIron's annual global sales meeting. I always like coming out to California and one of the main reasons is because there are so very many delicious things to eat. That usually means Mexican food, In-N-Out Burger, and of course, my most favorite food of all, noodles. Luckily for me, the valley is jam packed with noodle-loving Asian engineers. By the way, someone out here suggested I change the name of my blog to "White Boy Does Noodles"-- I might just have to go and do that.

Marlon, Patrick, and I all work for MobileIron in NY, so when our colleague Stacy from our Mountain View office  invited us to a local Pho place, we were excited to check it out. The name of the joint was Pho King Long (no joke) just South of Milpitas in San Jose. We rolled up around a quarter to 9 - the place was busy but they gave us the stink-eye as we walked in... most of the noodle places close at 8 or 9 PM, and so we were the last table to be seated, and also the last to leave.

Thanks for the bean sprout Marlon

We started out with some summer rolls. I have to say these were nice big ones, and pretty fresh too. You can always tell when a summer roll has been sitting around too long, the rice paper starts get a little tough and the shrimp are a little too bouncy.  Incidentally they aren't called summer rolls here- instead they were listed on the menu as spring rolls. I wonder if calling them summer rolls is just a NY thing?

Summer Rolls were fresh and tasty

Everyone ordered Pho except Patrick, who opted for a very tasty and spicy Bu Bon Hue. He loved it and mentioned there were small snails in it which is interesting but I was too distracted by absolutely massive bowl of very beefy Pho to pay attention. Actually I was so distracted I didn't even remember to snap a picture of his soup. Good thing I don't do this for a living!

Stacy actually has the "small" bowl in front of her

If the Pho is good I usually finish the bowl. But these servings were so massive that it just wasn't possible. The broth was a deep brown and somewhat cloudy. It's not a very nuanced broth - for instance it was difficult to taste the star anise in it, but it was beefy and hearty in a really satisfying way. it It also wasn't too salty, like the Pho I has a few nights earlier at another place in San Jose. The noodles were thinner than the ones I am used to in NY and also a little softer, almost like an egg noodle, and just as fun to eat. It was like an immersion chamber, only I was floating on Pho. 

My Universe

Check out the skills on Stacy- the chopsticks are a blur

Pho King Long is really Pho King good. I'm ready for another bowl already. It was a great finish to a day that also included an animal style detour to In-N-Out Burger for lunch. And yes, I will probably die young, but at least I won't be hungry.

Animal Style for three