lan zhou handmade noodles

e bway (rutgers/ pike)

website

if you couldn't tell already, derek and i love hand-pulled noodles. but lan zhou is the first place that they hand-pull the noodles to order right in front of you. so you get to see the noodles get slapped against a table and stretched into perfectly formed noodles right before they're thrown into a bowl of boiling broth. the setting is standard hole-in-the-wall, but with the flourescent lighting and dingy surroundings you really feel transported to asia.

i found the dumplings were good, but had a bit too much ginger for my tastes. i ordered my bowl of noodles with tripe and the cook graciously added all sorts of other intestinal delights. quite a lot of offal, but delicious. derek ordered his standard (boring) bowl with beef slices. the broth was rich and sufficiently beefy. pickled cabbage is available in a sketchy-looking plastic bowl on each table (although sketchy didn't stop me from adding a few spoonfuls). it's worth it for the spectacle, but i'm going to stick with my many-meats-special soup and delicious gingerless dumplings at kuai la mian.

kuai an la mian

forsyth (south of canal)

website

i realize that the picture attached to this post is only going to look appetizing to a select few, but if the image makes you drool you need to check this place out. derek (the noodle king) found another hand-pulled noodle spot under the manhattan bridge in chinatown. the menu lists about a dozen or so bowls of noodles with various ingredients. i couldn't figure out which one would have what i wanted so i went with the house special.

that was definitely the right choice. derek, who ordered the beef tendon, graciously hid his envy when my bowl arrived with two pieces of duck, a fried egg, beef tripe, pig intestine, beef tendon, other pieces of unidentifiable meaty things, and some leafy green stuff over hand-pulled noodles. the duck was perfectly juicy, the tripe was tender and flavorful, and the hand-pulled noodles were dense, chewy, and delicious. an excellent bowl of noodles - derek has found another winner. the house special was actually the most expensive item on the menu (less than $7 - query whether you would rather have two people's pops or a giant bowl of noodles?).

super taste

new york, ny

link to yelp

it's only a few days into the new year, but derek and i have already tried two of the five restaurants listed in our 2010 wish list. the first is super taste, a small hole-in-the-wall in chinatown. michelle, derek and i braved the icy cold winds and trekked down to east chinatown (away from touristy chinatown) to slurp down some hot beef noodle soup.

it was 4:30 pm when we arrived, but it was still packed. because the door kept opening with new guests, the restaurant itself was freezing inside. we kept our winter coats on while we ate. michelle and derek ordered the beef in hot & spicy soup, i had the regular beef noodle soup. the hand-pulled noodles were the perfect texture - dense and chewy. i liked the sliced beef and the soup itself was delicious. all for less than $5 a bowl. derek and i are considering moving closer to chinatown so we can have more meals like this.

congee village

new york, ny

website

i love congee. it's comfort food. my mom used to make it for me when i got sick and i even make it for derek when he gets sick. of course, i prefer to have someone else cook it, but it's hard to find. why aren't there more chinese restaurants serving this stuff? several years ago, cindy c dragged me out of morningside heights and downtown to get congee at congee village. it's still my favorite congee place in the city and fortunately now i live much closer.

derek and i come here frequently with friends for good cheap chinese food. a bowl of pork and preserved egg congee for $2.95 is enough to feed two people. you tiao (deep fried dough) to dip into the congee is only $1.00. zha man tou (fried bread) to dip into a plate of sweetened condensed milk (yum) for just $1.50. you can also order sauteed vegetables and noodles, but make sure you get the essentials.

red egg

new york, ny

website

a great dim sum place that jinny found (i love having foodie friends). no carts, which means two things: (a) the food is fresher and (b) it is more difficult to gauge how much food you're ordering. you fill out an order form by placing numbers next to each item you want. and it's very easy to write 1s and 2s without realizing that you're ordering enough food to feed a small army.

i love their pork and chive dumplings. the stuffing is juicy and tastes almost as good as my mom's. the dumplings are overstuffed so that the thin wrappers look like they're going to burst at any moment. steamed or pan-fried, i usually eat a plate of these by myself. the buddha's roll was surprisingly good. everything else is typical dim sum fare. i like this place because it's spacious and easy to make reservations, as opposed to other chinatown dim sum places where you probably have to wait a while for a table.

1/26/2010 - reposted with better photo

sorella

new york, ny

website

wow - what a find! a fantastic little restaurant that was highly recommended by new york magazine. the front half of the restaurant looks like a typical wine bar - jenny and i laughed as we saw someone ordering a meat and cheese plate with their wine - but the back half of the restaurant is completely different. the ceiling is made of glass with little hanging crystals sparkling in the sunlight. all the benefits of an outdoor patio without the bugs. it's a lovely space, although i recommend coming before sunset. super comfy chairs too.

the food was amazing. pictured is the summer squash. sounds simple enough, but the crusty bread, seasoned zucchini, fresh ricotta, fried basil leaves, and olive-oil sauce together made food magic. seriously, squash has never tasted so good. the corn-bacon risotto was so rich and flavorful that we nearly licked the plate clean. dessert - the orange genoise (cake) - light and creamy and yummy. sorella also has an excellent wine selection with a long list of wines by the glass. jenny's gavi was quite tasty and my dolcetto something-or-other had a remarkable flavor. we will definitely come back here again. and again. and again.