It has been a while since I have been to Mulan, but they used to make a delicious Pork Chop Noodle Soup that was a great lunch for me when I had clients in Kendall. Actually, it was two lunches! Huge bowl of noodles.
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this is great–I didn’t know anyone in Chinatown did this. (I trawled the Yelp photos in hopes of finding a recent photo of the afternoon tea menu, but could only find this one from 2010. I imagine that’s representative, still.
I thought Cafe de lulu in Malden (which I like) was the only area place that did this sort of thing. Thanks for the pointer.
That menu looks about right; the fried rice noodle is on the other side with a la carte options. Asian Garden is somewhat of a hidden gem with quite a lot of uncommon dishes, and is our go-to Cantonese place now that Best Little Restaurant is no more.
I think Double Chin is another place you can get afternoon tea dishes, but i’ve found them to be just ok and marketing to well, youngsters (the menu even singles out dishes that’ll look great on IG…)
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I found the menu online. In Chinese the dish is labeled as homestyle “chao bing,” or pancake/flatbread which is cut in shreds and stir-fried. typically with cabbage and garlic.
Interesting to see dishes like this on a menu with old school stuff we never see on the West Coast like pu pu platters and egg foo yong.
In my head, this sounds like a Chinese version of Sri Lanka’s kottu roti; I’ll have to try to make it to Wang’s sometime to try it out.
Thanks for reminding me that I am way overdue for a return visit to Suuvai for Sri Lankan deliciousness!
I would love an update if you go. Our last couple meals there (probably over a year ago) were a bit discouraging (much saltier than before and generally underwhelming), so we haven’t been back in a long while. So, I’m also missing Sri Lankan food!
I took sunnyday’s rec to heart and trekked out to Newton Highlands for a lunch today. The place is tiny with only the six seats mentioned here before, so I made sure to go early so I could snag one. Got the spicy beef soup with some noodles, and it was as advertised previously here–really good! Lots of sichuan peppercorn/beef flavor to the broth, crunch provided with well cooked Asian greens, a nice vinegary addition of some pickled vegetable (I assume this is the same cabbage thing they sell as an appetizer?), brightness from cilantro and tons of tender beef shank. I neglected to say anything about the spice level that I wanted, so I think it was toned down–but that’s on me, and it still had a good kick. When I told the woman that it was delicious as I was leaving she let me know that they have all levels of spicy–I think the implication was that since I had finished it and liked it, that I should try bumping it up a notch. So next time I will indicate that I want it spicier!
So service was great, the place is nice and clean, you can see right back into the kitchen and it has a well focused menu. Lots of soups, some stir fries, things like pork belly/pig’s foot in brown sauce and guiyang style fried rice, the Beijing crepe and a smattering of American Chinese items like crab rangoon etc. (There are also wraps. I don’t understand the wraps).
All I can say is the soup was pretty much aces. Would love to go back and try that fried rice, it’s a place that seems worth a return. Thanks for the tip, @sunnyday!
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So glad you enjoyed your visit, @passing_thru! It is out of the way for us too, but the soup is just too good to resist when the weather gets cold. For what it’s worth (doesn’t sound like a lot of HO-ers live there either), they have a second location inside the Kam Man supermarket in Quincy - but it was closed the last time I went in around 7pm.
The fried rice there is quite delicious (and a little spicy) and has the kitchen sink thrown in (potato slivers, pickled green beans, chinese bacon, and many other things). The wraps…ugh. I already grumbled about this in the other post, but the crepe done right (try the Tianjin stall in Flushing!) is a beautiful thing of contrasting texture and humble ingredients come together to be something greater. Once it starts becoming a vehicle for various add-ins and lunch takeouts, it’s just not a crepe anymore. But my DH still loves it, much to my chagrin and probably just to fulfill the marital duty to annoy me…
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There’s some shredded cabbage and assorted vegetables. I think we usually pick chicken as the protein. Kind of a basic brown/garlic sauce. I like it and find it different from most other noodle dishes we’ve ever gotten for take out…
Thanks for the Home Taste recommendations (Watertown). We had been there when they first opened but it just slipped our radar.
With the snow we needed some spicy nooodles and were not disappointed. We had the hand pulled noodles in spicy oil (excellent), the noodles with ground pork and friend bean paste (also excellent - for anyone who hasn’t had this dish it is like Asian bolognese - to borrow from euro centric comparisons - very rich and meaty and perfect for a snowy day). We also got an order of the cold spicy noodles (thin noodles) for breakfast the next day (I love cold noodles for breakfast) and they were also a great suggestion.
The first two items we ordered as part of their lunch combo - egg drop soup, egg roll, boneless spare ribs, and the noodle dish. It was a great value.
Need to get Home Taste back into rotation.
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For khao soi, Thai North’s classic version with a whole drumstick is my favorite. It and the other blackboard items have their own section of the main menu now (though not with transliteration; they call it Chaingmai Noodle Curry). Keeping the focus on noodles, there are a couple of Chaingmai vermicelli dishes in there too.
S&I has had khao soi on special lately and it’s been great. Cha Yen’s brisket version is tasty, as are their yaki soba and sukothai.
My stealth second-favorite for khaoi soi is Rod Dee in Porter, though only with duck since white meat chicken doesn’t work in that dish (or most soups afaic).
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Thanks for reminding me about Cha yen. I enjoy their sukothai. I’ll have to try this too.
@Thimes Cha Yen Thai is such a great place; all their noodle dishes are stellar. Quite happy with their recent expansion now that there are more seating. They are also BYOB (there’s a liquor store next door), so we had a bottle of French pear cider with our noodles last time we visited - a wise decision if I might say so myself!
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here I am again following Thimes’ lead on these Asian noodle recs–went to Home Taste myself for lunch today. I didn’t realize it was so far down Mt Auburn, near the Iranian bakery.
Got the hot and spicy minced chicken burger, which wasn’t super spicy but was pretty delicious. I think I liked the bread better here than for the lamb sandwiches at Gene’s–it seemed moister, with more spring to it. The chicken and peppers and scallions in the sandwich were good, with hints of scallion and cilantro. Also had the spicy hot oil seared noodles because, well, NOODLE MONTH. I think they may have sat a bit before they came out to me because the top noodles and the greens were a little tepid at first, though a bit of stirring remedied most of that. The hand pulled belt noodles were great in texture, with an even thickness and consistent chewiness. Good hot oil and plenty of garlic, though I think somewhat less aggressively flavored than at Gene’s. All in all, really good quality.
Would love to go back and try the fried bean sauce noodles previously discussed here. The Chongqing noodles with minced meat and peanuts look worth a shot as well.
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I’m really enjoying all the posts on this topic. I’m not an Asian noodle connoisseur by any means and would like to know more. Can anyone suggest noodle dishes from Home Taste that are likely to hold up as takeout to a 15-20 minute ride home? Also, passing_thru, do you think the burgers would hold up well? We did get the hot oil seared noodles a few weeks back and they were delicious but pretty stuck together. I’d order them again anyway because that oil and garlic was so good, especially with the taste and texture of the noodles.
I’d appreciate any guidance or suggestions!
I haven’t gotten takeout from Home Taste before, but have done plenty from IQ kitchen (definitely a 15-20 min ride for us) and MDM/Pho Viets(shorter). I think soup noodles would keep pretty well if they can pack the noodle/rice noodle separately for you to put together at home, so maybe try one of the soup options (beef noodle soup, Henan noodle, or Chongqing small noodle)? Perhaps others can comment on the quality of soup noodles as I haven’t try any of them.
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I recently order several noodle dishes to take out and had a similar experience with all the “wide” noodle dishes. We were able to tease them apart a little by putting them in a bigger bowl, 30 seconds in the microwave, and some chopstick work. They all tasted great but the noodles do clump in takeout.
The only dish that didn’t were the cold spicy noodles. They were perfectly fine. It makes me wonder if the thin noodles “travel” better than the wide - but I love those wide noodles. (Granted these were also cold, so it isn’t a fair comparison)
(Every place I’ve ordered noodle soups from has packed the broth and noodles separately) so I’m going to experiment next time we order from them and see if I have any different luck. It is too good not to try.
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Thanks, sunnyday and Thimes. The noodle soup sounds like the way to go, but I do love saucy noodle dishes so I’ll keep trying!
looks like sunnyday and Thimes took care of your noodle query, so I’ll just add that I do think these would travel pretty well.
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