for the (sadly) uninitiated among us, what is the #4?
Another post-lunch train trip to NYC today, therefore another take-out lunch from Gene’s DTX. I think about these lunches ahead of time (perhaps a sad commentary on how exciting my life is these days), and I’d already made the tongue-wrenching decision to forgo the 4 in favor of the 10 (hot and sour dumpling soup). It was not on the menu at DTX initially even after it appeared at other locations. It did show up a few years ago, but I’d never had it.
As I headed to my date with dumpling destiny (first trudging up the long, narrow non-functioning escalator at the Downtown Crossing T) I passed Lotus Test Kitchen and decided on the spur of the moment to conduct a dumpling smackdown. I added a third contestant: dumplings from the Moyzilla food truck outside South Station.
As pure dumplingness goes, Moyzilla won. They’re gyoza-like and so have thinner wrappers, and the filling was flavorful enough to need no sauce. The Lotus ones were large, but that was all they had going for them. The wrappers were very thick and coarse and the filling had essentially no taste. Even dipping them into the agreeably vinegary dipping sauce wasn’t enough to counter their determined neutrality. What worked was to nibble a dumpling open at the corner and pour in some sauce, then to have at it.
Gene’s dumplings had flavor (and thickish wrappers, but not anywhere as thick as Lotus), but the sour, slightly spicy broth with its mushrooms and slivered vegetables and sprouts made the dish. The broth was perhaps slightly on the sweet side, and I’d have preferred a heftier kick, but an all-round winner despite these minor quibbles.
Random notes:
- Gene’s had more people in it today, both eating in and taking out. That was encouraging.
- Lotus seemed busier. That was discouraging.
- The Moyzilla food truck had 6–8 people around it waiting for food. The Chicken & Rice Guys had nobody.
- I also got a few pieces of chicken karaage from Moyzilla. They were beyond bad: Bready, dry and tasteless. If you go, stick with the pork dumplings.
- I couldn’t resist three lamb skewers from Gene’s (hey, I had to sustain myself over a 4 1/2 hour trip and I owe it to my fan here not to faint during it). Sadly they were again on the lean side and two pieces were gristly. Really hope that’s not a trend. Tasted terrific, though, but again a little less aggressively so than in the past.
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I consider all of us lucky that you didn’t get mugged for your lovely dumplings and survived to provide us this great report!! Thank you!
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I play it safe. Amtrak has a club for those of us who (sadly) spend 25% of our lives on their trains, and membership comes with a sumptuous waiting room overlooking the main South Station Hall. You have to press the secret buzzer in order to be admitted upstairs. I rushed my loot there, then spread it out on one of their tables and indulged.
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Continuing my exploration of Gene’s let me list their dishes by number and compare the availability of each at DTX vs Woburn:
#1: Lamb flatbread sandwich (DTX, Wo)
#2: Lamb handpulled noodle soup (DTX, Wo)
#3: Pork flatbread sandwich (DTX, Wo)
#4: Handpulled noodles [Yay, #4!] (DTX, Wo)
#5: House noodle soup (DTX, Wo)
#6
#7: Lamb stew (DTX, Wo)
#8: Xian cold noodles (DTX, Wo)
#9: Cumin lamb handpulled noodle (DTX, Wo)
#10: Hot sour dumpling soup (DTX, Wo)
#11: Lamb skewer (DTX, Wo)
#12: Tea egg (DTX, Wo)
#13: Sour spiced shredded potato (Wo)
#14: Five spiced beef shank (Wo)
#15: Spicy pork stomach (Wo)
#16: Hot sour handpulled noodle soup (DTX, Wo)
#17: Hot sour pork intestine noodle soup (Wo) [See this.]
#18: Pork intestine handpulled noodle soup (Wo)
#19: Hot sour handpulled noodle veg soup (DTX, Wo)
#20: Gene’s chilli sauce (Wo)
There was also a Westford location (see this discussion, with comments on many of these dishes), but although it is listed in the Gene’s umbrella website, there are no menus you can get to. Is it still around?
The biggest mystery is #6. What was it? (@greygarious , you were likely the first among us who went to Gene’s – any memories?)
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The Westford location is gone. I think #6 may have been the special noodles that were only available and in limited quantity, on weekends.
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Thanks. I’ve now read every post in the thread I linked to above (“see this discussion”) , and I note that the closure was announced there. The thread also records an interesting evolution in #10.
This is from a very old website of Gene’s that I somehow still have a link to:
Weekend Only
#6 Xi’an Chilled Noodles
…5.60
Hmm, the pic is there on the preview…
Weekend Only
#6 Xi’an Chilled Noodles
…5.60
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Thanks. Your links didn’t work for me. Was #8 on the menu then and how did it differ from #6? For the other items available then did the numbering match the one I gave above?
(Not vastly important, but I’m not called consistencydabbler for nothing.)
I have a picture from Chelmsford with #6 Xi’an Chilled Noodles. There is also a #8 Xi’an cold noodles that have a lot of stuff on the plate.
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That’s great. Thanks.
#6 noodles were incredibly thin, and very silky. Gene once told me they are a lot of time-consuming work. Something about soaking the flour for a couple of days so the starch separates from the something else, which then involves careful draining. I only had the #6 once. I remember the texture, but not what other vegetables it had - maybe bean sprouts. Colorless vinegar dressed the dish. My memory is of mild vinegar, silkiness, and it being a dish that’s VERY white.
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That sounds like liang pi? Also called cold skin noodles.
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Yes, lots of work.
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I’ll try that link again. It’s many years old, but the menu shows pics of both #6 and #8. You can tell the prices are lower than now.
Thanks. These historical excursions are fascinating – at least to me.
Comments:
- I’m not sure when your picture dates from, but I’m sure it’s well pre-pandemic. A quick price comparison suggests that their prices have gone up by around 20% (or about $2 for most of the big dishes). That’s pretty low.
- The dishes look spicier than the ones I’ve had at DTX recently. Also, there’s less cilantro now than in the past. But, everything is still fantastic.
Gene’s is one of the culinary treasures of the GBA. Not only can very few places in the general area match them for tastebud-bang for buck, very few places can match them for tastebud-bang, period
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That would seem to be the case, except that the account here
suggests some sort of hybrid.
For those who are interested in the mysteries of #6 and liang pi, here (as always from this source) is an excellent account:
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We have tried Gene’s just a few times but found the different noodle dishes better at Hometaste in Watertown
My picture was from '12.
