I took a break from congee on the train this past Monday, and returned to my roots: Gene’s #4 with 3 lamb skewers. For the first time I ordered ahead of time on line while waiting for the redline at Harvard Square. That was a mistake. I got a text before we got to Central that the food was ready. By the time I got to DTX (the redline moves at its own stately pace, with unexplained stops here and there between stations – how the hell can a decent city have such wretched public transportation?), picked up the noodles, and started eating them they had congealed into a solid mass that I had to separate with my fingers. I can see why places such as Xi’an Famous in NYC initially refused to let you take their noodles out.
When all separation and mixing (crucial) was done, the noodles were as satisfying as always: the heat, the vinegary zing. Very low cilantro coefficient, though. Online ordering offers the options of “less cilantro” and “no cilantro”. What I need is “more cilantro” and “most cilantro”. There’s also the odd option online of picking a spice level – a practice I abhor because it means the spicing is not integral to the dish but a sprinkled-on-later afterthought. I chose “most spicy” and my fears were realized – the dish was covered with a sprinkling of the cumin-pepper blend that they use on their lamb skewers. I also ordered a side container of chili sauce – another option that only seems to appear online. It’s clearly not a popular option because my small plastic container had been sitting for a while, with solid sludge at the bottom and oil on top. It took a lot of strenuous stirring to remix. The result was a little sweet but very tasty – a much better option for "more spicy’ than the official choice.
The portion size was smaller than in the past, but the price ($8.95) is still a steal.
Saving the best for last, the lamb skewers were at the peak of their game – just correctly gamy, fatty in all the right proportions, and just fantastic. When you can eat food this good at this price point (a whopping $1.95/skewer) you find yourself wondering why you eat anywhere else.
