Gene's Flatbread/DTX

Regional Dining Discussions Boston, New England
#21

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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#22

Thanks. Iā€™ve now read every post in the thread I linked to above (ā€œsee this discussionā€) , and I note that the closure was announced there. The thread also records an interesting evolution in #10.

#23

This is from a very old website of Geneā€™s that I somehow still have a link to:

Weekend Only

#6 Xiā€™an Chilled Noodles

ā€¦5.60

Hmm, the pic is there on the previewā€¦

Weekend Only

#6 Xiā€™an Chilled Noodles

ā€¦5.60

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#24

Thanks. Your links didnā€™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 Iā€™m not called consistencydabbler for nothing.)

#25

I have a picture from Chelmsford with #6 Xiā€™an Chilled Noodles. There is also a #8 Xiā€™an cold noodles that have a lot of stuff on the plate.

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#26

Thatā€™s great. Thanks.

#27

#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 thatā€™s VERY white.

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#28

That sounds like liang pi? Also called cold skin noodles.

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#29

Yes, lots of work.

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#30

Iā€™ll try that link again. Itā€™s many years old, but the menu shows pics of both #6 and #8. You can tell the prices are lower than now.

#31

Thanks. These historical excursions are fascinating ā€“ at least to me.

Comments:

  1. Iā€™m not sure when your picture dates from, but Iā€™m sure itā€™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). Thatā€™s pretty low.
  2. The dishes look spicier than the ones Iā€™ve had at DTX recently. Also, thereā€™s less cilantro now than in the past. But, everything is still fantastic.

Geneā€™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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#32

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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#33

We have tried Geneā€™s just a few times but found the different noodle dishes better at Hometaste in Watertown

#34

My picture was from '12.

#35

And Gene is such a nice person, to boot!

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#36

That makes the small price increase even more remarkable.

#37

Yes, Hometaste is also very good. I havenā€™t had their food in 4 years, though.