Went with Mrs_Jimbob and Jimbob_Daughters for dinner after an event in Newton. It’s a small hole-in-the-wall stand, easy to miss on a side street in Newton Center. House of Noodle is a sister restaurant to XiAn RouGaMo in Downtown Crossing, offering a menu focused on the cuisine of XiAn, ShaanXi, but broadening to several noodle styles and other regions of China, giving it a scope similar to Home Taste. Seating is barstools and cramped, so probably best for takeout, but this place can execute many dishes at an extraordinary level.
My notes:
Hand pulled Biang biang noodle with spicy cumin beef (孜然牛肉干扯面), the traditional Xi’An style super-rustic hand-pulled noodle, chewy and thick and served up in a tasty sauce of slightly spicy cumin inflected beef, and a range of vegetables. Gene’s does better quality noodles, but they only have one or two sauces, and this one was filled with layers of depth of flavor.
Wonton In Spicy Sauce (红油抄手) is a humdrum dumpling, served up in one of the best red-oil sauces that I have had in the Boston area in a while. The sauce is thickened with sesame paste, layered with bean sprouts and SiChuan pepper, and made a spectacular dipping sauce for scallion pancakes and potstickers.
Stir Fried Thick Noodles (炒乌龙面), in this case with beef, offer chewy ShangHai-style udon-type noodles in a soy based sauce, accented by Thai basil and red onion.
Drunken Noodles (辣河粉) are distinct from Thai style Pad See Ew (炒河粉). Both are chow foon style noodles, the drunken style a little spicier, the Pad See Ew not so much. This sauce was also laced with Thai basil, and a completely different, tasty flavor profile from the udon noodles and biang biang noodles.
Shredded Potatoes Rougamo (土豆丝夹馍) is an interesting variation on the Xi’An style “burger” (RouJiaMo 絲莢膜). A super-flaky “bun” has a savory filling, in this case with potato slivers, possibly also slivers of turnip/radish and carrot. Compared with the riot of flavors in the other dishes, this came off a bit bland. One of the meat filled Rougamo might fit this meal better.
Popcorn Chicken (盐酥鸡) are this version of fried chicken nuggets, in this case in a fairly thick breading flavored with Chinese five spice. These disappeared, though I might favor the more delicate breading that you find in TaiWanese style fried chicken.
Mount Qi minced pork noodle soup (岐山臊子面) is every bit as good as the version at Xi’An RouGaMo, a spicy broth with thick udon noodles, pork strips, and a range of central Chinese root vegetables and wood ear mushrooms, packed with flavor, and one of my favorite things.
Disappointments: the Beef Teriyaki Bowl (铁板牛肉盖饭) and Pork Soup Dumpling (灌汤小笼包), neither one particularly inspired in flavor or complexity. But we ate way more than planned, got another takeout order on top, and I’m looking forward to going back for another takeout run.
