Sunday, October 12, 2008

Go To Noodle House for Bao

After reading exilekiss' rave review on the generically named "Noodle House" aka Mian Hsiang Yuan in Monterey Park (not to be confused with the Noodle House in Arcadia), I suggested it to a bunch of friends for dinner.

We wanted to try everything and ended up ordering a little too much, but it was cheap enough that it didn't really matter that much.
We started with some green onion pancakes (we wanted leeks but then were getting the leek dumplings so ....):As exilekiss noted, it is much less greasy than what you would normally get at other places. These are nicely crisp. Delicious. Great start to our meal.

As far as the noodles, we ordered the beef stew noodle.
The one at Arcadia's Noodle House is better for actual noodle dishes. This one is less flavorful, the noodles too soft, the meat less tender, and also has less character. It's not a bad dish - it just doesn't quite compare.

exilekiss raved about the jiao zi (dumplings) and the handmade dumpling skins, so of course we ordered some of those. We got the pork and leek one (we love leek, what can i say):
Nice juicy filling, and the freshly made dumpling skin is great. But personally I like my dumpling skin thinner, and thus I like Din Tai Fung's dumplings better. Don't get me wrong though, these are still very yummy. These are jiao zi, and very good ones at that, but I like my jiao zi pan fried and I like my steamed dumplings to be xiao long baos :P

We also got the shrimp and pumpkin dumplings, because it sounded so interesting.
Definitely unique, and the flavors work pretty well, but it's too sweet a dumpling for me, and I probably won't get them a second time. I would recommend that people try it though, just for a taste. It's pretty good just not to my taste.

The one that takes the cake for me though, is actually the Bao Zi (buns). The dough for the baos are also rolled fresh to order, and is filled with juicy juicy pork.
I expect juiciness from a dumpling/xiao long bao, but this is the first time I bit into a bao and delicious juices started spurting out! Possibly the best bao zi I've ever had - and definitely the best one I can remember having recently! The dough is thin - enough to hold it together. It was fresh and so moist and absolutely delicious!
Again, the filling is tasty and so juicy.

The main contributor to the deliciousness of this meal was the freshness of everything. The skins of dumplings and buns dries up and hardens quite quickly - by the end of the meal, and so it is imperative to eat everything IMMEDIATELY. Otherwise you won't know what you're missing.

Noodle House (Mian Hsiang Yuan)
958 E. Garvey Ave.
Monterey Park, CA 91755
Tel: (626) 280-0831

Noodle House on Urbanspoon

3 comments:

appropriated.muffin

That all looks so delicious! I've yet to find a beef noodle soup place that's really good around here... :(
I'm even considering to make it myself (chances are slim on that though).

Esteban

The green onion pancake...isn't that a quesadilla? Looks great, whatever you want to call it.

Exile Kiss

Hi Burumun,

Nice review! :) I'm so glad you made it out to Noodle House as well.

I understand your love for thinness of skin for Dumplings (I appreciate that style as well at DTF). (^_~) But just a note that Noodle House's Jiaozi (Boiled Dumplings) are pretty much spot-on for authentic Boiled style.

For fillings, definitely try their Pork & Green Bean version next time (it works great in both the Jiaozi (Boiled) and Baozi).

Aren't the Baozi (Steamed Buns) just amazing?! (^_^) They were definitely the best I've ever had, anywhere. It's all because they make it from scratch, fresh to order! :)

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