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12/23/08

Oodles of Noodles with Anna and Radha

This past Sunday, Anna and I met up with my friend Radha, the one who hosted an awesome Indian dinner party, for lunch and a movie. For lunch we checked out a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant in China Town (in DC) recommended by Anna's friend Wendy.

Right in the window of Chinatown Express you can see the noodles and dumplings made by hand (and the ducks hanging by their heads!). I was tempted to stand and watch the guy doing his magic, but we were all hungry.

The inside of the restaurant is rather unremarkable, but we were there for the food, not the decor. The service was quick and courteous. We started with a big pot of tea (sugar was on the table!) before checking out the menu.

The restaurant had a few specials on their noodle soups and dumplings. Anna and Radha decided to choose noodle soup, and I decided to pick dumplings.

For $5.95 you get a choice of Noodle Soup with beef, chicken, seafood, or vegetables. And for $5.50 you get 10 dumplings with your choice of leeks with pork, seafood, or vegetarian filling. I asked for a few of each.

Anna and Radha ordered a few appetizers of Spring Rolls and Egg rolls. Surprisingly, both were fried! But (or "thus"?) both were delicious: fresh, crunchy, and well flavored! Then Anna had a beef noodle soup, and Radha had a chicken noodle soup. The portions were HUGE! Both girls added some hot sauce and other condiments to enhance the flavor of the broth, but they were super happy with their choices! The noodles were incredibly soft and tender: you could tell they were made by hand just moments before being cooked. [Anna took her leftovers home, where for dinner she fried them up with a few eggs and frozen peas!]







I started my lunch with a hot & sour soup. It was good. Alas, my dumplings were disappointing. Yes, I pouted. The dough was too thick and sort of stale. The pork filling was tasty, but the vegetarian one was flavorless. I ate most of them, but was not happy with my choice. I think I would have rather gone to Chipotle :)



After lunch we went to see Seven Pounds. It was pretty good...the scene when Will Smith's character was doing manual labor was hot, absolutely hot.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

oooh! if only i can grab those yummy food! *drooling*~

Unknown said...

don't forget that you also whimpered on top of pouting! the noodles were super awesome though, truly the best. and their other dishes looked great - definitely worth a comeback

david mcmahon said...

Awesome Indian dinner party?

And my invitation was .... where? !!!!

BlueToYou said...

looks like the dumplings were slightly undercookd then. too bad, it certainly LOOKs yummy

luv 2 cook said...

That looks so great. I adore Will Smith!!!! He could be in a movie where all he does is sit in a chair reading the paper while wearing a muscle shirt and I will be there! :)