Fish ball update
Last week I talked about the wonders of Fu zhou fish balls. Now time for a quick update. I mentioned last time that Super Taste offers up a decent bowl of fish ball soup, but I wanted to seek out another for comparison sake. With the weather warming up more and more, there's less of a desire to utilize noodle soup to warm up my body. Still, some fish ball soup is a good way to eat something delicious that won't be super filling.
Sheng Wang takes the nod above Super Taste for fish ball soup because the meat filling had a better flavor. This might be a personal preference, but I can't be sure. Super Taste seems to have fallen out of favor these days with food enthusiasts. There are also hand-pulled noodle shops opening up with greater frequency. Or rather, people start to look out for these type of restaurants more and more.
The minutia of which place has the springier noodles or more flavorful broth is not where I like to place my focus. The only reason I'm doing it with the fish ball soup was because the first try at Super Taste wasn't satisfying enough. The hand-pulled noodle is still delicious though. I really can't distinguish the difference amongst these different hand-pulled noodle places. It's not as if any of the places have gummy and soft noodles or something. Mostly, they're all quite enjoyable and toothsome.
When I walked out of Sheng Wang this time, I walked down Eldridge St, towards the bridge. There were a few other fu zhou restaurants. They all required you to walk a few steps below ground level and they were more intimidating. For starters, I don't think all of them had English menus. That would have made it difficult to order. The good thing about places like Sheng Wang, Super Taste, and Lam Zhou noodles is that those places all have English menus now.
Today I finally saw the episode of No Reservations about Disappearing Manhattan. In it, Bourdain hits up a Chinese restaurant with chef Chris Cheung and there's this talk about the phantom menu. When I walked down Eldridge and saw the semi-shady subterranean places, it was pretty obvious that places like that don't even need a secret menu. The only menu is in Chinese! It doesn't get any more secret than that. Or does it?
OK, I am so so so fricking excited about these fish balls, especially since I saw them on a menu in a London Chinese cafe! Gonna try them here one day!
Su-Lin
March 9, 2009 2:42 pm
Seriously I want those fish balls! My hands are so excited I spelled my own name wrong.
Menus in Chinese - this is the sole reason I have learned to read "beef" . Umm... I probably should have learned to read "pork" and "chicken" too but what... Hhahahaha I need a cheat sheet.
Yvo
March 10, 2009 11:11 am
PS Comparing the two photos, these look saucier/more seasoned on the inside. Cry. Want.
Yvo
March 10, 2009 11:12 am
It looks delicious. How much was it?
dad
March 10, 2009 9:14 pm
@Su-Lin,
Oooooh, that's awesome that these made it to London too!
@Yvo,
Hahaha, so excited you couldn't spell your name. That's pretty damn excited. I think these places also sell them frozen, and you won't have to read Chinese... just ask them if they have frozen fishballs.
@Dad,
It was just $3 dollars. Very good price if you ask me.
Danny
March 11, 2009 9:57 am