Kuai An
I'm gonna talk about Lost a little, so if you still haven't caught up on your DVR, then you can just skip this post entirely.The Lost series finale was this past Sunday and basically I was left as lost at the end of the series as I was throughout the series. Basically the show left you with lots of questions and left many things to viewer's interpretation. Also there were things where you just had to believe was the truth. For example, there's a golden fountain that also seems to act like a volcano. A volcano with a plug. What's that all about? All these episodes was about Jack Shepard's personal purgatory? Don't get me wrong, even though the show confused the hell out of me, it was still great. Kind of like Kuai An Hand-Pulled Noodles. The Village Voice had high praise for this hand-pulled noodle joint, so I went in with some high expectations.
Prior to the visit, I did some online research and found the VV article, and also a blog entry from The Feisty Foodie and learned that fried dumplings was not the way to go. Also, try the hot sauce.
Steph and I asked what exactly went into the house special hand-pulled noodles and the waitress said something about duck, beef, and a fried egg. Steph went with pork chop noodles and I went with the house special. Apparently the house special also came with mystery animal parts galore. It was tripe and other things that came from unknown parts of unknown animals. The tripe was a little crunchy. I know tripe is all about texture, and usually it's one of my favorite things (next to Santa). I was disappointed that I couldn't get it all down.
The soup was alright... not the most flavorful soup amongst the hand-pulled noodle places. But as advertised, the hot sauce was great. More complex and deep than just Sriracha. The noodles were good and had no complaints there. Overall I enjoyed the bowl of noodles and Steph was digging her bowl too. Next time I just want to try something simple like fishball noodle soup. I'm going to put Kuai An in the rotation of hand-pulled noodle places. Even though it's quite good, it doesn't stand apart from the other ones to me. Have any of you tried it?
I tried this place earlier this year with three friends and we were all kinda..meeeh about it. Nothing stood out as particularly good. But it's cheap so it's not like we had much to complain about. ;_;
Robyn
June 6, 2010 6:58 pm
@James,
Yea, Super Taste has got that spicy beef noodle soup down... I actually just order that, and then some dumplings. Next time at Kuai An I'll go with pork chop or pork bone. Some of the noodles came in clumps though... which to me is not a good sign. So maybe it was an off day. Also looking at the stuff VV wrote, I guess the chicken broth there is superior to the beef broth. All this food... so little time!
Danny
June 3, 2010 10:21 am
I wrote about Kuai An last year, when it was still Eastern Noodle... I am still a big fan! When I've had pork chop and pork bone noodles there, I've enjoyed the broth a lot more than I have at Sheng Wang, Lam Zhou or Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodle. Add a tiny bit of that hot sauce (mostly for the roasted flavor) and it's all good for me.
As far as standing apart... I like Kuai An because it's balanced - good meat, good broth, good noodles, good hot sauce. No weak links. I feel like Sheng Wang has amazing noodles, but not too much else makes me want to go back time after time. Strangely enough, the spicy beef option at Super Taste, even with its weird msg/artificial flavors super aftertaste, is one thing that I will always be down to have.
Then again, I'm not exactly the target audience for Fujianese food... I don't think any hand-pulled noodle soup stands a chance against a solid bowl of pho :)
James
June 3, 2010 12:35 am