Hand Made

Restaurant Name: Sheng Wang

Location: 27 Eldridge St

Website: N/A

Price Range: 6$ a person

JCL Rating: 6/10

JCL's Choice: Hand-pulled noodles

It took us a while before finding Eldridge street. The funny thing was that it is one of those streets that we pass by all the time. We just never looked at the street signs. After a bit of searching, we finally arrived on the block where its located. Now the question of which one of these restaurants are the right one? We did not have the exact address, but luckily I could read a little Chinese so we decided to go into the one that said "authentic hand-pulled noodle."

What is hand-pulled noodle? Hand-pulled noodle, known as "la mian" in Mandarin, is a traditional noodle making method by hand. The dough is consisted of water and flour only. But the dough requires excess kneading through twisting and stretching. The goal of the dough is to be wet and stretchy. Just have enough flour so the noodle won't be sticking to each other when you start pulling.**(Source retrieved at link in the end of post)

This place looks like it's been here for a relatively long time. Old tables and chairs. Waitresses making dumplings in the open. You can see how skillful they are. It is kind of like a sit-down fast food restaurant. No beverages were served, the waitresses basically take your orders and bring your food out. No tips were required (but since we are the well-mannered Asians that we are, we gave them tips). I ordered house special hand-pulled noodle soup, my friend ordered the house special peel noodle soup. So basically it's the same everything else aside from the noodles. Peel noodle uses the same dough as hand-pulled noodle, but it is peel by a knife instead of pulled. Another traditional Chinese cooking technique. 

The house special contains beef tendon, beef tripe, fish ball filled with minced beef, and half piece of bone. Hand-pulled noodle is very bouncy and firm to the texture. When you bite it, it almost feels like it bounces your teeth. It is very long and doesn't break that easily. As for peel noodle, it is the opposite. The texture is chewy and smooth to the tongue. Both kinds of noodles have their own unique structure. The soup is a well seasoned beef stock. I do taste a slight MSG additive (umami taste) in it though.

Overall this meal was well worth it. This place is definitely for noodle eaters. Their noodle showcases the quality of traditional noodle pulling technique (a shame I couldn't witness the actual technique at work). But next time I would rather try another topping instead of this house special. This specific dish has lack of meat... just mostly cow tendons and tripe. Hmmm... maybe the duck or rabbit would be much more worth it...

**http://www.lukerymarz.com/noodles/index.html