The New Chen's Noodle House

It has finally opened! The second location of Chen's Noodle House, on Anderson Lane, by the Alamo Village theater. Or more precisely, facing Anderson, next to Cover 3 and Chipotle, not far from where the new Hopdoddy's is going in. The original spot is a hole in the wall in a strip center at the intersection of Spicewood Springs Road and 183. With mismatched tables and chairs, the whole place (kitchen included) can't be much more than 200 (150?) square feet, but there's a total charm about it, and the food always rocks, so I've had no problem going to far northwest Austin for good eats, especially when it involves Chen's hand cut noodles.

For the new location, Chen's clearly had some financial backers with ample resources, because this place is swank by comparison. Modern clean lines, nice wood tables and chairs, carts to transport hot noodle bowls, and waitstaff dressed in all black attire. Minimal decor, except for a few plants, and very low-lighting rounds it all out. (I did not use the flash on the camera, so some of these are a bit fuzzy.)

It's also an expanded menu, though I am still glad to see my favorites on there, like the lamb skewers. We didn't get them this time, but if you like lamb, they're amazing.

We started with an order of the green onion crepes (pancakes), which I could eat my weight in -- they're light and crispy, with just a touch of elasticity to them on the inside. I love these!

And something new for us, the sesame pockets, with soy-marinated pork inside, sort of a Chinese pita pocket sandwich. Bread was a little dense, but the meat was quite good.

This new spot is offering hot pots, and there's a large menu of available ingredients to put in your hot pot, from meat to tofu, and every veggie in between.

There's a choice of four different broths, and we opted for the spicy broth, with lamb, enoki mushrooms, and bok choy. It also comes with three dipping sauces, a hoisin, a garlickly oil, and I am not sure what the third was, possibly a fermented soy, as it had a very earthy, miso-like flavor. So they bring the food, and light the sterno underneath the pot. Within a minute, the broth is bubbling away. The lamb was cut into extremely thin slices, so it cooked in about 10 - 15 seconds. It's fun communal eating! The broth does get very hot though, and we finally asked our waitress to extinguish the flame; in the future, I might ask to keep the sterno lid at the table so we can do it ourselves when ready.

Our final dish was the spicy pork loin in broth. On the menu, it comes with rice vermicelli noodles. I asked if we could have it with the hand cut noodles instead. (At the original Chen's I have asked for noodle substitutions in the past, because the hand cut are SO good. More on those in a minute.) Our waitress explained that Mr. Chen was about to leave for the evening (it was around 8 pm), and he was the only one who knew how to make/cut those noodles. Excuse me? This is a restaurant with several menu items with the hand cut noodles, and only one person can do it?! She further explained they had purchased a machine to cut the noodles, but Mr. Chen wasn't happy with the quality. Without being argumentative or disrespectful, I re-stated what she had said "So if Mr. Chen isn't here, no one can have the hand cut noodles?" That's correct. I asked her about the original location, and apparently Mr. Chen's wife is there, making the noodles. Oh, and Mr. Chen is supposed to go on vacation in May; they better have their noodle situation figured out by then! I did ask her to pass along the feedback that I would be a very unhappy customer if I was coming here just to have the hand cut noodles, and was told they weren't available.

So we had the vermicelli bowl, the original way it was listed on the menu. The broth was incredibly hot (more so temperature than spiciness, but it certainly had a kick), and while tasty enough, I felt that the vermicelli noodles got overcooked from the heat of the broth, because they developed a soft, almost mushy texture, which becomes unappealing to me.

Back to the hand cut noodles, or dao xian mian. You don't find these just anywhere. The noodle master makes the dough that is shaped into a loaf, like bread dough. Holding the loaf, the noodles are masterfully cut with a special knife into a pot of simmering water or broth. The texture of the noodle is uneven, thin along the edges, and thicker along the middle, giving them a bit of a chewy consistency. Here's a brief video from YouTube. At the original Chen's you could see Mr. Chen from the order window shaving the noodles. This is a picture from 2010 at Chen's; look at the stir fry dish in the back, and you can sort of tell what the noodles look like. 

The new Chen's is extremely nice, and again, there's an expanded menu. However, for a few miles more, I think I may stick to the charm that is the tiny spot in the strip center. As long as I can get my hand cut noodles, I will be happy, so I really hope Mr. Chen shares the secrets of the noodles with a protege.

Odds and Ends!

Went 2 weeks ago to Luke's Inside Out, the trailer adjacent to the Gibson Bar; my first time at either place, actually! How can you not love a place that calls their sandwiches by what they are: The Pig, The Cow, The Cheese, etc. So of course, I had The Pig (duh!), which was quite a tasty little number. The full description: pulled pork, with bacon, mozzarella, chow chow, bbq sauce, and onion  rings. Messy though! Very nicely done, and a nice contrast of sweetness with the addition of pickled peaches, I believe.

Last week, I got a slight wild hair and drove out to Baguette et Chocolate at 2244 (Bee Caves) and Hwy 71. Located in a non-descript newer retail/office park, they are a sophisticated French bakery that I have heard great things about. Apart from the fact they were out of almond croissants when I arrived for an early lunch, I was not disappointed, and it was delicious. I had a lunch of crepe complete -- a buckwheat crepe (traditional for savory crepes in France) with egg, ham, and Swiss cheese, with a small side of greens. A little to my surprise, it comes folded into a rectangle, but that had no affect on how tasty it was! Very nicely pan seared, not only so the cheese melts, but so the outer edges become crispy. They have a ton of savory and sweet crepe choices, it was hard to narrow it down! Must go back and try other varieties! I had picked out a chocolate croissant for the following day's breakfast (it got slightly burned heating it in my toaster oven, but it seemingly had a thousand little layers to it!), an order of choquettes, little light as air bite-sized cream puffs with coarse sugar on top, and a sourdough baguette to go with some soup already at home. Wished they had demi-baguettes, because that full loaf was addictive.Very cute little place, though too bad it IS such a drive!

This past Friday, I went to Chen's Noodle House, another favorite spot, even though it is WAY the heck up north! (Well, northwest.... 183 and Spicewood Springs). I was a little concerned that they'd be too crowded with no place to sit (it's a tiny spot), or they'd be out of the really good stuff. Fortunately, by the time we got there, close to 8 pm, it was only half full, and they were out of two items I wasn't as interested in. We started with the green onion pancakes, which are as fine as you will find anywhere. Crisp and flaky, slightly soft on the inner concentric circle layers.... Could have eaten a whole lot of those! We had the lamb skewers next; 8 metal skewers with 4 or 5 pieces of tender, succulent lamb on each. These were done with a spicy (and a bit salty) szechuan peppercorn rub, that also had some heat to it. They were grilled perfectly, and just melted in your mouth. In my excitement, I failed to take pics of the pancakes or the lamb, ooops!  I had gotten a tip from a friend to try the noodles with black bean sauce, but to get them with the handcut noodles, which they did without hesitation when we asked. Such great flavor in the sauce, it was really perfect with those wider irregular noodles. We also had the thin noodles with ground lamb, which was quite good, but not quite as good as the first one.

While at Chen's, we heard another customer talking to the man behind the counter (Chen himself?), and got the scoop: they are opening a LARGER location on Anderson Lane! Hopefully within 3 weeks (so right before Christmas?). And hot pots!!! It's in the same shopping center as Korea House and the Alamo, which will definitely make it closer for those of us down south!!!

After dinner, we walked  across the strip center to the site of Sambet's Cajun Deli. Unfortunately, they had a fire at Thanksgiving, while deep frying turkeys. Their damage was heavy, and even spread a bit to neighboring businesses. Dynasty Chinese next door remains closed. Ann's Kitchen, a cake shop, is closed as well, but the note on their door said they are still filling cake orders, which could be picked up a few doors down at the pharmacy. Fortunately, Asia Cafe was spared any damage. And judging from the note on the door, it doesn't look like Sambet's will reopen. 

And tonight, I just got home from a dinner with good friends at Enoteca, always one of my favorite spots, and here in the neighborhood. We shared everything: suppli, pork rillettes, duck confit salad, gnocchi, and carbonara, but with tagliatelle, not spaghetti. And wine. And polenta almond cookies for dessert.  Now it's cold out, my plants are covered, and it's time to make more hot tea!

Asia Cafe

Another good authentic Chinese spot is Asia Cafe, formerly inside of Asia Market at 183 and Spicewood Springs. Sometime last summer they moved the restaurant into the space next door to the grocery store. I had been to the old location, I think twice, but not for probably close to two years. I remember the pea shoots and crispy whole flounder as being fantastic.

So I met two friends up there for lunch yesterday. Both foodies, and both much more into the organ meats than I. One ordered stir fried beef intestines (though I don't see it on the menu... somewhere in the #787-790 range, though those are all pork, I thought he ordered beef), and another dish that I don't see listed online, which was essentially pieces of coagulated beef blood; both dishes done Szechuan style, with lots of Szechuan peppercorns & chiles. I did try them both, and honestly, they weren't bad, but I am not sure I could eat a whole bowl of them. It was sort of amusing, because after about 2 bites, both my companions looked at the intestine dish and said "that's not tripe that's tongue." Where there was a brief break in the line to order, he asked the order taker, who went to check it out with the kitchen. She came back to our table and said they were out of tripe, so they substituted tongue, probably thinking the Caucasian dude wouldn't notice, but of course he did. He still ate it all.
My other friend ordered what I believe is #699, Combination Seafood Pot with Pork Intestines. It was a HUGE pot. Think mixing bowl. There were a few stares from both Asian & Caucasian people who were waiting in line to order. There was cabbage and broth in the bottom, and just covered with tripe and nicely battered and fried pieces of white fish throughout. Also lots of peppercorns & chiles, but very flavorful. We shared the #129, Zhong dumplings, which are probably some of the best I have ever had. They made their own dough for them, and once steamed, it comes out to be a really soft, tender, lightly chewy dough, that is perfect with the pork filling. They come bathed in a garlicy soy sauce, which is I think what makes them "zhong". I really love pan-fried dumplings, so on my next visit, that's what I want to try, assuming they are also done with the homemade dough.
We also got #675, the salt & pepper fried squid. A great light batter (rice flour?) around slightly thicker pieces of squid tubes, they kind of looked like gnocchi/fried cauliflower, and were delicious. Would have been nice if they came with a little sauce to dunk them in, but there were plenty of broths & oils on the table to do so. I ordered #568, spicy & sour sweet potato noodle, which turned out to be one of my least favorite items. It was okay....a broth of mostly chile oil, with the cellophane sweet potato noodles, a bit of ground beef, and fresh water spinach leaves. Hard to eat (at least politely), and the broth didn't have the depth of flavor that like the seafood pot or even the intestine/tongue dish had. But I could have eaten a plate of those dumplings!

A couple of notes: we got there at 11:30am, and by about11:50am there was a line at the register where you order that pretty much didn't stop. They give you a number when you order, and then call it out when the food arrives. Sometimes difficult to understand the man calling out numbers & dishes. Also, if you're not accustomed to Szechuan peppercorns, don't be alarmed if your mouth and/or tongue goes numb while eating and everything tastes a bit different than normal. It goes away once you're done eating. Finally, there's a cupcake place down to the right of the restaurant.... what's the name? Begins with a "C"... anyway, I got one cupcake to go (quite tasty, but no Sugar Mama's), which was packaged in what looks like to be an inverted sundae container. It seems to be the perfect way to contain one cupcake, rather than risking it tipping over in a paper bag. Kudos!

Asia Cafe is in the same shopping center as Chen's Noodle House. Both places are supposed to have killer lamb dishes... need to do a taste test and find out for myself!

Chen's Noodle House

Spicewood and 183 is a looooooooooong way from my abode in South Austin. But Chen's Noodle House makes it worth it. It is located in the rather non-descript strip center at the southwest corner of the intersection. Other notable businesses there include Sambet's Cajun, Asia Market/Cafe, a dance studio, a martial arts studio, and a resale shop called Lovey's run by a very sweet gal that we discovered after our lunch.

Several years ago, the space that Chen's now occupies used to be a hot dog place. Hopefully this will be a place that lasts (though we were the only ones in there for lunch, though it is Saturday of labor day weekend, though one person (who appeared Chinese) did come in to pick up his carryout food, though....), because it really is good. It's a very small place, though clean, and the workers polite. A wall-mounted TV was playing a Chinese station.



The menu has expanded since my previous visit early this year, and while I was extremely tempted by the lamb skewers, what I came for was the hand-cut noodles. I ordered the combo bowl, my friend the beef noodle bowl, and we got a green onion pancake to share. The pancake came out first...piping hot is a bit of an understatement! It's cut into quarters, and if it were pieced back together, it would probably be about 10 inches in diameter. The table with napkins & silverware also has bottles of soy sauce, Chinese vinegar, and bowls for dipping. The pancakes are incredible. Light, flaky, not greasy. These are made by spooning the dough in a spiral or concentric circles onto the griddle. I could eat these all day!

The soup bowls came not long after. They're huge. My was a mix of potato, carrots, mushrooms, tofu, beef, and these delightful noodles in a fairly thick, almost stir-fryesque broth. I wasn't quite expecting a broth that thick; it was tasty, but the vinegar certainly gave it some contrast it was otherwise missing. Some heat (spice, not temperature) would have been good too. The beef bowl was a flavorful clear broth with delicate thin cuts of beef, somewhat reminiscent of pho, and the noodles. My friend used to live in Taiwan, and after her first spoonful she said "Ahh, this tastes like home." On my previous visit, we watched them create the noodles: they have a block of dough, that looks like a loaf of bread, and they stand over a simmering stock pot, and with a knife, shave thin dough strips off the loaf and into the pot. All hand done, all irregular sized, but on average, 6 - 8 inches long, about an inch wide in the middle, with tapered ends. The noodles are doughy, and at the thicker points a bit gummy, but tender and delicious. I think we each only ate half our bowls and were fairly stuffed, and had to get to go containers. But we couldn't leave without first ordering another green onion pancake!

I searched for a website, and found none. I did come across other reviews, and from those, have learned that not all of their noodle dishes feature the hand-cut noodles, so ask if you're unsure. I had previously had the stir fried noodles, which was them. Also, you can ask for your order to be made spicy if desired. The trip is worth it!