noodles

02 Sep, 2026

This headline grabbed my attention, so I opened the article and started reading... but reading quickly turned into a cursory scan.

If you love your noodles, then you'll notice a few things missing from that article.

1. You don't go to fancy restaurants for good food. Now, I may be misinterpreting, but that article seems to be a list of fancy restaurants. If I'm right, then you'll only be getting mediocre noodles at best. For really good food you need to be out looking for cheap, little neighbourhood restaurants that are crowded with local people. For good noodles, you do that in a place famous for noodles, or possibly in a place like Beijing - with many people who have migrated from places famous for noodles. Now, ok, I just had a closer look, and one of the restaurants on this list seems to have started out that way, and one sounds like it still is, but that first one somehow got a Michelin star, and they're both on this list.

2. You can't have an article about noodles and not mention 过桥米线/guo4qiao2 mi3xian4/"crossing the bridge rice noodles". That's just straight up negligent.

3. Nor can you have an article about noodles and not mention 兰州拉面/lan2zhou1 la1mian4/Lanzhou pulled noodles. I'm curious about this from an etymological point of view - does this "lamian" give us Japanese "ramen"? Anyway, I have not been to Lanzhou, but there are many Lanzhou Lamian shops in Beijing, the neighbourhood hole-in-the-wall variety. They serve up damn good noodles. Also, if you're struggling to get through a bitterly cold winter's day, a big steaming bowl of Lanzhou Lamian will have your belly radiating heat, instantly fix any impending frostbite¹, and set you right. Also, and perhaps most importantly, the experience: sitting on a stool in a small restaurant on a frigid winter's day, a large steaming bowl of noodles on the table in front of you, glasses steaming up, and in the back room, visible through the window, a dude is making the next batch of noodles by hand, stretching out the dough, flicking it up and down with a crack like a whip, folding it in again, stretching it out again, up-down-crack. Hard to top that.

4. You've got an article about great places to get noodles, and no mention of 山西/Shan1xi1/Shanxi? Especially the 刀削面/dao1xiao1mian4/knife-cut noodles? Really? This omission really should be criminal.

5. Honourable mentions really should go to 西安/xi1an1/Xi'an and its 羊肉泡馍/yang2rou4 pao4mo2/flatbread soaked in lamb soup, and to Xinjiang and all the amazing things they do with noodles out there. Again, I only know from what's available in Beijing, but, again, great food that'll get you through a hard winter.