You don't say it, you eat it

Today for lunch we went with Meng, (pronounced mung) a co-worker of Jennifer's, to, as he called it, THE best noodle shop in Beijing. Can't say that I can disagree with him.

The place was a bit chaotic and we would have been totally lost without him. However, they did have picture menus and very small benches. The seats were literally a 2x4. A lacquered 2x4, but a 2x4 none the less.

Meng did the ordering, and order he did. We ran out of room on the table.

The food was some of the best I have ever eaten and just know that I won't be able to get anything like it back in Pittsburgh. Mostly because I don't quite know what we ate.

One dish was ox stomach in peanut sauce. I have had tripe before, but this was much better. Not gummy, but very crisp and a great carrier for the sauce as it had little bumps on it. (that's the plate in the picture middle left)

The plate in the upper area that looks like eggs is, well, eggs. And meat. Don't know what kind of meat as Mung did not think this was important. (on the right is Jennifer mixing her noodles. We will get to that in one moment)

Lower right is a pate looking dish. It is made with soybeans and was delicious. However, Meng was sparse on the details of how it was put together or whatever else it might contain.

The red bowl that looks like strawberries, was a sweet fruit that tasted like strawberries. The fruit is prevalent here and I still need to find out what it is.

In this picture you can see a plate in the upper left that looks like flat little discs. This was something breaded and fried and was one of my favorites on the table. We didn't understand what it was, but think it was a type of vegetable. Like a potato as that is what it tasted like.

Right below that is a yellow bean thing. It is the consistency of a very firm panna cotta.

In the corner, bottom, right in the photo is something that my enjoyment of impressed Meng and his co-workers we met later that night. It is fermented soybean milk and you can just see it in the picture as a white bowl of fermented goodness. To eat this you have a crispy dough ring and a small dish of fried leeks and chilies, you can break up the drinking with bites of either. It tasted like, and I know this doesn't sound enjoyable, but it tasted like sauerkraut. I think my experience with brewing gives me an appreciation for this as it is basically a soured fermentation. Meng just could not believe that I liked it and finished the whole bowl.

The centerpiece of the lunch were the noodles. The waiter brings them out in a bowl that is surrounded by little bowls of various things, cucumber, green onion, other stuff, and then dumps them each into the bowl in front of you. You are then tasked with dumping in a brown bowl of meaty paste and stirring the whole lot before eating it. These are the noodles I have been looking for my whole life. They were perfectly cooked and the meaty sauce was rich and gave the whole dish depth of flavor that was previously unimaginable for a bowl of noodles.

To finish off lunch, the waiters bring around a tea pot and fill cups on the table. However, this is not tea. It is the noodle cooking water and was actually pretty tasty. It is supposed to help digestion and after that lunch, I needed it.