Yu Xiang Yuan Restaurant 豫湘園

I love eating out with mom, because she knows good food places that I would have never found on my own.  The most recent one was a trip to Yu Xiang Yuan Restaurant.  Many people would probably just see the red "Handcrafted Noodle" sprawled across their banner.

This restaurant offers the taste of Northern China cuisine, and specializes in - you've guessed it - handcrafted noodles.  The menu looks extensive, but for the first half, it is really the same dishes with different types of noodles.  I revisited the place with a couple of friends. We were a company of three, and ordered three dishes: 1) their house special fried noodles (#1) - with cutting noodles and chicken; 2) cutting noodles in soup with lamb (#39); and 3) deep fried pork intestines (#95).  Their portions are huge, so ordering one noodle dish per person is overkill.  Good thing I've been here before with mom, so I knew what we were facing :)

fried noodles + deep fried pork intestines

I'm sure most of the people know how 'normal' hand-crafted noodles are made; the dough is pulled a million times using godly techniques until each strand is uniform in shape and size.  Cutting noodles, my mom and my personal favourite, is when the person holds a blob of dough, and hacks bits away from it, into boiling water.  It is quite entertaining to watch them make noodles ^^  Oh, I guess I should mention that like most, if not all, noodle shops, there's a transparent kitchen window for your viewing pleasure.

deep fried pork intestines

If you have never tried pork intestines before and are brave enough to try, I suggest having a deep-fried variation first.  Deep-fried versions of anything is pretty much 'safe', in masking any texture or taste that you're not used to.  I have had soft pork intestines before, and know that there is that certain taste that some people may not like.  My first time having pork intestines was in the Philippines.  Boracay sold them grilled as street food - isaw - I think the word was :p Yummies

cutting noodles in soup with lamb

The soupy noodles were a good match with the spicy pork intestines.  I like to think that soupy + non-oily balances out the deep-fried + oily.  Food is most enjoyable when you don't care about the calories, right? ;)  HOWEVER, everything in moderation.

Oh, and we ended up packing some of the fried noodles.  And we were stuffed.