On our recent trip to London, we decided to take a day trip out to Greenwich. After we were done with the Greenwich Tunnel (walk under the Thames…), Maritime Museum, and the Observatory, we went back down the hill to downtown Greenwich. One of the features of downtown is the Greenwich Market, which is filled with all sorts of art vendors and food stands. A bit touristy, we did like the place. I ended up buying a ring made of a recycled one-shilling coin, and Carol bought a nice felted wool coat, so it was also a shopping success.
And, most importantly, the place is filled with good food stands. One in particular, however, stands out. At the sound of them market was a small stand selling, simply, “Hand-Made Noodles”.
Run by a friendly Chinese guy, he was making hand-pulled La-Mian noodle dishes to order, so as you ordered, he’d cut off some dough and pull some fresh noodles, throw them in some cooking water, add some bok choi, and then build the rest of your dish around it once the noodles and bok choi were cooked.
Carol was the first one drawn in. After making a giant batch of char sui pork for ourselves a few weeks ago, we had really been enjoying all sorts of char sui pork dishes and dumplings. So Carol decided to order some La Mian hand-pulled noodles with Char Sui. The man dutifully sectioned off some dough, and in an impressive display of noodle pulling, quickly made the noodles for Carol’s dish and put them in the water to cook. A bit of broth, a few chopped veggies, and some char sui, and there it was, a perfect little bowl of noodle soup with pork. The pork was delicious and tender, the broth flavorful, and the noodles delightful.
Myself, I opted for the Szechuan Dan-Dan and La-Mian: shredded chicken with peanuts and sesame, lots of hot oil, and several veggies cooked with the noodles. The procedure was the same, but the end result being a nice, firely Szechuan-style noodle dish, with just enough chili kick and sesame oil to really make this the perfect warm up dish for a cold, drizzly, and overcast day.
This was one of those little examples of a place where neither words nor pictures really do the place justice…
