A Chinese Food Eating Tour: Lunch @ Xian Famous Foods

What better way to celebrate passover than with a blog post featuring many forbidden leavened food products? Agreed? Well, maybe not, but it was the perfect pre-passover lunch. I had been wanting to try Xian Famous Foods for a very long time now — A very small, atypical Chinese restaurant, with four locations in the city, and a favorite of Anthony Bordain and Andrew Zimmern. After reading this review, I knew I had waited long enough and immediately made plans with my two friends to visit this hole in the wall spot.

We knew we NEEDED to try the much talked about hand-pulled noodles and the ever popular lamb burger. With a beautiful day ahead of us and a delicious lunch to look forward to, my friend had the brilliant idea that we turn this lunch into our own Chinese food eating tour. We started at one of their Chinatown locations…the bigger of the two we would be visiting that day. We planned strategically and decided it would be easier to start with the noodles when we had a table to sit at.

Lang Pi Cold Skin Noodles: wheat flour noodles with gluten

Perfectly chewy and thick, these wheat noodles were covered in a spicy oil sauce that forced you to eat them up as fast as you could as to not suffer a burning hot mouth. The gluten (kind of like a chewier and spongier tofu…in a good way) was the perfect choice to soak up the spicy sauce. And at only 4$…these are definitely a steal! After downing a bottle of water to try to tame the heat (*Note: Make sure to order NOT SPICY!), we headed out on a nice 20 minute walk to the next and much smaller Xian Foods location in the East Village, where are second course awaited.

Spicy cumin lamb burger: sauteed lamb with jalapenos, onions, and scallions stuffed in a hard, crispy-warm bun

If we thought the noodles were the deal of the century, this 3 dollar lamb burger proved us wrong! Not your typical burger, this delicious crispy bun was filled with succulent pieces of lamb, covered in a spicy cumin sauce, with onions and jalapenos. The sauce soaked into the bun and really brought the whole burger together. While the noodles were good, this is definitely the show stopper and was well worth the 20 minute walk. If you’re looking for a good bread product to break the 8 days of Passover with…Definitely do yourself a favor and head out to Xian Famous Foods! Or really…just go anytime…for 3 dollars, you really can’t go wrong!

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Crispy Tofu and Rice Noodle Bowls…The Perfect Warm Weather Meal

I love eating meals out of bowls…there’s something about digging into a hot bowl of soup, a sizzling rice and curry bowl, and the ever popular noodle bowl. Normally when one thinks of meals in bowls, pictures of hot and steaming dishes come to mind. Well, this noodle bowl is neither hot nor steamy but perfectly cool and crisp and oh so flavorful.

Vegetables all cut and ready to go

Lots of fresh, colorful, and crunchy vegetables (feel free to change them up as you like), soft rice noodles, and crispy pan-fried tofu. Topped with cilantro, mint, roasted peanuts, and a delicious sweet/salty/spicy sauce…it is literally a flavor explosion in your mouth.

I think our favorite part were the roasted and salted peanuts…I believe every dish can be made better with a little sprinkle of peanutty love. And if peanuts aren’t your thing (I know a girl or two who doesn’t love them), almonds, cashews, or some toasted sesame seeds would also finish this dish perfectly.

Noodle bowls...mid assembly

Crispy Tofu and Rice Noodle Bowls (Adapted from Eat, Live, Run)

1 red pepper, thinly sliced

1/2 head napa cabbage, shredded

1 cucumber, halved, thinly sliced

handful of snow peas, chopped

handful of bean sprouts

rice noodles (as much or as little as you like)

handful each of chopped cilantro and mint

handful or roasted, salted peanuts, chopped

1 block of firm tofu, pressed to remove the water and sliced in triangles

1/2 cup cornstarch

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp olive oil

Sauce

1/2 cup soy sauce

1 tbsp fish sauce

1/4 cup warm water

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp minced ginger

2 tsp sirracha

2 tbsp maple syrup

For sauce, combine all ingredients together and mix well. Set aside until ready to assemble bowls.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Once boiling, add the rice noodles and turn off the heat. Let noodles sit in hot water for about five minutes, then drain and set aside. Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat. Combine the cornstarch and salt in a bowl. Dip each tofu triangle in the cornstarch then place in the hot skillet. Fry triangles for about four minutes per side, or until golden brown. Once done, remove carefully and place on paper towels to drain.

To assemble noodle bowls, place a mixture of rice noodles and cabbage in the bottom of each bowl. Top with bell pepper slices, cucumber, snow peas, three tofu triangles, bean sprouts, mint, cilantro and chopped peanuts. Pour as much sauce over top as you’d like and dig in!

Of course you could use chicken, beef, or shrimp in place of the tofu but I beg of you to give this soy bean based protein cake a try. The texture when coated with cornstarch and pan-fried is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. What could be bad about that??

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