Happy Birthday Bryan – an Ode to Noodles and Ducks

Today is Bryan’s birthday, so I’ve dedicated this post to him and the foods he loves.

My husband Bryan absolutely LOVES noodles. Fresh, handmade noodles. The fatter, the chewier, the better. Pictured above? Biang biang noodles. I’d never heard of them, but they are among the widest handmade noodles I’d ever seen. We tried them in Xian, China. They were delicious, and only cost like $2.

He also LOVES Peking duck. And guess what? We were in Beijing for the first week of our trip.

So guess what we ate everyday?


Thick, Chewy, Hand-pulled Noodles
Northern China is totally known for its noodles, so of course we had to seek out la mian, hand-pulled noodles. It’s been depressing in Boston ever since the one and only hand-pulled noodle place, Noodle Alcove, closed years ago. Since we have no access to la mian normally here in Boston, we had to maximize our noodle opportunities in Beijing.

One the second day of our trip, we walked to this cute little noodle bar (called Noodle Bar) in Beijing that made fantastic, hand-pulled noodles. We had a great time sitting at the bar watching the noodle master pull noodles right in front of our eyes. Of course, the soups were delicious.

Best Peking Duck?
People will argue forever about the best Peking duck in Beijing, but I consistently read fantastic reviews about  a restaurant called Made In China. I’ll post a more detailed review later, but look how happy Bryan looks eating his Peking duck!

Hole In the Wall
We met up with some friends in Beijing who took us to this restaurant they affectionately called “Hole-In-the- Wall.” More details to come in a later post, but are you surprised that we ordered dao xiao mian (knife cut noodles) and Peking duck?

Da Dong
In my research, this other Peking duck restaurant called Da Dong popped up a lot as a favorite. Even though Bryan still maintains that Made In China makes the best Peking duck, I personally had a lot more fun at this restaurant because they have a huge extensive menu with lots of other interesting dishes. More pictures from that meal coming soon!

World Expo 2010 Shanghai
When we finally landed in Shanghai I told Bryan I was sick of Peking duck and I really wanted to try some other food! Ha ha . . we moved onto trying lots of xiao long baos (soup dumplings), one of Shanghai’s specialties.

But wait! While at “Chinese Food Street,” a huge food court at the World Expo showcasing all the different foods from China’s various provinces, we stumbled upon the Beijing section, which, of course, was featuring Quanjude, the most famous Peking duck place in Beijing.

Quanjude was established in 1864 during the Qing Dynasty. The first Quanjude manager, Yang Renquan, took the imperial recipe for Peking duck and used it to open the first Quanjude in Beijing, thus introducing this amazing dish to the common folks.

So of course, Bryan had to squeeze one last Peking duck dish into our trip! Look how happy he looks!

Great Wall of China

I have so much more to share from our amazing trip. This is just a tiny peek. Look out the next couple weeks for posts related to some fantastic meals we had in Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai!

Happy Birthday Bryan!

It’s still not to late to vote for Project Food Blog, Round 3. You can see my entry and vote here.