TacoCat's TrEats #199: Trying Savoury Beef Noodles with a History 🍜
Hey Steemit!
We were lucky enough to get some dining vouchers from one of the many credit cards we have so we decided to try a new restaurant recently! We got inspired by a video we saw on Youtube by The Try Guys (whom I've been watching for a while) where they tried different types of Asian Noodles, one of which was Lanzhou Beef Noodles which neither of us have tried.
Lanzhou beef noodle soup has an extensive history and is known as one of the oldest beef noodle soups. The recipe differs by region due to availability of ingredients but it originated by the Hui people in Northwest China during the Tang dynasty. Because the Hui people are Muslim they developed a variation that is halal.
Source: redhousespice
The restaurant we went to was called Tongue Tip Lanzhou Beef Noodles and they have many branches in Singapore but apparently originated in Lanzhou, China, and has over 300 stores throughout the country!
This outlet we went to was in the North of Singapore and the interior was quite nice and modern. There was a long table with stools in the middle and tables and chairs on either side.
Each table came with a QR code you could scan to see the menu and order your dishes, but they do have physical menus as well. The first page we saw was the one with instructions on how to order. You could select the type of noodles you wanted and put in any special requests like no chili, leeks or coriander.
Of course their signature dish was the Signature Beef Noodles and there were variations for the type of beef you could have with your noodles. The Signature one comes with beef shank and you could choose either Beef Tendon, Tripe or have all three.
There were also different toppings like sauerkraut, Mala, and even dry noodles, with each of the beef variations as well.
The dry noodles actually looked pretty decent and the Stir-Fried noodles looked interesting as well.
They also had some skewers and side dishes you could order but they looked pretty pricey.
After we made our choices, we placed our order at the counter. Unfortunately we couldn't order through the QR code since we were using vouchers.
At the back of the restaurant was an semi-open concept kitchen where you could see the noodles getting prepared.
They really pride themselves on handmade noodles and you could even see the chef making the noodles for every order on the spot.
It wasn't crowded on a weekday night thankfully so just 10 minutes later, our order was ready!
We ordered one Signature Beef Noodle soup and one Dry Noodle just to try and see the difference. The Dry Noodle did come with a small bowl of soup as well.
The Signature Beef Noodles looked pretty spicy and I didn't ask for any extra chili it just came like that. The red did look quite intimidating. I took a few spoonfuls of the clear portion of the soup first before mixing in the chili and it was delicious! It looks quite clear but it's full of flavour after hours of simmering with beef bones and a variety of spices, namely coriander.
Once I mixed in the chili with the soup the whole bowl became quite red but it wasn't actually spicy at all. I'm not sure if they adjusted the spice level for the branches in Singapore but I was a little disappointed it wasn't a bit spicier.
For the noodles I chose the one called 'Small Flat' and it looked like a big portion of noodles. The noodles themselves were a little plain but had a nice smooth and slightly bouncy texture to them. The beef was thin and tender and everything blended well together but was a little plain due to the lack of spice. The soup was still very tasty though.
For the Dry Noodles, Sean chose the noodles called 'Leek Leaf' which was a bit on the thicker side. It looked like the Knife-cut noodles which are one of my favourites. We thought it looked significantly less than the soup version but perhaps it's because this noodle was thicker.
The sauce was at the bottom of the bowl so we had to mix the noodles to get to the chili which initially looked like a lot but after mixing there wasn't much left. And just like the soup version, it didn't taste spicy at all. I feel like we were robbed a little bit since the red of the chili gave us the impression it was spicy.
The soup that came with the dry noodles was a bit more peppery and tasted different than the Signature Beef Noodle soup but it was still savoury and full of flavour. The noodles themselves were alright but definitely needed more spice. The beef was nice and tender too but didn't really provide much flavour. There was even some chili condiments on the table which I added in and it wasn't spicy either.
I think my favourite thing about this was definitely the soup. I wonder how different our Singaporean adaptation of Lanzhou Beef Noodles is compared to the original one in China. I bet theirs definitely has a spice kick to it though. I think this would've been so much better if they added a spice level you could choose from rather than making it this standard level for everyone.
I'm not sure if I'm a fan of this dish and I definitely prefer something more spicy but it was still a nice satisfying meal nonetheless, and a good experience as well.
Thanks so much for reading!
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