If not every day, Americans are eating noodles often enough to make them a candidate for the nation’s next culinary craze. Noodles have been a fixture in America’s Chinatowns for years, but until recently the only Asian noodle dish familiar to many non-Asians was an occasional order of chow mein. Now both the longstanding noodle shops in Asian neighborhoods and the newer ones like Penny’s are introducing eager crowds to such soulful pleasures as Vietnamese noodle soups, Thai noodle stirfries, cold Japanese buckwheat noodles and Chinese curried rice noodles.
Bostonians are flocking to Goemon, a stylish Japanese noodle shop with branches near Boston University and Symphony Hall. In San Francisco up to 30 people at a time can be found waiting in line at Mifune, a noodle landmark in Japantown offering 41 traditional dishes. New Yorkers like the big bowls of crinkly egg noodles topped with Indonesian peanut sauce at Marnie’s Noodle Shop in Greenwich Village and the beautifully prepared noodle salads, soups and curries at SoHo’s Kelley & Ping. Last year Philip Chiang, owner of the pricey Mandarin restaurant in Beverly Hills, took an underutilized banquet room and turned it into a lunchtime noodle shop with a menu featuring a dozen hearty noodle dishes under $7. “The food is healthy, it’s quick and it’s cheap,” says Chiang. “That combination is hard to beat nowadays.” Other trend spotters agree. “It’s surprising that Asian noodles haven’t caught on before now, because it’s such a natural for Americans,” says Nina Simonds, the author of “Classic Chinese Cuisine,” who is at work on a noodle cookbook. “We’re already infatuated with pasta; this is just a step beyond.”
Mark Miller, the celebrated chef whose Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe and Red Sage restaurant in Washington, D.C., are famous for their imaginative way with Southwestern food, has been traveling to Asia to sample noodles for the last four vears. Next fall he plans to open what he calls an “Asian diner,” the first of three in the Washington, D.C., area. “No stir-fries, no Chinese sauces,” he says. Instead he’ll offer traditional noodle dishes with a twist cinnamon rabbit in broth, peanut salads, maybe Japanese buckwheat noodles with chili. “You’d never see that in Japan,” he says.
Whether noodle shops will proliferate beyond major cities remains uncertain. Croissants and bagels made a triumphant leap to the heartland but left behind most of their authentic flavor and texture-and now the poor things are stuffed with gloppy chicken salad. Culinary democracy exacts a price. If you do start seeing noodles in the mall next to the Orange Julius, watch out for tasteless broth, greasy stir-fries and pizza-flavored toppings.
Better yet, get busy before noodles get big. Find out how delicious noodles can be, not just in wintertime soups but in less familiar preparations, such as the extraordinary Asian salads that give noodles year round appeal. At Boston’s tiny Pasteur restaurant, for instance, you can get a big of cold noodles with shredded lettuce, be sprouts, perhaps a little chicken or shrimp and fresh basil or mint. You mix it up to gether with a light, spicy dressing. It’s totally satisfactory meal-fresh, aromatic, crunchy and immensely flavorful. You may never go back to burritos.
