Been craving for good cheap rustic Chinese eats. Just so happen that J. Gold did a review‘s on this place. With a generic name like “101 Noodle Express”, how good could it be!? (they do have a much better name in Chinese). But a Northern Chinese place that specialized dumplings and other Northern specialties is always worth to check out. A quick check on Yelp and Chowhound shows that it’s got quite a buzz among foodies.
I’m sure no one can argue, the star dish of this place is the beef roll. Very addictively delicious! The pancake is thin, chewy and crispy at the same time. Its texture goes really well with the juicy multiple flavored thin slices of beef that smell heavenly. I always really like the way Chinese flavor beef, not an expert but I think Five-Spice Powder, Star anise and Hua-jiao are commonly used? It’s definitely the most popular dish as every table have at least 1-2 order on their table.
Always good to get a sweet and sour marinated Cucumber to compliment with the beef dishes. Ox-tail Soup Noodle is very good too! Good smooth hand-made noodle and the ox-tail is very soft and tender. The oxtail broth is so deeply flavored.
Northern Sausage is different from the more common red color type I usually eat. The texture is similar, but this one is made of Beef (and lots of five spice powder). Good though I wish it’s more room temperature so it’s not as hard. When I saw the long list of dumplings on the menu my eyes glow. We stayed on a safer side and got the Wild Vegetable pork Dumplings. The dumplings are the Northern style which has thicker skin, but oh-so-smooth~ The fillings are a bit generic, not bad, should have been a little more adventurous.
I went back two days later because I craved the beef roll again. Besides the beef roll I also got: Meat sauce with buck-wheat noodle (Zhajiang mian), love the meat sauce but was disappointed at the noodle. It was mushy and I could hardly taste the buckwheat. Pumpkin shrimp pork dumpling is incredible! Much better than the veggie/pork dumpling last time! I really like the combinations. Pumpkins give a subtle sweetness and the shrimp gives the dumplings a more “wonton”-ish flavor/springy-ness.
101 Noodle Express also offer another Northern specialty: Shan Dong Chicken. I didn’t have the chance to try it (with Beef roll who can stomach another meat dish?) but it seems to be a popular dishes too. Next time…
101 Noodle Express
1408 E Valley Blvd, Alhambra, CA 91801
Tags: Chinese, Dumplings, Noodle, Northern Chinese, Sausage
