Happier Abroad Forum Community

In 2013 I returned to China after not having been there since 2007. I was back for a new job and I found the place quite changed.
The Bund was crowded and wanting to get away from all the happy photo snappers, I cut off onto a sidestreet to find my favourite Art Deco style hotel. Built by Palmer and Turner Architects, it was New Yorky to my eyes, but the concave facade that accommodated the curve of the street was unique to Shanghai. To my horror, the hotel was shut and its interior gutted. Go back to the Bund and check out the well-preserved buildings of the same era, I heard a Shanghai enthusiast say in my brain. However, I had more immediate gratification in mind. After scouring a few blocks, I found a noodle joint run by Hui, the Muslim minority. I thought them to be left of the whole to be rich is glorious deal, but later learned pulling noodles was a good earner. I sat down on one of the low stools, ordered, and then watched as a brown-skinned young guy stretched a piece of dough, folded and stretched it again and again, finally creating noodles which got dropped in big steel pot of broth.

Was the noodle joint a Lanzhou Ramen? When in Shanghai, I always eat at those... like everyday.

It sure was Lanzhou lamian I love that stuff...sadly in Taiwan they don't have it. Apparently they have Xinjiang food somewhere in Taipei...but probably swanky restaurant style.

Hui / Xinjiang cuisine is quite good, but it's not something I'd have all the time due to a sensitive stomach. I remember attempting to share the Gospel with an elderly Hui couple in Beijing. I wouldn't consider myself religious anymore, though.

El_Caudillo wrote:It sure was Lanzhou lamian I love that stuff...sadly in Taiwan they don't have it. Apparently they have Xinjiang food somewhere in Taipei...but probably swanky restaurant style.

There are restaurants in Taipei that serves a poor imitation of it. If memory serves one can be found upstairs at Taipei train station.