100 Noodles For 2018

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Bitter melon, nagaimo, lotus root, goji berry in a pork bone broth over noodles, of course. We’ve encountered all these elements before, these tastes and textures in different combinations. Now it has come together in a year-end finale. I didn’t do much with bitter stuff before, though now I’m training myself to “eat bitterness” at the end of the year.

I’m practicing intermittent fasting, not for dieting or weight loss reasons, but to better understand and control my hunger, and to restrict my time spent thinking about, processing, and cooking food. Not trying anything too extreme, just 12-hour fasts, broken with normal meals and snacks.

It’s been a week and I feel fine. Been able to quell any rising feelings of hangry-ness. I’m not sure I’ll stick strictly to this way of eating, unless I reach some kind of gastronomic epiphany. For now, I’m making myself do it just so I can prove to myself that I can do it, like cutting out late night snacks and rushed breakfasts and eating bitter food and logging 100 different bowls of noodles in a year. Just to do it.

🍜Bowl 99/100. Homemade.

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Double skin 兩張皮 with mung bean flat noodles and extra prawn from my fish club. I really should eat this dish more than once a year.

Bowl 98/100. Great China (Berkeley, CA).

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Oops, I missed one from last week: calamari, tomato, cucumber salad, with bonus bulk of shirataki bundles. I love these konjac noodles, especially the bugly shapes of the bundled noodles. I admit they’re a little weird though. Barely any calories, carbs, protein, or any nutritional value, yet high in fiber -- made to pass through like a white waterfall flushing out your digestive system.

Bowl 97/100. Homemade.

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My first attempt at lion’s head meatballs, cooked in a big mushy stew of napa cabbage and other veggies and bean vermicelli noodles. I made my meatballs with ground pork though more of the bulk came from smashed tofu, nagaimo, scallion whites, shiitake mushrooms, ginger, seasonings, etc. They were very juicy but had a hard time sticking together. I don’t usually make my own meatballs. Do I need more egg or panko?

Bowl 96/100. Homemade.

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Braised beef noodle soup with knife-cut noodles, with bonus shrimp from my friend Lily’s seafood noodle soup and giant pieces of chili saturated fish to further enhance the taste of the broth. Once, Lily and I ate three bowls of ramen between the two of us, in one sitting. This time we both had a bunch of leftovers to take home.

Bowl 95/100. Sichuan Fusion (Richmond, CA).

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Squid ink pasta from Trader Joe’s, totally worth the $2. Cuttlefish from Real Good Fish, which continues to impress me with their generous portions of fresh, community supported local seafood. With olive oil, a bunch of herbs, heirloom grape tomatoes, and lemon, this made for an excellent meal. Just needed a slightly bigger plate!

Plate 94/100. Homemade (Casa Milo spaghetti noodles).

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Mohinga Burmese fish chowder, thick and hearty and full of taste.

Bowl 93/100. Tharaphu Burmese Street Food (Berkeley, CA).

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Why I’m a homebody: Because I need to nurse my stock for days to make turkey noodle soup. This was about $15 for ingredients, mostly turkey parts and organic gluten-free fusilli from the Berkeley Bowl. I have enough for ~8 hearty meals, including frozen quarts.

Bowl 92/100. Homemade.

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As I’ve been looking to boost Vitamin B12 consumption through food, I stumbled on Korean soondae, blood sausages. Found a local place that specializes in soondae, and even offers blood sausages with glass NOODLES without the rest of the offal that’s usually in the casing. Promising, I thought! Ordered a platter to go, along with a spicy beef stew.

But it was totally not my thing. The smell, the texture, the taste... all of it was revolting to me. And I actually *like* gummy food and some offal, prepared in other ways (like stir-fried kidneys, liver, cubes of coagulated pork blood in soup). But I do not like my noodles soaked in weird meat juices, with gnarly fermented shrimp bits and deathly salty pink spice sprinkles. The restaurant’s logo of a porcine chef offering up a plate of his own brethren’s blood and guts also made me slightly nauseated. I finished my portion by holding my breath and occasionally dipping the noodle-sausages into my spicy stew to mask the taste (the stew was quite good). Packed the rest of the soondae away and I don’t think I will eat anymore.

Of all the noodles I’ve logged this year, I’ve only disliked two. At least this was partially saved by the spicy beef noodle stew!

Bowl 91/100. Moo Bong Ri (Oakland, CA).

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Numbing hot fish broth with hand ripped BIANGBIANG noodles. Today I learned that this character doesn’t exist in Unicode or my phone Chinese input. There are as many parts to that word as there were items in the bowl. If ordering a “conpo” [sic.] bowl here, don’t give in to the temptation to order any extras because they will already load it with a little bit of just about everything. I did ask for extra tempura with my fish bowl. And a bonus plate of cold skin noodles/liangpi, which I packed for leftovers. I arrived to a full house at 2pm and was the last person seated at 2:27pm before they closed for break, so I figured I should make my order worth the time.

Bowl 90/100. Wild Ginger Street Food (Alameda, CA).

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Experimental pasta sauce made with kabocha, cashew cream, ginger, cottage cheese, on egg tagliatelle. Bowdu got to lick the bowl. Thankful that I we get to eat well each and every day.

Bowl 89/100. Homemade (Rustichella D’Abruzzo pasta, Italy).

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Clam and ginger soup with some really interesting Korean spinach noodles. They were like jelly bracelets coming out of the package. Cooked very quickly with a nice bouncy texture. Should be a good noodle for New Years feasts, inviting longevity and riches.

Lucky Bowl 88/100. Homemade (Kim’s Spinach noodles from Koreana Plaza).

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Judge not by the size of the bowl, but by its contents. I thought this bowl of roast duck wonton noodle soup was tiny, its circumference contained in my two hands. Turns out it’s pretty deep, and the noodles have a magical swelling effect. I kept ladling up more wontons from the bottom, like 5 total, and a stash of Chinese broccoli stalks too. Satisfying and quick. Ran all my Chinatown errands this morn and was home by noon!

Bowl 87/100. Gum Kuo Restaurant (Oakland Chinatown, CA).

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OMG, non-Asian noodles! I had some fancy egg tagliatelle. Dumped some homemade oxtail stew on top, a very inauthentic ragu. Didn’t share with the Bows.

Bowl 86/100. Homemade.

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This mediocre bowl of Bún bò Huế was unfortunately not the B12 boost I wanted it to be. It felt a bit stingy on the meat and there was no pork blood, which is an automatic deduction in my book. But I was in a rush and this was close to my destination, so no time to be picky.

Bowl 85/100. Pho Anh Dao (Oakland, CA).

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Operation B12 Boost continues -- spicy soybean sprout soup (with beef bones) from Koreana Plaza, with bean thread noodles, enoki mushrooms, greens, and the leftover kidney from Bowl no. 83. Had enough for two meals.

Bowl 84/100. Homemade, with help from Koreana Plaza (Oakland, CA).