The best thing I ate this week.
It’s almost cliché, right? In a city filled with five million things to eat, I’m going back to a classic for the first edition of “best thing I ate this week.” How very New York of me.
I ate the spicy cumin lamb noodles from Xian Famous Foods (hereby shortened to XFF) approximately 2 hours ago and my brain is still trying to compute why and how they’re so good. I’m drawn to certain dishes for different reasons but one major reason is their ability to transport. One bite of the chewy signature hand-ripped noodle, slicked with chili oil and over 2 dozen different spices and I’m no longer in Greenpoint. I’m somewhere else.
I’m very fascinated with the idea of “home food” — as in the food we all eat in our homes. To me, going to XFF and experiencing Northwestern Chinese cooking is exotic, it’s an experience. It’s a treat. And just like the little Russian-Jewish girl who felt jealous of her American classmates with their PB&J’s and spaghetti dinners, I find myself jealous of the people who get to call this flavorful, spicy, pungent cuisine their own.
Texture is a very important component of this dish for me. Aside from the obviously (and impossibly consistently) perfect hand-ripped noodles, lots of other elements contribute to the feel of the dish. The smoothness of the noodles is punctuated by the granular feel of dozens of different spices and the occasional crunch of biting into a spice at just the right angle. The thinly sliced lamb is tender enough but still sinewy and fun to chew. It’s slightly “gamey” in flavor, which is unfortunately frequently used as a negative descriptor. But just like I prefer a natural wine that shows off the terroir from which its grapes sprung, I also prefer meat that tastes unapologetically, expressively like itself. And while I’m normally head-first in the noodle component of any dish, I find myself reaching for the cabbage and onions that garnish the noodles over and over again. The onions have given in to the oil and spices, creating beautiful pockets of spiced softened onion throughout the dish, but the cabbage is different— it’s crunchy, impossibly fresh-tasting, and it stands up for itself. It’s a much-needed breather from the madness of flavor that I welcome with open arms.
